GARDEN FELIXPRIDE OF MADEIRA!

Searching online for something to read during lockdown, I noticed that Romance was on sale, for as little as £1 in some cases. If only it was always that easy. Science Fiction was on offer for only 99p, the lower price presumably fixed by a realist, who realised romance is always more costly. It's well known that romantics are incurable, and easily persuaded to go the extra mile, or spend the extra penny, except in Scotland. Science fiction must have a dwindling readership nowadays, in the face of scientific facts, some of which you just couldn't make up (or they'd be science fiction.)

I was intrigued by the idea of Fantasy for sale, how broad a church would that be, and would it include San Marino winning the World Cup? Or any cup. How to Lose Weight by Eating Chocolate? Selected Whiskies that Promote Good Health? A person can dream, can't he? I would settle for just one Health Whisky -- as long as it was Famous Grouse, I wouldn't grumble as I gazed into my crystal goblet.

It has already been established that future books dealing with the pandemic can no longer be called Year of the Plague. At the very least, that title must be altered to The Plague Years, not too difficult for typesetters to reconfigure, I imagine,