Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Had to slog through this at first, but it had me captured by the final 200 pages and I neglected other activities to finish it! I am a bit dim though, so needed to check with wikipedia afterwards to make sure I'd understood what had happened. Just as well as I didn’t realise it was built around a novel in a novel in a novel rather than just a novel in a novel. Maybe some light reading is needed to follow

Had a lovely haul of books for Christmas; Barry Cunliffe's new book, Nairn's London, a biography of William Marshal as well as my standard post-christmas hoovering up of the books I wanted but didn't get. The Nuffield study of the 2015 election is out now, which I'll devour (all the time feeling the pangs of agony at the result), but have just started on The Silk Roads, a present from Helen's Mum and Dad

Andrea Camilleri, The Scent of the Night, Simon Goddard, The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life

A couple of lovely bits of easy reading, although reading through the second, it's surprising how many Smiths songs I'm unfamiliar with. All that untapped (for me) great music. Dylan's Basement Tapes is the next big project though, so Morrissey & Marr will have to wait. Current favourite bedtime songs for Libby are Morrisey's' Interlude', the White Stripes' 'We Are Going To Be Friends' and (still) Emily Barker's Blackbird.  Fred seems to have gone off the idea of songs at bedtime, but we’ve been reading 'Stig of the Dump' recently. Some nights he seems to be really into it, and then other nights he shows no interest at all and want to read fact books about cars and animals instead. He really seems to struggle with sustaining interest in a story. I'll keep plugging away until we find a book that stimulates him. Might try Norman Hunter next

Graham Greene, Our Man In Havana, Jenny Uglow, A Gambling Man: Charles II and the Restoration,Robert Merle, City of Wisdom and Blood, Tom Buk-Swienty, 1864: The forgotten war that shaped modern Europe

Reading rate has increased substantially as the daylight hours diminish. Too dark to run in the mornings now, so the default setting is now an hour on the bikes in the gym, which is where most of the above were read. I'm tantalisingly close to hitting my target of 550 miles run for the year, even after falling out of a tree. Two more runs and I should be there; I'm hoping to go out tomorrow lunchtime as I'm working from home.

Helen's been back at work now for a few months, and it's tough. When the kids are well we can just about manage, but when one or more is ill we really struggle. Both of us have run out of leave now, and if one of them falls ill (as has been happening frequently over the past weeks) we're stuffed.  I'm seriously considering grabbing redundancy if it's offered and not working for a few years to look after the kids and home. I talked to H about it last night, and she's not up for it, as it would mean her going back full-time. Right now though it's so difficult to cope. Luckily I have a very understanding boss and can work flexibly.

Four very good books. Our Man In Havana was an indulgent reread, Uglow's book has been sitting on my shelves for years, and was finally picked. I'd bene put off thinking it was a straightforward biography, but it's far wider than that. Merle was the second in the Fortunes of France series which are now becoming available in translation. A cast of thousands, with characters either goodies or baddies - like Dumas, Sabatini or Cornwell. Lovely enjoyable stuff.

Neil McGregor, Germany: Memories of a Nation

Neil McGregor has recently announced he's leaving the British Museum to go and work in Germany, which is obviously a country he has a great deal of affection for. The book is not a history of Germany as such, but an attempt to explain the German character and culture through experiences and art from the 15th Century onwards. It's very readable, no specific knowledge is required, and some of the illustrations are fabulous. Lovely maps too.

Freddie had his first swimming gala at the weekend, finishing 10th out of 11th in Front Crawl and 11th out of 11th in Back stroke. He was really disheartened at the time, bless him, but we're trying to encourage him as it was his first ever gala and the others (although the same age) are a lot more advanced. We've been swimming since, and he was back to having a smile on his face and being cheeky to the teacher, so hopefully he'll keep enjoying it.  We've just signed him up for cello lessons next term too. Helen and I had a bit of a spat about an incentive for him if he completed the course. Helen suggested £10, which I thought was just insulting for all the work he'd have to do. Maybe I'm too soft.

