Huzza! Go rock their socks.

Congratulations, well deserved! And good to know us TN regulars will not be left in the lurch.

Congratulations Alison. Would that all reviewers in the traditional media were as erudite, knowledgable and passionate as you.

Rupert welcomes you with open arms, even if he is evil.

Kudos, Miss A.

Felicitations and huzzahs from this corner, too!

Congratulations. I'll actually be quite interested to see how you cut your thoughts down to the 400 words and to hopefully be able to compare the two versions. Although given your growing international reputation I'm surprised the NY Times didn't get in there first.

View From The Stalls

The New York Times couldn't -- and wouldn't. Take it from me.

Yes, congrats. It'll be interesting to compare your MSM writings with TN, and also how or whether if affects your TN posts.

Thats fantastic... 400 words though? Well at least that's 100 more than the Guardian...

Thanks for the good wishes, guys. Part of me is a little suss - the blog was never a job application, after all. But of course I'm chuffed too. As it stands, it seems to me that it works out as the best of both worlds. I've written 400 word reviews before - it's quite difficult. Or was when I last tried it.

It will also be interesting to see if this brings a wave of new readers, or rather, contributors to TN.

I just finished two three hundred words review for the Australian Book Review It's like pulling your own teeth with a spanner.

Congratulations, Ms. C, I think. I'm sure you'll knock them for a six. Do us proud.

Thanks, Matthew - I'll do my best. And see if there's any way to push up the Melbourne coverage, although it's all a very tight framework there. We'll see how it goes.

It has occurred to me it might work the other way, Paul - people might read the Oz reviews and feel no need to check here - you never know with the internet!

Congratulations, Alison. This is interesting. And has the potential to be a damn good thing. Run with those 400 words, woman! For my money, I strongly suspect it will draw a much heftier TN audience, wanting to get more of the Croggan lowdown. Anything that can draw greater attention to arts discussion can't be all bad!

Wont Carillo be pleased!

Hey, ma'am. When do you start? In time for the RSC? Phantom of the Opera? (Heh, just teasin'!) Sleeping Beauty?

And in case you were wondering, that 'Anon' comment about Carrillo wasn't me. That thought hadn't even crossed my mind! (I confess, I would have piss-spelt 'Carrillo' in a lame attempt to cover my tracks tho...) ;)

I start now, so Sleeping Beauty is my first gig. And I get a whole 600 words to describe both King Lear and The Seagull (which happen to be two of my favourite plays ever). Thank god for blogs.

It wouldn't have crossed my mind Chris that you were the Carillo wit. I'm sure we've both moved on, to quote Mr Howard, and that he's very pleased for me. Especially as he knows, from what he said in the Age the other day, that as you get older you get more conservative, so at the hale old age of 44 I have every chance of being a properly tame reviewer.

"And I get a whole 600 words to describe both King Lear and The Seagull (which happen to be two of my favourite plays ever)."

I've read that Leo Tolstoy reportedly told Chekhov, "You know, I cannot abide Shakespeare, but your plays are even worse". If you were Leo, you probably wouldn't need 600 words, you might not even attend either.

Tolstoy particularly hated King Lear (someone, somewhere, whose name escapes me, argued that Lear was rather too close to Tolstoy himself for comfort). But have you ever read Tolstoy's plays? Mama mia...! Talk about a snooze fest.