I mean you wouldn't look out onto the slate grey skies and the binbag shiny tiles and go "yay, I'm going to read 'The Magic Faraway Tree'", now would you?

Although of course there is an element of longing, expressionism and dream like ponderence that staring at a bleak rainy landscape can inspire, but surely each time it would be tinged lightly and of forlorn aspect?

they 'say' that the reason Eastern European literature is so expressive and bleak is for this very reason. Would you agree?

LAST FM charts just in?