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“... in 1995. My excuse was that ‘The Girls’ Guide to Hunting and Fishing’, the title story in Melissa Bank’s short-story collection, has a Rules epigraph, and contains several Rules discussions, and is to some extent a Rules critique. On my way, I noticed that self-help books are kept next to philosophy, and when you see them close together, you ...”

“... in which young middle-class women seek love and fortune in the big, big city – the dreamworld of Melissa Bank (a Moore follower if ever there was one) and Sex and the City and Bridget Jones. Except that Self-Help also now reads like a self-consciously historical document, a John Dos Passos-like collage. As well as simply telling stories about young ...”

“... of Conversations with Friends, the performance poets Frances and Bobbi charm an older writer, Melissa, who promises to write a profile of them. Still undergraduates, they have already boarded the train of lit-biz publicity. Melissa introduces Frances to Valerie, a woman with money and publishing connections, who ...”

“... rapidly teases out its significance. Jay has decided the time is right to offer his new partner, Melissa (known as Missy), a ‘commitment ring’, something short of an engagement ring but nevertheless the pledge of a shared future. In a matter of moments Mother has moved from oblique manipulation with a hint of self-pity – ‘Would I ever be allowed to ...”

“... who abandoned the stage for a while after The Jerusalem Syndrome, has spoken out against the West Bank settlements, refusing to have his plays put on there (though that’s merely a gesture, since the ultra-religious would have no interest in performing them anyway). After describing the settlements as a ‘cancer’ last year, he was stripped of his teaching ...”

“... but there is nobody to do that now.’ Nor is there much comfort in venerability. His daughter, Melissa, offers the maxim ‘if an old man sits quietly by the river bank for long enough, the bodies of all his enemies will float by.’ But in Benn’s case, the sons of his friends and former colleagues are swimming with ...”

“... laughter and kept masticating. She bent over to sniff the lukewarm choucroute, and she rubbed bank notes against her lips and teeth and raised her glass and dipped the tip of her nose in the champagne. And here in this luxury compartment of this luxury train her nostrils were assailed at once by the luxurious scent of the champagne and the foul odour of ...”