* I got a email that said, " If you think the 'Mayor of Casterbridge' is depressing you must be a real wimp who takes a box of tissues to the cinema. A really depressing read which can cause clinical depression is 'Under the Volcano' by Malcom Lowry. This book has a killer punchline and should be read in one sitting allowing some time for sleep obviously. Warning - do not watch the film it is total crap."
Well thanks for the abusive recommendation I'll give it a go and report back.
On the same lines an aquaintance suggested 'Madame Bovary' by some frog called Gustave Flaubert was much more depressing. Another book that doesn't exactly have a gripping title, that definitely sounds like chic-lit but apparently it isn't.

I'm definitely going to read these books and compose a list of novels called 'Suicide Books'. These books will be rated as follows:
*** three stars - I feel like I stumbled into a dark cold place from which there is no way out. I'm going to board up the windows, rain, sirens in the night.
** two stars - Why do I bother getting up, I'm never going to work again,life is so pointless and bleak.
* one star - I think I'll curl up in a ball and take a week off work.
I guess the 'Mayor of Casterbridge' will be lucky to get one star.

* The news was that the tories are ahead of labour in the polls, no surprise there. What is surprising is that according to the pundits Tony Baloney is a deeply religious man. This has to be regarded in the light of the fact that in england anyone who knows where their local church is would be regarded as religious. Tone is I understand church of england but attends mass at an RC church with his wife. Considering the actions taken by his government he is definitely C of E, As I have said before, the C of E is 'so much milksop and water as to affect neither a mans politics nor his pastimes.' Which sums Tony up.
His wife is often described as a devout Catholic which is bizarre if you have ever heard her opinions on the Roman Catholic church's attitude to married priests, women priests, gay marriages. Obviously not a great believer in the Magesterium of the RC church. Like many english catholics she is infact a protestant but for sentimental reasons persists in attending mass. One reason that has been suggested is that it enables her children to attend the best school in her area which is an RC school.
It has been suggested that once he has ceased to be prime minister (an event devoutly to be wished) he will join the RC church. This must send shudders thru the already crumbling english RC church as it ponders the ever dwindling number of english believers. One can almost hear the cries of 'Hoorah for the Poles' issuing from the realms of westminster.

All this is made more puzzling by the fate of the Mental Health bill where we read: In the first government defeat, the Lords voted to rule out using sexuality, criminality and cultural or religious beliefs as grounds for diagnosing a mental disorder!!!