Literary Review Summer Party: Flowers and Green Trousers

This is not Jeremy Lewis

Last night brought the Literary Review Summer Party, which took place in the elegant confines of the Academy Club, a refuge from the sweltering heat. A full complement of dashing editorial staff was present at the beano, including explorer Sara Wheeler who was wearing a garland of flowers as if she were the goddess of summer itself; Jeremy Lewis, our beloved Editor at Large, was wearing this seasons must-haves - electric green trousers, or 'candy pants' as I believe they are known to the fashion world. Henry Conway himself could not have chosen better. Also present were biographer Jane Ridley, historian Michael Burleigh with his wife Linden; Harry Mount, Suzi Feay, political columnist Joan Smith and David Cesarani, amongst others. A  flowering of literary talent fit to adorn the heads of explorers the world over.

Take a gander at this month's Literary Review - Mervyn Peake is on the cover, and there are the usual round of intelligent, witty and quirky pieces (including a lovely one about deer parks.)

Ivo Stourton: Launch Party at Shoreditch House

East London at the weekend became a haven for book lovers - although hopefully not the sort of book lover who is to be found in the pages of Ivo Stourton's new novel, The Book Lover's Tale, because that would be, well, dangerous to say the least and I'm not sure that many of us would have survived. Still at least the murders would have been done very tastefully. The party was at Shoreditch House, in an echoey room of the sort that one would expect Patrick Bateman to haunt. Bellinis were drunk; dancing was executed - perhaps most spectacularly by some gatecrashing breakdancers who shook their groove (if that's the right terminology) on the dance floor. Guests, including socialite Henry Conway, exerted themselves till the early hours and no one (so far as I know) was killed, so that's all right then. Now, where did I leave my meat cleaver? Oh there it is...