Happy Bloomsday, friends. If on this, the 104th anniversary of Leopold Bloom’s epic wanderings around Dublin, our column is even less coherent than usual, don’t blame us and our second-rate attempts to mimic the master. On the other hand, maybe you should. Do we contradict ourselves? Very well then, we contradict ourselves. Come, mess. Bloomsday: Alright, so perhaps you have no idea what we’re babbling on about because (GASP!) you’ve cracked the cover of......

Just out the Van: Next Monday's From Jane Austen to Catherine Tate: The Rise of the Female Comic Writer brings together a panel, including Shazia Mirza, Marina Lewycka and Stella Duffy, to unpick the funny bone of women's writing - how does it differ from men's writing? Is it funnier, gentler or crueller? Are there universal jokes that women laugh at worldwide? And does it ultimately change anything? Monday 4th June, 7.45pm, £8.50, Purcell......

Just out the Van: Lights, Music, Words, Action - It’s Book Slam time again with Guatam Malkani, author of the Londonstani, Salena Godden, writer, singer, and raconteur, and Iman, winner of the National Music Award. This Thursday at Neighbourhood, 6.30pm till late, 12 Aclam Road, W10 5QZ, £5 in advance or £6 on the door. Fresh Next Week: Michael Palin leads a reading from Another Sky, a new collection of work by writers whose lives......

Sharon Stone was pretty cool in Sam Raimi's The Quick and The Dead and erm... Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, but that's about it. More famous for her undercarriage than her ability to deliver a line, she's about to rekindle her career with Basic Instinct 2, which has just finished filming in London. That must bring back fond memories of her time with Steve Guttenberg as she's playing across from acting behemoth Stan......