and now for something completely different...

An interview with the Russian detective novelist, 'Boris Akunin'. (yes, that's B.Akunin for the Russian historians among you). I've just been enjoying his book 'The Turkish Gambit', set in nineteenth-century Russia and featuring a rollicking combination of spies, generals, Turks and a 'progressive' Russian heroine. In the interview Akunin talks about the contempt with which Russians regard 'popular fiction'- his mother is still waiting for him to write a 'real' book. And he refuses to do public appearances in Russia because (he says) Russians expect novelists to know the meaning of life. Earnest young men are apparently always asking him whether there's a God! Hm, yes, just like Australia...