Captain Marryat, The Children of the New Forest

The Children of the New Forest has been on the bookshelf for ages now, and my Tsundoku backlog has got so big the bookshelf in the small room broke, and now only holds non-fiction, with fiction piled by the radiator. I think I bought it for Ella, and it's a book I'd love Fred to read in a few years, although right now he doesn't seem interested in 'chapter books' at all. Every now and then it seems we've cracked it and he gets really into a book, but it only seems to last a night and then it's a trial to try and get him to read again. Factual books seem to interest him, but not fiction. Having said that, we've been reading a graphic novel of Tom Sawyer which he does seem to want to read independently, but he doesn’t seem to have much comprehension of what has happened. Even with me reading to him he only wants the first chapter or two and then isn’t interested. Danny The Champion of The World, the BFG, The Dark is Rising: We've read the first few chapters of each before he has lost interest.

The Children of the New Forest is set just after the civil war, about 4 noble children whose father died fighting for Charles I, and have to fend for themselves hiding in the woods with the support of some loyal retainers. Naturally it all turns out ok in the end, but it's a good read for kids longing to escape adult controls and society. Although obviously sympathetic to the royalist cause, it's not as laughably one-sided as the Scarlet Pimpernel at least.

Being the uncultured slob that I am, the thought of the Scarlet Pimpernel conjures up the image of Sid James as the Black Fingernail in my mind, with Kenneth Williams in  hot pursuit. Fred came home from school the other day full of enthusiasm for a poem Mrs Sinhal had read - The Jabberwocky. He seemed stunned that I knew it, and as he enjoyed it so much I had him listen to Rambling Sid Rumpo's 'The Ballad of the Woggler's Moolie' which he found absolutely hilarious, something he has in common with his Grandad (and his Dad, for that matter). I've downloaded the album now and he barks with laughter in the car. I'm hoping a lot of it will go over his head for a few more years at least. .. 

Ian Bell, Once Upon a Time: The Lives of Bob Dylan, George MacDonald Fraser, Mr American, Catherine Merridale, The Red Fortress: The Secret Heart of Russia's History

Dylan is fascinating me at the moment. Obviously I'm very late coming to him, but the quality of his songs and his seeming ability to pluck them out of the air is incredible. I'm approaching him chronologically, and am up to Highway '61 Revisited at the moment, so there are decades more to come. I've added a few of his songs to our evening repertoire too. Freddie likes The Girl From The North Country, Libby likes Don't Think Twice It's Alright.

Particular favourite songs at the moment for Libby are Emily Barker's Blackbird (still), The Pogues' 'Rainy Night in Soho' and 'I'm a Man you don’t meet every day', Madness' 'The Sun and the Rain. She's pretty much word perfect on all of them, certainly on the choruses which she belts out.

Bibs is really close to talking now - he can just about manage 'mummy', 'daddy and 'geggy' which cover everything interchangeably. He understands a lot though  'coat', 'bath', 'Freddie', 'Libby' etc. He really enjoys FaceTime on the phone too, so we're speaking to the Sawyer family a lot at the moment. Freddie has started cubs, with me helping out there. We're both really enjoying it, although that may change after this week, as they are going for their home help badge - ironing, sewing and window cleaning. .  . .

Arthur H Cash, John Wilkes: The Scandalous Father of Civil Liberty, Laurie Lee, Cider With Rosie

Well I never. A very different portrait of John Wilkes than the one I'm used to; a noble man of principle heroically opposing tyranny rather than an unprincipled irresponsible rake only concerned with self-advancement. I'm not convinced, but it was interesting to get a different perspective. Cash is an American Historian, and treats Wilkes with a reverence usually reserved for the founding fathers.

Shamefully, this was the first time I had read Cider With Rosie, although we did study some extracts in school. It was lovely, an ode to a lost, enclosed world where little had changed since christianity arrived in the valley - and even before then.

My latest Hobby That Will Soon Be Abandoned is apples. We've had a glut this year, and I picked a load at the weekend. Then went out and spent a fortune on a juicer, bottles, funnels and so on. This weekend I'll get juicing- no doubt the crates of apples will equate to one coke can's worth of juice, working out at a cost to me of £200 a litre. . . . 

Anthony Beevor, Ardennes 1944: Hitler's Last Gamble, Agatha Christie, Murder On the Links, John Julius Norwich, Sicily: A Short History, from the Greeks to Cosa Nostra, Richard Ayoade, Ayoade on Ayoade:A Cinematic Odyssey, Martin Amis, London Fields, Gerard Russell, Heirs to Forgotten Kingdoms, Neil Gaimain & Terry Practchett, Good Omens

This started as a record of holiday reading down in Pembrokeshire, with me having the best intentions to note down pleasant memories of the holiday, but  I just never got around to it. In the same period, Libby has started school, autumn has begun, the Rugby Word Cup has begun, so it's not as if I've lacked for source material.

