Not that we spend much time sympathising with politicians here at Bookbag Towers but oh, poor old Andrea Leadsom! Her slip of the tongue - at least we hope it was a slip of the tongue - in referring to Jane Austen as one of our greatest ''living'' authors has resulted in [http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/news/andrea-leadsom-jane-austen-waterstones-throw-shade-a7851571.html much merriment]. ''Anyone know who Jane Austen's agent is? We'd love to book her for an event,'' said Waterstone's. Teehee.
And we keep forgetting to point you in the direction of [http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006qtnz|Word of Mouth], poet Michael Rosen's Radio 4 series exploring the world of words and the ways in which we use them. It's honestly a joy to listen to and if you haven't already, you should go to iPlayer for some language delight. Is emoji really the world's fastest growing language? Lord, we hope not. Where would we be without words? Oh, and the episode on the history of punctuation marks is our all-time favourite. Long live the interrobang.
[https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/jul/24/game-of-thrones-winds-of-winter-could-be-out-in-2018-says-george-rr-martin George RR Martin] tells us that Game of Thrones: Winds of Winter could be published next year. He's months away from finishing, apparently. Given that we've been waiting since 2011, you'll forgive us George, if we don't bet our houses on a 2018 publication date. Besides, you should take as long as you need to take. No pressure. Honest. Um... but it ''will'' be 2018, right? Right?!