Almond II is going to be a bit late, I'm afraid. My south-facing second-floor study is simply too hot, although I did manage half a page today.
On a more serious front, the attack on Salman Rushdie is an appalling blow against freedom of expression. If writers avoided offending people there wouldn't be any books. Religion has a bad track record on this score. I've had a minor taste of this - but I'm proud to have been condemned by Mary Whitehouse and the Daily Telegraph. Must confess that I've never read The Satanic Verses, so I registered my disgust and my solidarity with Rushdie by ordering a copy today.
The sad fact is that, under attack from Left and Right, there is a high degree of self-censorship by writers at the moment.