Guilty Pleasures

In an excerpt from his new book, God Is Not Great, Christopher Hitchens makes a case for atheism. As always, he's both provocative and evocative:

And now behold what this pious old trout hath wrought. I liked Mrs Watts: she was an affectionate and childless widow who had a friendly old sheepdog that really was named Rover, and she would invite us for sweets and treats after hours to her slightly ramshackle old house near the railway line. If Satan chose her to tempt me into error he was much more inventive than the subtle serpent in the Garden of Eden.

Sometimes a review can be as entertaining as the book itself. Like this write-up of Tina Brown's The Diana Chronicles:

A great glory of this book is the behind-the-scenes close-ups of life at the various castles, palaces and Stately Homes. Picture Diana on her first two-month boot-camp in Balmoral, the sovereign's Scottish retreat: The long days slaughtering wildlife, picnics in the freezing rain, dinners seated between two elderly courtly stiffs ("heavy furniture" in Di-speak); Prince Philip booming on for hours about the evils of trade unions; Princess Anne barking about her day's kill; the Queen's bagpipers at last wheezing traditional Scottish airs around the table to signal time for the women to leave, perhaps for tiddlywinks and jigsaws. As nobody ever goes to bed before the Queen, Di could be stuck listening to Princess Margaret tinkling old show tunes on the piano until 2 a.m.