As the years proceed, birthday greetings – given and received – become almost perfunctory, and especially so when they are between peoples unknown; a ritualistic give and take encouraged by the echo of an omnipresent media. But, an interview with Julian Barnes in the Süddeutsche Zeitung (on the publication in German of The Man in the Red Coat), alerted me to his approaching seventy-fifth birthday; and that it falls on this 19th January day. Much more than just an admired romancier and essayiste; a very favourite person who had the right words to share with me when I most needed them. So, here, I simply remember that; and to no-one in particular, I say: Happy Birthday, Mr. Barnes!