Do book reviews matter one whit to anyone? Okay, maybe the author. But “I believe we are at best traffic wardens. It’s a free-for-all out there. I have seen books praised to the skies that have scarcely troubled the check-out clerks at Borders or Hatchards. I have watched books comprehensively ignored by The Observer, the Sunday Times and the Sunday Telegraph being lugged out of Waterstone’s, Books etc, Ottakars and Menzies by the bagload.”