Stuck-in-a-Book's Weekend Miscellany

Happy Weekend, one and all - I am rising after almost twelve hours asleep, which will hopefully throw off the remainder of the cold I've had for a bit now. It does mean that I haven't been reading much of late - even though I'm in the middle of one or two really good books - but there should be enough going on in the back of my head to cobble together a book, a blog post, and a link!

1.) The blog post - is the new(ish) site called Austen Authors, and more particularly the post by/about SiaB-favourite Diana Birchall. The site collects together lots of people who have written about Austen, or in the style of Austen. It would be too catty for my taste to call Diana's sequel Mrs. Darcy's Dilemma a rose among thorns, but... let's just say her novel is inspired by Austen's prose, and not Colin Firth's wet shirt...

2.) The link - is to the South Asian Literature Festival, which is taking place between 15th-31st October, in London to start off, and then the rest of the UK. I know less about South Asian literature than most of you, I suspect, but I might well try and make it along to a session or two, time permitting.

3.) The book - is the forthcoming (on October 14th) autobiography by the very-much-loved Judi Dench, And Furthermore. I'm sometimes a little exasperated by celebrities who think that being famous = having writing ability, and who knows whether or not Dame J can hold her own as a prose stylist, but I think I would love this book whatever she wrote. With some people, I am besotted to the point of blindness...