The sharp increase in productivity in reading is down to one major factor; just over three weeks ago I fell out of a tree and haven't been able to run since. It wasn't even a big tree; I was mucking about in the rhododendron bushes in Virginia Water with Freddie. It had been raining and was a bit slippy, and as I descended down (walking rather than climbing), I slipped and whacked my knee against a lower branch. Freddie had even warned me to be careful! Still I'd rather be the sort of person who can answer, 'yes, of course' rather than 'no' to the questions 'Have you ever fallen out of a tree?'

I'm hoping to try a trial run tonight and see how I get on, and then hopefully park run on Saturday. A junior park run has now started in Guildford, so Freddie is doing that rather than park run, which was proving a bit much. For the second year running, we booked into the '4 minute mile' at Guildford Athletics track last weekend, but I couldn’t take part. Fred did, with a target of a ten minute mile; he managed an 8m40s mile bless him, but was in with older children so was the last to finish in his heat.

Holiday memories:

Bibs joyously running around the courtyard of Manorbier Castle exactly like his big brother did 6 years ago

Libby and Freddie embracing the lifestyle of an iron age warrior at Castell Henlys

The storytelling on Lydstep Head, where only me, Freddie and Libs showed up and the lovely man told us super stories from Welsh mythology

Running along the coastal path - a bit scary in places, but v exhilarating

Bumping into the Loxtons (Freddie is at school with Lily) frequently - Tredegar House on the way down, Pembroke Castle, Folly Farm. .  .

Jennie Uglow, In These Times: Living in Britain through Napoleon's Wars, 1793-1815, Maurice Druon, The Iron King

The big news is that Bibs is walking! The 6 or 7 tentative steps that resulted in a round of applause a week ago is long gone, to be replaced by a very confident toddler striding around the place. We went into town on Friday for a family day at Nomura and he was in his element charging around Helen's work.

Really enjoyed both these books. The first was a social history of Britain at a very strange time: invasion loomed from across the channel, industrialisation was transforming Britain and the responses to the changes in circumstances varied so much; from those who chose to ignore it all and live in a splendidly isolated bubble of balls and gossip to millenialists, rioters and many more. 'The Iron King' was recommended as 'the original Game of Thrones' by George R R  Martin, and concerns the Capetians and Plantagenets competing claims over the throne of medieval France. I'm so used to seeing this period from the 'english' perspective it was good to get a different view over the power struggles and jockeying for position and territory. It's the first of a long series, but could make for good holiday reading, as well as providing a history lesson!

Fred and I went to Wales on Saturday to see the game against Ireland. It was a beautiful weekend, and we met Clayton for lunch in the Bay, which meant we could get a boat  from there all the way to the stadium; will definitely employ that tactic for future games . Fred was a little bit awestruck at first when we went in, but the noise soon got a bit much for him. At half time he complained 'It's too noisy and I don't know what's going on'. He perked up for the second half when Wales started to perform, and his highlight was the animated dragon scoring a try on the jumbotron when Wales got the ball over the line. . .

He hasn’t taken his Wales shirt off since, although that might be because it looks like it's made from dragon skin. . .   

Susan Cooper, Ghost Hawk

I loved it. I've not read anything by Susan Cooper except The Dark is Rising books, although she doesn't seem to have written much else. She lives in Massachusetts now, apparently, which is where the book is set, at the time of the first English settlers. I'm 30 years older than the target audience of course, so my enjoyment probably says more about my stunted intellectual growth than anything else. I've recommended it to Ella, hopefully she'll enjoy it as much as me.

Libby is now riding a bike with aplomb. She was really put off when we came back from holiday, and still won’t go near the blue bike, but she whizzes up and down on her pink bike now, despite it being a rickety little cheap thing. She's made it to school and back without complaint, which bodes well for next year. If she and Freddie can cycle to school it makes the logistics so much easier, and I hate having to drive them short distances in the car. At the moment we have no choice, as with Bibs & Libs both at nursery at the bottom of the hill, I can’t pick them up and get to Fred's school in time without using the car. I've been toying with the idea of a trailer or even a triporteur, but it's only for another month so doesn't seem economically viable; also we want to encourage Lib to cycle herself of course. She's such a confident little girl. There was an open day at school last week, and despite not starting there until September, she was strutting around like she owned the place, showing me and Freddie around and telling us where to go. She doesn't yet understand that not ALL teachers are called 'Mrs Taylor' like her teacher, so was wandering around classrooms interrupting conversations to should 'Mrs Turner! Mrs Turner! Why you got this in your classroom?' to startled, random teachers while pointing at a papier-mache dinosaur or a rock collection.

