David Benedictus is the Editor of Readings for BBC Radio's Book at Bedtime. His Sunny Intervals and Showers is ill-suited for late-night reading, since it is not good to have the mind quickened from torpor by such speculations as 'What happened to all the water in Noah's Flood?' or 'Can the beatings of a butterfly's wings start a typhoon?' or, on a more practical level. 'Could I have dealt with a mischievous fireball in the kitchen as summarily as that (unnamed) Smethwick housewife who "courageously sent it packing, and suffered nothing more serious than a burnt frock"?' Still less does it assist slumber to reflect on the implications of that 1990 Sun headline (surely the longest Sun headline ever written) which said: 'Britain has gone sex-crazy as red-hot lovers rush to do it in the great outdoors, say experts.'

LRB 11 June 1992 | PDF Download