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“... suddenly feels corrupt, familial love burdensome.Le Tellier’s prose, translated (wittily) by Adriana Hunter, is beautifully efficient and capable of quiet devastation, as in the scene where André, facing his double, suddenly realises that he is old: ‘He scours “his” face for the immutable seal of youthfulness that he sometimes believes he ...”

“... who proceeded to slag it off in the French press. Menteuse has now been translated into English by Adriana Hunter as Telling Lies (Phoenix, £6.99). It begins with the narrator alone in her apartment, describing the departure of her lover, an event entangled in her memory with the smell of warm bread rising from the bakery below. This may remind some ...”

“... Unless you are one of those who don’t have a television set, or who only watch opera on BBC4, you will surely have noticed an advertisement currently playing between the acts on the commercial channels. A man and a woman are sitting at a table finishing a sandwich. He is guiltily unsatisfied with the neat, respectable snack/sex they’ve just had ...”

“... Matilda the Musical​, adapted from Roald Dahl, opens with what might be described as the paradox of maternal recognition. A troupe of hideously grimacing children sing ‘My Mummy says I’m a miracle’ in such a way as to suggest that they are monsters while Matilda, who really is miraculous in that she has magic powers, fails to be recognised by her parents ...”