A brief note. Those of you who read Hooting Yard via an RSS feed will have spotted that you now only get the opening lines of each post, and will have to visit the site itself to read the whole thing. The purpose of this change is not to inconvenience you unduly, but to ensure that you are compelled to keep glancing to the right, where you cannot fail to see the books available – a fourth one is due early in 2009 – and of course the ‘Donate’ button, designed to instil pangs of unbearable guilt that so many, many words have been offered freely over the past five years.Â
ADDENDUM : Actually, I ought to say that not all readers need be beset by guilt-pangs, as some of you have been very generous. You know who you are, and I thank you.
Okay, okay! I’ve made several heavy-handed hints to my family about what I want for Christmas. I’m not sure how I’m going to disguise the fact that I’ve been given several copies of the same book on Christmas morning, but the books will be bought.
My best plan is this: on Christmas morning I find all parcels of identical, paperback proportions, tear the paper from one while no one is looking, and kick the rest under a chair. Then I fall to my knees holding ‘Gravitas, Punctilio, Rectitude & Pippy Bags’ about my head, sobbing and loudly thanking the skies that I will finally know the truth about pippy bags. Hopefully no one present will be immodest enough to claim their part of such an immense, worshipful gratitude.