But then these 20 odd pages probably would not bother most in what is undoubtedly a great read.

BBC: McEwan's complicated triumph

That could be because people can't or don't want to wait for a delivery van to show up, or they are in a hurry, or they don't want to bother with a salesperson, or they know they can return what they buy if it goes wrong, or they just want to save on the delivery charge, especially if it is something heavy.

ECONOMIST: Retailers are the top performers online

In an interview in August Maude outlined one example where he said a permanent secretary's behaviour was "designed to give a signal to all the officials in the room that they needn't bother about what Francis Maude wanted".

BBC: Cabinet Office has no records of obstructive officials

Subsidies make up part of the shortfall: water is sold for 5% of what it costs to pipe it, petrol at 11 cents a litre, and 40% of Libyans don't bother to pay for their state-supplied electricity at all.

ECONOMIST: Libya