The heat gets to everyone I suppose.

Story of the day in the paper I bought this morning, La depeche du midi (http://www.ladepeche.com/contenu/cache/depeche_id1.asp) is about Alain Jourdren who has won his fifth world championship. There have been ten tournaments in all, so he really has towered over the sport. This year there were 178 contestants from all round the world.The Germans had by far the most gender-equal participants and indeed Narion Zahn from Germany won the women's event with a length of 5.61 metres. In the 12-16 year-old junior championship the winner was Alain's son, Thierry, with 9.58 and was indeed Alain's strongest overall challenger. However, Alain triumphed with 10.41 metres which he modestly ascribes to 'une capacite respiratoire hors de commune...'

The sport is, of course, winkle spitting. This year Roscoff next year the world. Watch out soccer lovers.

And in the real world we at Macmillan were delighted to welcome back Graham Swift (http://www.contemporarywriters.com/authors/?p=auth93) with his new novel Tomorrow. Writers of his calibre are rare indeed and theteam at Picador are justifiably thrilled that he has entrusted them with furthering his literary career.