• Edwin Morgan contends that the literary traditions of Scotland and England “have increasingly diverged, and are likely to continue to do so.”

• Nadine Gordimer “dismisses the value of writing programs,” and Toni Morrison discounts the notion that writing has therapeutic value for the writer.

• Jonathan Coe traces his obsession with Billy Wilder’s Sherlock Holmes. (For a brief appreciation of Coe, go here.)

• Publishers, realizing suckers book collectors will plunk down cash for ever-more-elaborate hardbacks, sell “deluxe versions” of new novels in mainstream U.K. bookstores.

• A debut novel written by Esquire editor Adrienne Miller garners accolades at the Village Voice.

• Transita, a new publisher targeting books to U.K. women aged 45 and older, causes a ruckus on BBC Radio 4 and beyond.

• For the Boston Globe, Jessica Keener considers the potential impact of book blogs in today’s publishing environment.

• Left Behind mastermind Tim LaHaye declines to respond to the news of Michael Standaert’s forthcoming Skipping Toward Armageddon: The Politics and Propaganda of the Left Behind Novels and the LaHaye Empire. (Thanks to Richard for the link.)