Remarkable. Really, quite remarkable.

So I was doing my usual excursion the other week, off to the library to collect some trashy light reading in lieu of doing something productive. Nice, safe titles. Stuff I have read before, do not need to engage with, or can laugh at.

Failing to find any Dennis Wheatley I went to snobbery lite, and picked up a Biggles Omnibus. It was a particularly appealing collection because it contained 'Biggles in Australia'. One likes to keep abreast of cultural developments you understand.

The local library here is small, and specialises in the judgement touch that only dour, miserable librarians on a bad day can bring. Consequently patrons are required to take items to the counter to issue them. No self-issue machines there, the librarian sees and scrutinises every sad, infantalising title. Remarks on them too. One day the issuing librarian commented that every item I issued had a title beginning 'The'. Because they care about your reading habits. The person issuing the books this latest venture honed in on the Biggles.

Yes, Biggles, I said proudly. He visits Australia. The natives throw spears. I expected a laugh about the stereotyping. I was wrong.

'Well if he visited Australia today the Aborigines would be throwing empty bottles, not spears'