Morning Esther.

Morning.

Now, this is not a listener's email special.

This is an absolute bona fide recorded on Wednesday response to the news, but we've had a huge

response to the whole snoring separate beds thing, like loads and loads, dozens and dozens

of letters.

And also, you want to thank some people for sending you book suggestions.

Yes, excellent book recommendations.

Thank you very much. I have, I don't want to brag, but I have actually read most of them, except Stoner by John Williams, which was recommended, and I've just started it, and it's absolutely brilliant. Set on a university campus, he's sort of embattled fellows. Yeah, yeah. It's terribly, terribly good. It's a real masterclass in, like, you know, showing and not telling. I'm also very excited to read the winner of the Bailey, this year's Bailey Gifford Prize. I think the chair of the judges is our own Robbie Millen. So the Bailey Gifford Prize has been awarded this year to... Probably you'll have to finally read a book as the literary editor.

Helen Garner, who's an Australian and she's published her diaries that she kept between 1978 to 1998, which is basically about the disintegration of her marriage to a difficult

fellow writer. So in the same fortnight, we've had West End Girl by Lily Allen about the

disintegration of her marriage and now this prize winning book by Helen Garner about the designation of her marriage. And it's won

the Bailey Gifford. And it's just a diary. And it's just a diary. I'm feeling really sad today.

And it sounds vicious and hilarious and I can't wait.

Last week we talked about snoring and the fact that estuary and i were going to sleep in

separate beds and so we first of all we've spent the last week continuing to sleep in separate

beds i'm very sad about it but while accepting that it has to happen we take it in turns i think

we might have to change this and give ourselves each a space that we'd like to inhabit. As some of you have suggested in this enormous bag of posts that has come in, you really have got thoughts on it. Esther went in trying to persuade me that this was normal, said, oh, everyone does it. And I thought, bonet, they do. Seems a lot of you do do it.

I will come clean. I was very, very sad this morning. Just at the thought of talking about it on the podcast, at the thought of life stretching ahead without my wife, you get older, your relationship changes, whatever. My children need me less than they did. They pot her off to school on their own. They, they, you know, so I'm not super necessary to my children anymore. I feel unnecessary to my wife a bit because one of the things we used to do was cuddle in the night. We don't kind of slobber over each other all day. So that's one of my little bits. And last night we sort of, I cooked dinner and Esther washed up and she went went to watch a show that she likes. And I thought, well, I'll just go upstairs and then wake up again 14 hours later on my own. And so I put on the outlaw Josie Wales about a man all on his own who kills everybody. Because of his feelings of isolation. And anyway. Tonight's film, Falling down. The excellent Michael Douglas.

Why is breakfast not available at one minute past 11?

Kill everyone.

A film made of my life before I'd really lived my life.

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