I mention the story because, like Mr. Kos's art generally, it illustrates the merits of serendipity and the wry pleasures of a certain gently absurdist mentality.
The membership that probably gave him the wryest pleasure was that of the Society of Dilettanti, a dining club that dates back to the 18th century and for whom in 2009 he organised an exhilarating tour of private houses in Shropshire and Staffordshire.
And yet, as the country settled into its great boom, he grew accustomed to more ordinary battles over galleys and page proofs and seemed to take a wry and renewed pleasure in them.
His poems develop from a moment felt, or remembered – with pain or pleasure, regret or wry humour – while his observations avoid the judgments they invite.
A sharp, wry novel on the pitfalls and pleasures of American society, featuring a down-to-earth narrator from a seen-better-days city, and a mysterious disappearance; a finalist for Britain's Booker Prize in 2000.
The social and technological history of this lovely old house is the theme of his latest book, published earlier this year in Britain and coming out in America next month.Readers of Mr Bryson's previous books will find many familiar pleasures: effortlessly digestible prose, wry self-deprecating humour and lightly-worn erudition.
And its special pleasure was its wit: immaculately wry and sharp but somehow lovingly extracted from the orchestra with an absurdly modest repertory of gestures.
"Wry, sharp, and profoundly kind; a necessary pleasure". Deeply perceptive and dryly hilarious, Attenberg's (Saint Mazie, 2015, etc). latest novel follows Andrea Bern: on the cusp of 40, single, child-free by choice, and reasonably content, she's living a life that still, even now, bucks societal conventions.
And for those who love wry wordplay there is plenty here to give pleasure.
All of them are very short and strikingly original, and display a wry self-consciousness about the obligations, difficulties, and pleasures of writing fiction.
