I really enjoyed this. Great piece on Master and Margarita and the power of stories; for better and worse.

There's only one book I can't read again for an emotional reason and that is Cormac Maccarthy's The Crossing - the ending is pure desolation and gives me hopeless melancholy for weeks.

There are also books I should read again but don't get round to.

Did Bulgakov get permission from Stalin to travel in the end? I went to a few talks in London but have forgotten the stories of the writer.