In today’s edition of The Economist their European correspondent, “Charlemagne”, speculates that a tide of English writing is about to overcome Europe. The reason is simple: publishers in countries such as Germany, Italy and Spain are keen to expand into markets elsewhere in Europe. The quickest way to do so is to publish in English as well as in their local language, because English is the second language of almost every European country.

Right now this is mainly affecting online editions of newspapers. However, in the longer term it may well affect fiction too. That’s good for us readers, as it will provide us with many more fine writers to choose from. It may be not so good for authors, as competition will get even more fierce.