Freddie has now broken up for the year, and we received his school report last week. I don’t want to be a gushing parent, but we're so proud. He's a good kid, kind and thoughtful and takes responsibility looking after new children. What more can you ask for? I am a bit concerned that he's not yet reading for pleasure, but conscious that you mustn't force it as it'll put him off reading.

We still have a bedtime song from the list at the moment, and Libby's favourite is Emily Barker's 'Blackbird'. She sings the chorus and it's so sweet

'I need you to love me

And help when I'm losing

And in return I will love you

And help when you don't win'

I've recorded it and set it as my ringtone. Fred, by contrast, is going through a Chas & Dave phase, although contemporary pop is popular too, as you’d expect for a 7 year old! Bob Dylan and Camera Obscura are always going to lose out to Mark Ronson and Little Mix there. . . 

07:55 TH White, The Once and Future King, Tracy Borman, Thomas Cromwell: The untold story of Henry VIII's most faithful servant

'The Once & Future King' was a real slog, and not the book I was expecting at all. The remaining books were very different in tone to 'The Sword in The Stone', and were more musings on power politics ; in the last section, written in the dark days of the late 1930s, the character Mordred is recognisably influenced by contemporary events, parading round like a fascist with his followers in blackshirts.  I rather preferred the light-hearted jocular nature of the first book.

It took a long time to read, in part because my main reading time seems to be on the exercise bike at work, and when the weather is good I'm outside running. With Borman's Cromwell, I was more engaged and read a few chapters whenever I could. It comes closely after the TV adaptation of the wonderful Wolf Hall, and it would appear that Mark Rylance has finally replaced Kenneth Williams as Cromwell in my mind.  Neither of them physically approximate Cromwell, if Holbein's portrait is anything to go by; such a shame James Gandolfini isn’t around anymore - physically he would have been spot on for the role.

Libby has had a couple of settling-in sessions at school in recent weeks, and cannot wait for September. When we dropped Freddie of yesterday, she didn’t want to leave for nursery; she was clinging to the railings and screaming to be let into Mice. . . 

Peter Heather, The Restoration of Rome: Barbarian Popes & Imperial Pretenders, Eric Ambler, The Mask of Dimitrios, Mike Parker, Map Addict: A Tale of Obsession, Fudge & the Ordnance Survey, TH White, The Sword In the Stone, John Keegan, The American Civil War

Listing TH White is a bit of a cheat: it's the first book of the Once And Future King, but I fancied a change after reading it. It's much more irreverent than I was expecting - far more in the Neil Gaiman vein than Walter Scott or the historical realism school. The book before contained not a single mention of fudge, but was an indulgent chat about maps and map-related ephemera. Loved it.  Both were read on holiday in the Vendee. A while ago I came across a list of memories from our honeymoon and many of them would have been forgotten if they hadn’t been recorded. Not the hideous pizza at Milan Railway Station, that will stay with me forever.

In the same spirit, here's my attempt at memories from the Vendee. . .

On the last day, we had a family discussion about everyone's top 3 highlights. My three were (in no particular order); Libby learning to ride a bike, Libby learning to ride a bike, Libby learning to ride a bike. It took some doing and there were lots of tears and stomping, and she's still not happy starting off on her own, but she rode a bike! Hopefully we'll be able to get out this weekend and practise.

. . .[update after the weekend}. Lib appears to have gone backwards sadly - she's not happy riding her pink bike or the blue bike which is a bit big for her, so it hasn’t gone well. It's frustrating as she's shown she can do it.

