The fiance, in turn, is hounded by an old flame he’d rather avoid. And so the polite, repressed, quietly nightmarish spiral unwinds.Nothing much happens in the course of 20 minutes. No dazzling steps, no histrionics (that’s all in Chausson’s music). But this very uneventfulness makes single gestures burn like neon signs: a tense hand extended behind her back to signal Guillem’s secret agony, a lover on bended knee facing the wrong way. There is a startling filmic moment when Guillem steps out of the freeze-frame of a group photo and drifts on point to her lover’s side, then meekly back to the place society has decreed for her.I often wonder what Francis Poulenc would say had he known how Kenneth MacMillan planned to use his Gloria Poulenc’s choral music glows with Christian certitude. MacMillan’s ballet questions the very existence of a God who could allow the carnage of the First World War.

The tug between these creative poles gives the ballet huge emotional power, and this company knows exactly what it’s doing with MacMillan’s stirring and ambivalent images of memory, suffering and release. Death is rarely seen as such a blessing.Mixed Bill: Royal Opera House, WC2 (020 7304 4000) Tues, Thurs, Fri and 20 Dec. So now we know Martin loves Saul, but doesn’t like Julian. Julian doesn’t like Martin as much as he does Graham and Penelope, and Geoffrey loves Martin and his dad.

Will and Miranda can’t get enough of Carlo, but he’s been nabbed by Cressida Antonia loves Simon, but Simon has a different love He and Alain adore each other, but Alain has other loves. Everyone’s crazy about Zadie, but Zadie has a thing about Martin. Anita and Rupert loved having Giles by their bedsides, and Roger is soft on Nigella Only Kathy and John like Julian

So now we know Martin loves Saul, but doesn’t like Julian. Julian doesn’t like Martin as much as he does Graham and Penelope, and Geoffrey loves Martin and his dad. Will and Miranda can’t get enough of Carlo, but he’s been nabbed by Cressida Antonia loves Simon, but Simon has a different love He and Alain adore each other, but Alain has other loves. Everyone’s crazy about Zadie, but Zadie has a thing about Martin. Anita and Rupert loved having Giles by their bedsides, and Roger is soft on Nigella Only Kathy and John like Julian.
Confused? You should be.

Once upon a time, usually in the week before Christmas or New Year, newspapers and magazines would devote a smallish space to any books published in the previous 12 months that were judged worthy of praise Goodbye to all that. Now, that low-key affair has swollen into a huge literary love-in, in which column after column, page upon page, is set aside for a relatively small band of writers and associated literati to heap praise upon each other’s efforts – or ignore them altogether. In doing so, they offer what amounts to a unique insight into the real ins and outs of the book world, in its way far more telling than the results of a Booker, Orange or Whitbread. That this annual gush-fest now begins in late November is also revealing: these days, readers have ample time to put those choices on the Christmas present list.