Another Extreme Form Of Criticism

Jeanette Winterson's new novel, The Stone Gods, is due to be published in September. But a commuter found the 134-page manuscript lying on a bench in Balham station the other night, according to this report. Simon Prosser, publishing director of Penguin, said it was accidentally left by someone who works for the publishing house: "If someone is reading a manuscript on the Tube home or the bus as they often do, then it is very possible that you might leave it." Ah, perhaps that would also explain the case of Larkin's missing manuscript.