Our thanks to James for this.

I confess to having a soft spot for Fay Wedon, 87, in part because sometimes she’s searingly honest in her books, occasionally upsetting feminists, which can only be a good thing, obviously. On the first page of What Makes Women Happy (2006) we find this:

The brutal answer to what makes women happy is, “Nothing, not for more than ten minutes at a time.”

I was interested to read a review of Weldon’s latest book Why Will No-One Publish My Novel? A Handbook for the Rejected Writer in yesterday’s Sunday Times:

Fay Weldon is well placed to compose a handbook for the “rejected writer”. With 34 novels to her name, as well as plays and television dramas (including the pilot of Upstairs, Downstairs), she has clearly “learnt how to have nothing turned down”.

In Why Will No-One Publish My Novel?, she offers tips and emotional support for the would-be novelist, imagining that he or she is in low spirits after a sixth rejection. Usefully, a sizeable chunk is given over to diagnosis: Weldon offers nine possible reasons why the novel in question isn’t setting the publishing industry alight. These range from the consoling (the subject matter is too radical for namby-pamby agents) to the more brutally realistic: the novel has “nothing to say”.

Some of her advice is useful. Novels are unwieldy and her suggestion that writers boil theirs down to a single “Cosmic Statement” could prove clarifying. For writers in search of a subject, she suggests using press cuttings, like Flaubert, or Latin tags. Elizabeth I’s motto, video et taceo (I see and keep silent), could engender a CIA thriller called The Witness. Other advice is less valuable, such as the suggestion that aspiring authors “look up structure/novel-writing on Google”. Weldon’s warnings that women characters today can no longer be “passive” is so obvious as to be condescending.

Perhaps most pertinent are her observations about today’s books business, which is dictated, she complains, by “vile commercialism”. Editorial judgments are often trumped by decisions made in the marketing department; a pretty young author might outsell an older one with more wisdom to impart. Publishers’ offices do not smell of mahogany and printing ink, and those pulling the strings are as flawed as the writers they are rejecting — in their droves.

The reviewer was Leaf Arbuthnot (image below). She’s a staff feature writer and editor at the Sunday Times and critic for the Times Literary Supplement. Her debut novel is expected in 2020.

A sentence from her review was outrageous, in my view:

Weldon’s warnings that women characters today can no longer be “passive” is so obvious as to be condescending.

It’s shocking that Fay Weldon (at 87) would make such a ridiculous statement, and even more shocking that a young women condescendingly accuses her of being condescending. So fiction must no longer include “passive” women characters? What a condescending attack on reality that is. Let’s not forget the mantra:

Women are strong!

Women are amazing!!

Let’s repeat those lies endlessly, so people believe them to be true!!!

You can subscribe to The Times here.

A piece in today’s Times:

A piece in today’s Times:

The English Chess Federation has been criticised by female players after giving a man the job of promoting the game to women.

One applicant, a senior HR executive in her forties, was not interviewed for the director of women’s chess post, it is claimed. She is an expert player who specialises in recruiting women to male-dominated fields.

The other, a chess-playing lawyer in her thirties, said she was offered the opportunity to shadow the male candidate who was eventually successful.

The directorship, previously held by former England international Sarah Longson, was abolished in February, but reinstated after a series of complaints.

However, after a man was appointed this week campaigners have accused the ECF, the organisation that runs England’s national team and the British Championship, of being out of touch with wider efforts to get more women in leadership roles.

Amanda Ross, who founded the London’s Casual Chess group to encourage more women to play, said: “Chess is already a sausagefest. [J4MB: Classy. An activity dominated by women would be a …? And what is “casual chess”? Is that a euphemism for “poor chess”?] This is a lost opportunity to put a highly qualified woman in a leadership role. We refuse to be squeezed out of the game.”

England’s number one female player, Jovanka Houska, said: “That is very strange because it is very important to have female presence on the board.” [J4MB: WHY is it “very important”?]

The ECF’s choice for the role was Chris Fegan, 59, a chess tutor.

He said: “I am looking forward to working to change the culture of the game in this country. With the imbalance between the numbers of men and women playing chess, it is obvious that a key focus is boosting the participation of women in chess at all levels.” [J4MB: Other than at the top level, obviously, where women don’t compete successfully. Hence the absurdity of women-only chess tournaments.]

You can subscribe to The Times here.

A piece in today’s Times:

Eddie Mair, the presenter of Radio 4’s PM programme, has quit the BBC for commercial radio after refusing to agree a new deal on reduced pay.

