Reading's for girls, Kate Atkinson tells us in a photo-rich two-page spread in the Autumn-Winter issue of Men's Style magazine. Labelled 'The Lair', the piece itemises things women look for when entering a man's home when "it's just you, him and a bottle of pinot noir".

"Entering his fine abode ... you let your eyes wander to the living room ... to the bookshelf" where, she suggests, you might have some serious literature on display. Or on the coffee table there might be a copy of Tim Winton's Dirt Music.

"Nothing gets a girl's blood racing more then (sic) a man who looks like Johnny Depp and can also read." The answer? "Invest in some good biographies, fiction and coffee table books."

Back in January I mentioned an episode of the BBC comedy My Family during which a bloke uses a work of literary fiction to lure the wife into his lair.

He ends up reading some trash like Dick Francis. Readers of Men's Style won't make that mistake. Not.