Keith Richards. Guitar god, spy fiction fan, wannabe librarian

Funny little item in the weekend's Sunday Times. Advance serialisation of the new autobiography of Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards indicates that the guitar hero is a closet librarian and book collector, as well versed with the Dewey Decimal system as he is with barre chords and the Locrian mode.

This story suggests he has considered professional Librarian training to manage his thousands of books - not surprisingly, many of them on the history of rock and the blues. He's also perhaps a Len Deighton fan, the text revealing he has a habit of "lending out copies of the latest Bernard Cornwell or Len Deighton novels to friends without much hope of getting them back."

The story's covered in the Daily Mail today too. One interesting postscript in the comments section from Terry in Brighton: "I'm glad that someone still likes Len Deighton. For all you kids out there try his first four 'Harry Palmer' books and understand what hip, rock 'n roll writing really means."

Easter weekend's always a slow news day!