Back to the holiday.  The best day out was to Puy du Fou, a bonkers historical re-enactment theme park. It's France's second biggest attraction after Eurodisney, and the scale is incredible. Helen wasn't keen to go, expecting a cross between the Chiltern Open Air Museum and the Sealed Knot, but it was a fantastic spectacle, with no attempt at all at historical authenticity. It started with Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, with the Round Table (complete witj knights with an incredible ability to hold their  breath, apparently) appearing when Merlin made a lake disappear, then onto the Vikings invading a village in France where a fullscale longboat complete with vikings emerged from the river, while mahoosive sea eagles swooped around. Couldn’t see how that would be topped, but then in the Joan of Arc story the entire castle walls began to sink below the ground and the keep started moving around the stage. You don't get that with English Heritage. None of this compared to the gladiator show in the Coliseum which took the bonkersness to new heights. First a parade featuring geese, a cart of ostriches and a leopard, and then a full chariot race. The biggest surprise came when the christians were in the arena waiting to be eaten by lions, and they actually released lions into the arena. Whatever they are paying the actors playing the christians isn't enough to be dealing with that every day, twice at weekends. Finally there was the indoors Musketeers show, where they gradually flooded a stage the size of a polo field as horses performed a flamenco. What a day out.

Other memories

• The excitement of Fred and Lib at encountering the inexplicable statue of a Beefeater in a café in St Hilaire. He was surrounded by croquet ephemera
• F&L both won awards at Kid's Club, Fred for being the coolest kid in the club, Lib for being the fastest pizza eater. We're so proud.
• Fred went on a min-quad bike for the first time. He was obviously scared, and had trouble controlling it, and finished early. Afterwards he couldn’t talk about anything else though and listed it as a highlight of his holiday. Maybe we should try karting. . .
• Fred was game to try a few new things. He ate some of my sardines and fish, but couldn't be persuaded to try a mussel. He also went into one of those parlours with the little fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet. 10  euros it cost me for his feet to be tickled by whitebait.
• Bibs is managing to stand by himself for a few seconds and take a few steps, but he doesn’t seem happy about it - it's a bit soon yet though.
• The kids were very good at making new friends, which Helen struggles to get her head round as when she was a kid they would never play with other kids on holiday. Fred had new best friends within thirty seconds of jumping into the pool, and got on with a kid called Finlay in particular. He was properly  distraught when Fin left halfway through our holiday. It only lasted one night though, and the next day he was out playing football with the new kids who had moved in. Lib latched on to some poor 3 year old from Dublin called Aaron, and insisted on showing him round the caravan and the camp. He was so lovely and polite, just responding 'dat's cool' to everything Lib showed him.
• We hired a Rosalie bike, which was apparently invented to torture tall fathers, who bang their knees against the steering wheel with every pedal rotation. Every downhill section where pedalling wasn’t required was bliss.
• In the tiny sliver of downtime Helen and I get between putting the kids to bed, doing the housework and collapsing exhausted into bed, we often watch boxsets. This was the holiday when we completed Breaking Bad (begun nearly 2 years ago when we were on holiday on the IoW), and began Game of Thrones Series 4.
• A Treasure Hunt in the rain that the couriers were making up as they went along. As part of it we had to get a photo of Fred hugging a stranger (some drunken fella in the camp bar) and a video of us all doing the Macarena. Evidence has been deleted.
• On the way back home, we called into Nantes for the day, where they old docks have been converted into a steampunk workshop designing and making gigantic beasts. The 4xlifesize African elephant and howdah was crazy. It was actually better watching it as a spectator than being on board, where you can’t appreciate all the moving parts, trumpets and squirts of water. It was like some mammoth  from Mance Rayder's army of wildlings (obscure GoT reference that will mean nothing to me in a few years).
• Finally, the magic of a beach. The kids seem to be able to stay on a beach forever. It doesn’t seem to matter whether or not they have spades, buckets, kites, balls or whatever, they are just happy to be on a beach and will always find something interesting or exciting. May it stay that way forever.

. . . Fred's wriiten down his own memories on a scrap of paper. We'll put it away and hopefully come across it in a few years/decades and remember a wonderful holiday.

Mark Mazower, Salonica, City of Ghosts, Various, Politico's Guide to the 2015 Election, Lionel Davidson, Kolymsky Heights

I risked the wrath of the gods of fate and read two non-fiction books in a row, and what a mistake that was - a likely Labour coalition government (according to the polls) evaporated with the first exit poll on Thursday to be replaced by a predicted Conservative coalition. As if that wasn't shocking enough, canny pundits pointed out that with the Shy Tory tendency who mendaciously lie to pollsters about their voting habits, a Conservative majority was likely - which is what we ended up with.

I went to Wales to watch it (reading the excellent Kolymsky Heights on the train there and back), and thoroughly depressing it was too. The Labour Party appears to be in an intractable situation now - losing out in Scotland because they weren't left-wing enough, losing out to UKIP in the north as they weren't addressing concerns about immigration, and losing out to the Cons in the south as they were too left wing.  How can you triangulate that? Ed tried, but ended up pleasing no-one. Can't see a way back from this, and two of the best prospects for leader (Alan Johnson and Dan Jarvis) have ruled themselves out already. . .

