Mike Ripley's new column

Shots is one of my favorite on-line magazine. Mike Stotter and cohorts manage to keep topping themselves issue after issue.

My favorite part of Shots is always Mike Ripley's column "Getting Away With Murder," though "column" is really a misnomer here. His piece is a newspaper unto itself, filled with news, opinion and Mike's coiled incomprable wit. Every once in a while you sense that he wants to diss a certain person but is much too polite to do it. He generally quotes them and let's them do it for themselves.

I especially like his portraits of writers who've passed on. He gives us a sense of the person (many of whom he knew) and also why their books were worthwhile. In this issue he speaks of three writers who've died. His piece on Michael Dibdin is particularly fine.

Just type www.shotsmag.co.uk into your subject box and prepare yourself to spend some memorable reading time with some of the world's finest writers. You get reportage and fuiction alike.