Dan, and his death, are the coil in the spring of a plot which continues to grip and surprise from the opening paragraph, in which the law-abiding Tallow breaks open the Victorian lock of a display case to get his hands on Thomas Harriot's notebooks.As Tallow finds himself drawn into Dan's infinitely more glamorous life, he discovers both what he always wanted to know, and the price of being what he wanted to be. Like his narrator, Wall is always searching for "a body of evidence beneath the body of evidence", and the reader should be warned that any musings that seem familiar are likely to be undercut.It is unusual to find a work of complex poetic imagination that is so compulsively readable. Wall's clear, strong prose, which avoids all literary decoration, is the key to this, as it was in Bless the Thief, the first novel to bring him considerable attention. There, it was a brilliant artist whose dislike for the duplication of drawings led the central figure into the secret at the heart of his own life You could say that novel had the typical Wall shape.
In The School of Night, once again, a metaphysical novel is given the speed of a thriller.* Elaine Feinstein's novel 'Dark Inheritance' is published this month by The Women's Press. Technology is a wonderful thing. It means, for example, that you can send an electronic copy of a used London bus ticket zinging around the globe, or indeed across the capital, in seconds Technology is a wonderful thing. It means, for example, that you can send an electronic copy of a used London bus ticket zinging around the globe, or indeed across the capital, in seconds. Why, you might reasonably ask, would anyone want to do that, then? Perhaps because they are driven to desperation by a car rental company that refuses to believe that they returned the vehicle on time, and furthermore will discuss the matter only by e-mail correspondence with a computer that simply spews out a succession of non-sequiturs.That is the position Kay McMahon of London found herself in after hiring a Mercedes from easyRentacar. The rental offshoot of easyJet has been castigated for charging up to £500 for damage that customers claim not to have caused - the BBC's Weekend Watchdog has received more than 200 complaints on the subject.Now, the no-frills car company seems chronologically challenged about when people check in their vehicles, at least at the main London Bridge depot.Ms McMahon e-mailed easyRentacar asking why she had been charged £100 for returning the car an hour after the 6pm deadline, when in fact she had taken it back 90 minutes early. Big Brother, it seems, no longer merely watches you - he also deducts £100 from your credit card account without asking.The electronic response blankly refused to answer her question: "We regret that we are unable to provide you with a refund for the late return charge. You are given a period of 4 hours within which to return the vehicle and, therefore, the liability for these charges is with yourself.
Please note that this charge is clearly stated on the website."Clients are required to prove the car has been returned on time to have any hope for a refund. "Considering I was home by 5pm do you think a plot summary of the Tom & Jerry cartoons I watched will be enough?", asked the unhappy customer."Thank you for allowing us to be of service to you," was the computer's humourless reply, before proceeding to be of no service whatsoever. Ms McMahon, who is a website editor for www.handbag , then rifled through her very own handbag and found the bus ticket she had used to get home from the depot.Triumphantly, it showed that at 4.52pm she was travelling away from London Bridge on a number 133 bus. She scanned in the ticket and e-mailed it to easyRentacar.Even this stroke of electronic genius failed to impress the computer, so Ms McMahon played her final card. "Guess what? I signed my last terse note to them with my job title of Travel Editor and they immediately wrote back saying, 'We are writing to confirm that we have refunded the sum of £100 to your credit card... Please accept our sincere apologies for the inconvenience caused and we trust that this approach meets with your approval.'" What hoops must the general public jump through in order to get some satisfaction?***The charges levied by easyRentacar seem all the more contrary given the easyEmpire's generosity elsewhere. Thousands of travellers were delayed last week by snow at the airline's main bases of Luton and Liverpool, which caused the cancellation of nearly 200 easyJet flights.
Those who were more than four hours late are entitled to the full price of the flight back - a gesture of benevolence that means the snowstorm costs the airline £1m.***One penalty that, I'm pleased to say, does not apply to travellers is the £25 "fine" for people who fail to show up for flights acquired with BA Miles. British Airways tells me that I was misled about being charged in addition to losing all the frequent-flyer points. The new BA Miles scheme is actually much more flexible than the Air Miles system that it succeeds. Up to five days before departure, you can pay £25 to change or cancel your booking, and get all your frequent-flyer points and taxes refunded.A useful improvement - but it would be even better if the confirmation sent out to passengers did not carry the contrary message that "No changes/refunds" are permitted.***What, I wondered a fortnight ago, has the dazzlingly handsome Russian city of Novgorod done to deserve its town-twinning arrangement with Watford? Lyn Hughes, editor of Wanderlust magazine, poses the same question on behalf of some French citizens:"I've always found it rather sad that the charming medieval walled town of Montreuil in Pas-de-Calais is twinned with sunny Slough. Still, the French town was apparently the inspiration for Les Miserables so perhaps there is some connection."Come friendly bombs and fall on Montreuil? It doesn't quite work.Last week I suggested 101 travel experiences for 2001 - this week, an even more practical list: 10 things you should never do while travelling.1.
Leave your possessions unguarded for a moment in a border town.2 Drink the water...3 .. or use the ice.4 Count your cash in public.5 Make jokes about guns or bombs to airport security staff.6. Expect a bus conductor or taxi driver to have change for a large note.7. Order a Snowball (Advocaat and lemonade) or a Snakebite (lager and cider) in a sophisticated cocktail bar.8. Argue with officialdom unless you know the rules better than they do, and, ideally, are a close personal friend of the Interior Minister.9.