Hi, Va, Yulua! Hi, Va, Yulua!

Which I have no idea I've done that right, but it is finished for Merry Christmas.

Although it really should be happy New Year by this stage, because I think we've got a New Year's Eve.

New Year's Eve isn't it? Everyone, Eric Siting, 2019, finally exits the scene.

Thank God!

And we cruise into the third decade of the 21st century, extraordinary.

Anyway, we're continuing our series of reading extracts from our books, getting near to the end,

but our What's On The Menu Today?

Well, I mean, it's a novel, but I think this is one of the all-time great war novels,

which is Catch 22 by Joseph Hellen.

Oh, you love this book, don't you?

I absolutely love this book, and I first read this for A-level, because we were doing for A-level, we did...

That's quite a lot of progressive.

Yes, it was at the time, because it's a 60s book and it's got the cut-up narrative thing,

which at the time, when he did it, the narrative isn't in chronological order at all,

and there's a thing hanging over it all that's revealed at the end, which I think if you read novels now,

it's entirely standard, almost like, whatever.

Oh, right, so that was your big secret, was it?

But what's brilliant about this is...

And it is a book from the 60s, so it's got 60s things going on in it,

and it was a hit because of the Vietnam War,

but the thing about this book is it's very, very, very, very funny,

...