Oh Frabjuous Day

The recent edition of The (London) Spectator looks to have quite a good set of articles this week, but I could care less because as I scrolled down the page, I saw that the "Diary" was written by Alice Thomas Ellis, and I lost all interest in anything else.

Those of you who are not acquainted with the work of Alice Thomas Ellis, should go get acquainted at once. She is one of the finest writers I have ever had the pleasure to read. I'd try to give a description of her work, but am apt to get gaga over it and so shall spare you the pain of that. Plus, everyone feels differently about a writer's prose so you should probably go draw your own opinion. At once!

Oh never mind, I'll say it anyway. If you like magic realism (Gabriel Garcia Marquez for example), Jane Austen, ikebana, and scotch, you'll love Alice Thomas Ellis. Her fiction writing varies between a practical, spare take on magic realism with a nice kick to it and a practical, spare take on life with a nice kick to it. (The kick is never optional.) Her Home Life columns, which used to be a regular feature in The Spectator, are simply a hoot.