The Times revealed last month that Mair was the last high-profile male BBC News presenter holding out against pressure to accept a cut as the corporation struggles to close its gender pay gap.

Yesterday the 52-year-old confirmed that he would be leaving the BBC after 30 years. He is set to join the commercial talk station LBC and as much as double his salary. [J4MB emphasis]

The BBC is desperate to drive down the pay of several men before the publication of the updated list of “on-air talent” salaries next week.

It was also announced yesterday that the Radio 2 host Jeremy Vine would be stepping down as presenter of BBC One’s viewer feedback programme Points of View after 10 years, reducing his total salary.

Mair has become one of the most familiar and popular voices on BBC radio since taking over as sole presenter of PM, Radio 4’s afternoon news programme, in 2003. He joined the corporation in 1987, starting at Radio Scotland.

His conversations with Steve Hewlett about The Media Show host’s terminal cancer attracted particular praise, as did his combative interview with Boris Johnson while standing in on The Andrew Marr Show in 2013.

However, he infuriated bosses by refusing to accepting a cut to his £300,000-£350,000 salary after the gender equality row engulfed the BBC last year. Male colleagues including John Humphrys, Nick Robinson, Huw Edwards, Nicky Campbell, Andrew Marr and Vine all agreed reductions.

The presenter’s resignation statement was characteristically droll.

“I thought this was the appropriate moment to step out and give someone else a chance, before I’m so old my sentences make no lasagne,” he said. “I’m going to miss the PM team, and Tony Hall’s aftershave.

“I realise the BBC will close down without me and there will be a run on the pound but I can’t stay in an organisation that refused to let me host Songs of Praise. I bought a jacket and everything. I’m truly grateful to the BBC, however, for being given more opportunities over the years than I deserved. Whoever comes next will be getting the best job in the BBC and I honestly wish them the very best.”

Fran Unsworth, director of BBC News, said: “He is one of the outstanding broadcasters of his generation and his new employer is very lucky to have him.”

Mair’s last PM will be on Friday August 17. The BBC has yet to reveal his successor.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

Dr Siobhan Weare has received funding to further her research into this ‘hidden crime’.

More details on the study and how to sign up for an interview here.

Original study here.

Our thanks to Max for highlighting this great episode of Sargon of Akkad’s ‘This Week in Stupid’.

Topics explored include false allegations and “equal pay”.

Our thanks to Mike P for this. The start of the piece:

A college student is suing a woman for $6million because he says her unsubstantiated claims that he raped her after a drunken frat party have ‘destroyed’ his life.

Catherine Reddington, 22, has claimed repeatedly via social media that Alex Goldman raped her following a party in April last year at Syracuse University’s Delta Kappa Epsilon fraternity in upstate New York.

She informed police and the university of the rape accusations in the days after the party and has taken to social media several times in the past month to reveal the details of her alleged assault.

Goldman, also 22, was expelled from Syracuse University after the claims surfaced and more recently was fired from his summer internship with an engineering firm when his accuser informed them of the allegations.

He was never arrested or charged over the incident.

‘During the early hours of April 23, 2017 I was raped and sodomized. I woke up in Delta Kappa Epsilon Fraternity in Alex Goldman’s bed confused, bloody, bruised, with ripped clothing and splinter,’ Reddington wrote on Facebook on June 4.

‘Alex Goldman is a rapist.’

A police investigation into the allegations found no evidence that Reddington had been raped or even had a sexual encounter with Goldman that night.

The investigation, which involved a medical exam and rape kit within 26 hours of the alleged incident, found Reddington had no internal cuts or abrasions in her vagina and that there was no traces of Goldman’s DNA.

A tip of the hat to Jordan for this (video, 11:37). You can still make a donation, here. Thanks.

A piece in today’s Sunday Times:

For schoolgirls, the skirt is on the way out. An analysis of the uniform policies of schools in England shows that at least 40 secondaries have stopped girls from wearing them, while others are consulting on a ban.

The change to trousers comes as schools opt for gender-neutral uniforms to cater for transgender pupils.

Priory School in Lewes, East Sussex, which banned skirts last year, said pupils had questioned why its uniform was different for boys and girls, and that the needs of transgender students must be taken into account. Crawshaw Academy, near Leeds, is “consulting on implementing a gender-neutral uniform (trousers only)”.

Copleston High School, in Ipswich, has placed skirts on a list of unacceptable items alongside “skinny jeans and facial piercings”. Skirts at Woodhey High School, in Bury, were deemed “undignified and embarrassing” for staff and visitors when girls sit on the floor for assembly and in drama classes.

You can subscribe to The Times here.