I got a giggle from a couple of judicious put-downs in this week’s TLS.

A review of Max Hastings’ “family fable” Did you really shoot the television? picks out his headmaster’s observation that “his contemporaries do not like him, and they are not bad judges of character”.

I actually suspect the other one is not intended as an insult at all, but the misreading is too precious to pass up. Peter Maber says Philip Hook’s prose “effortlessly conceals a wealth of knowledge and experience”. Gives a good impression, then, does it?