A new student, very reminiscent of the main character from Catcher in the Rye, enrols at Hampden College, Vermont, having left his home town in California. He fabricates a history for himself which he feels will live up to people's expectations of Californian life. He joins a small select class of five students studying classical Greek under the fabled Julian Morrow.

This book is written in play form about Sir Thomas More's relationship with Henry VIII. Thomas More, the consumate man of conviction, is the Lord Chancellor and is imprisoned by the King for his unwillingness to permit the King to divorce. An excellent dramatic portrayal of history, More strikes an inspirational figure with his unswerving adherence to principle and integrity.

I never read the adventures of Tom Sawyer and so started Huckleberry Finn not knowing how Huck made his fortune. As it turns out, it doesn't matter. Huckleberry Finn runs away from home and leaves that fortune behind him as he goes sailing down the Mississippi on a raft with a runaway slave, Jim.

This book requires perseverance at first, as Atwood layers plot line upon plot line. It is the story of an elderly woman reminiscing about her life, it is also a science fiction / fantasy story, it is also the tale of two lovers who meet in secret. Atwood writes like the poet she is, her words are lyrical and beautiful and she manages to say so much by mere suggestion and allusion. She has no need for lurid love scenes - your imagination will tell you all the things the lovers get up to and, in true Atwood style, the three plot lines finally drop together startlingly. An excellent read which you may want to read twice to fully appreciate the plot.

Perhaps this book will only carry a special appeal to South Africans, littered as it is with names which many would not have heard of outside of our country. But for anyone who wishes to understand the mental and physical journey of a great leader, this is the book.

I was led to this book because it was supposed to be so brilliant, but let me confess right now that I am relieved I am done with it. I found it tedious and long-winded. The main character's indecision and rambling soliloquies irritated me. I am a meanie and have neither time nor patience for self-wallowing depression.

Words fail me: What everyone who writes should know about writing by Patricia T O'Conner