I was inclined to be a bit dismissive of it when I read it. But I have been slightly humbled by the extent to which it has stayed with me. And the extent to which I still am finding it relevant and almost something that I want to refer to so that I'm really feeling like I would like now to reread it and refresh my memory of it. Yeah, really interesting book really interesting. I want to recommend a book by Lauren elkon, who is very glamorous academic. She's very cool. French, I think, maybe Hall French based in Paris. I think. Deborah Levy is a big fan. She said, Lauren Elkins is one of our most valuable critical thinkers, the Susan Sontag, of her generation. She wrote a book a few years ago now that I absolutely love and it was called planners. And she was exploring this idea of the Flanner, the man, typically, well, exclusively, who was able to walk around the streets of 19th century Paris or whatever city and observe the world and then write about it. And this was a thing, it was a cultural thing. That was not something that was accessible to women, it was not something that women were able to do. Women can't just walk around the streets without anyone noticing them at that time, particularly, but even today, it's not really something that's so easy to do. And so it's such an interesting book. If the word Flanner conjures up visions of Bowdler boulevards and Bohemia then what exactly is a flat nose in this gloriously provocative and celebratory book Lauren Alcon defines her as a determined resourceful woman, keenly attuned to the creative potential of the city, and the liberating possibilities of a good walk. Part cultural meander part memoir, planners traces the relationship between the city and creativity through a journey that begins in New York and moves us to Paris via Venice, Tokyo and London. Exploring along the way the paths taken by the planners is planners who have lived and walked in those cities. It's been a while since I've read it, but I just absolutely loved it. And I just did want to read a little bit from the opening. So it begins the first thing you see is this photograph. It's a very striking photograph of a woman about to light up a cigarette. And then she goes on to explore a little bit what we're seeing when we look at that photograph. On a street in Paris, a woman pauses to light a cigarette. She holds up a match with one hand, its box and a glove in the other. Her tall figure aligns with the shadow of a lamppost, two forward slashes on the wall behind her as a photographer closes the shutter. She is fleeting, pausing, permanent, there are clear instructions on the wall. Default stuffy che affair, Oka Depoe long disk, and the warning is interrupted by the frame. Default stiff issue. The walls of Paris often protest no advertisements. A late 19th century ban intended to prevent the city from becoming a wasteland of billboards above the sign some letters or stencilled defiantly, or were they there first announcing that Shaka Jovi could once have been attained there are nearby. Below that someone has drawn the crude outline of the face. It is 1929 Women smoking in public has become more of an ordinary sight. But the photograph still retains an element of transgression. The day will end the woman will move on, the photographer will move on, the sun itself will move on and the lamp shadow with it. But for us, this is all we can see if this place in the past, a woman visible against the wall behind her in a field of prescriptions and Defiance is about to light up a cigarette. She stands out in her anonymous immortal singularity. So it's full of observations, looking back at women in history and how they have observed the world about them and sometimes the strategy gems that they were forced to employ in order to be able to do that and it's a really, really enjoyable read. I should just flag up as well. I just heard her on the list. refraction book calls talking about her new translation of a book by Simone de Beauvoir Lizanne set the hub. I think it's called the inseparable. And I loved hearing her talk about that. It sounds so good. So if you like the sound of Lauren alkyne and you want to hear more than I do recommend that episode, it was excellent. How's this