Interesting to see them collected together. Do as I say a strong theme - unless you want to end up shooting yourself (Hemingway, Hunter Thompson) or your wife (Burrows) or drinking yourself to an early grave (Fitzgerald). Poor Oscar ended in penury in Paris, a victim of brutal intolerance, of course, though perhaps also of his own success and public reputation.

In contrast, P.G Wodehouse made no grand statements about the meaning of life focussing entirely on his writing. The result was a body of work that included some of the most influential song lyrics of the 20th Century (a contribution acknowledged by Gershwin, Berlin and Jerome Kern) alongside (arguably) the funniest stories in the English language.

Wodehouse did, though, did take his focus on the day a little too far in 1940. He was still at his desk in France when the invading Nazis pitched up at his door. That lead to the much regretted broadcasts from Berlin, in which he, characteristically made no attempt to suggest how others should lead their lives.