“Most people don't take snapshots of the little things. The used Band-Aid, the guy at the gas station, the wasp on the Jell-O. But these are the things that make up the true picture of our lives. People don't take pictures of these things.”   Mark Romanek, 2002

There was a moment when Marcel Proust (1871-1922) recognised a contemporary of his, in a painting by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1483-1561). From this recognition of the familiar in a piece of artwork that is seemingly distant, Alain de Botton extrapolates the ability of a novel, or work of art, to reassure the reader, what he describes as “the finger-placing ability”.

“The value of a novel…stretches to an ability…to put a finger on perceptions that we recognise as our own, yet could not have formulated on our own”   Alain de Botton, 1997