This Winter’s Required Reading

A single article, which combines monarchy and the physical ailments of the long-dead and the idea of celebrity and the nature of female visibility and sexuality and ownership in one majestic sweep. Hilary Mantel’s “Royal Bodies”. GO, read. Argue! Read it twice before dinner and once after. Today I like it, tomorrow I may hate it, but I am ABSORBED nonetheless.

The Independent has it all wrong, for the record. Mantel may say Kate Middleton is plastic and has dead eyes, but, amazingly, you must trust me when I assure you it is with the deepest kindness that she says it. Or, don’t trust me, because when I woke up this morning I discovered The Guardian had already explained it.