The unpalatable answer seems to be to move to the centre; Scotland is lost, and in the North we still have the seats. It turns out I'm exactly the sort of person Labour want to win over - southern, prosperous, shops at Waitrose and John Lewis. That's nice, but none of the things that apparently should appeal to me - the 'aspirational' rhetoric which seems to boil down to not taxing or scaring rich people or big business  actually does. If they want my loyalty then start talking about how no-one 'creates' wealth without a support network of education, health, transport, law and order and that needs to be paid for - and those who benefit the most should pay the lion's share - and be proud of it!

In other sad news, Fred really doesn’t seem to be enjoying the park run any more. He managed two miles last week before pulling up and only 1 mile last week. He's not 100%, and I don’t want to push him, so we may have to stop.

Nancy Mitford, Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels

The Other Novels being The Pursuit of Love and The Blessing, both of which I enjoyed rather more than Love in a Cold Climate. 'Love in a Cold Climate' is by far the best title though. Helen and the kids are away in Derby this week, so I spent the evening reading Mitford and making Marmalade. I'm only a twinset away from joining the Woking Women's Institute

Park Run has become our 'Favourite Part of the Week', to join Libby's post-bath towel wrap, the 'Favourite Part of the Day'. I get to do Park Run by myself on Saturday, so hoping for a respectable time which Freddie will no doubt smash before he leaves primary school. . .

Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk, Karl Ove Knausgaard. A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2, Owen Jones, The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It

I learnt nothing new from 'The Establishment' and agreed with every word. Reinforcing already-held assumptions among lefties the nation over. He does write well and with an incisiveness and clarity. Whether he can be fairly called ' The Orwell of our times', as Russell Brand does, is another question entirely. He does appear to be utterly hated by commentators at The Spectator website though, which has to be in his favour.

I'm fully invested in Knausgaard's fascinating epic now. It does remain the story of his life in the minutest detail, which no-one can possible remember, so it has to be fictionalised. And yet. . . He opens up his soul, exposes his weaknesses and has ruined his own family life over the writing of these books (or has he?). 'H is for Hawk' is a similar confessional, and 3 stories intertwining; a story about the training of a goshawk, the story of the author's grief for her dead father, and the biography of TH White. Goshawks appear to be great, but they're no badgers.

Freddie and I have been regularly doing the Woking Park Run since Christmas. He's up to the full distance and getting steadily quicker - 11 minute miles now. More to the point, he seems to really enjoy it and it's a lovely thing to do together. His keenness to do it every Saturday may also be influenced by the treats lavished on him by an indulgent father if he manages a PB too, of course. Helen is running too, on a 'Couch to 5K' programme. She's finding it touch, but every time she goes out she gets a bit better. I'd love to see her and Fred to a Park Run (3 miles) sometime this summer. She's convinced she's embarrass herself though, so I'm encouraging her as much as poss. Fred would be so proud to do it with her. 

Sebastian Faulks, Jeeves & The Wedding Bells, Robin Fleming, Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070: Anglo-Saxon Britain Vol 2 (The Penguin History of Britain), Rachel Joyce, Perfect

Was concerned  that Sebastian Faulks' latest homage (after his Bond novel) would be a disappointment, but he's obviously a huge fan and stuck generally to the formula. There were a couple of notes that made for a better novel (it was a novel rather than the short stories of Wodehouse), but didn't ring true; Bertie is given more of a back story and is occasionally given to contemplation of the horrors and loss of the Great War which had no place in the sunny Sunday afternoon atmosphere of a Wodehouse story. 'Perfect' was the follow-up to 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'  which I really enjoyed, with it's shameless tugging of the heart strings. 'Perfect' took longer to grip me, but it kept me rapt towards the end, the sort of book you read every spare second you have; walking along, on the loo, surreptitious glances at work. . .

Libby, along with every other UK female aged 3-11 is absolutely obsessed with the film 'Frozen' at the moment. She had a Frozen-themed birthday party with games like Pin the Carrot on the Olaf and just about every card or present had Elsa or Anna on it. Disney are now responsible for a generation that will pronounce 'Anna' with an r sound after the first 'A'. I love her here singing so much. She doesn't know the words, and only just about knows he tune, but she belts it out like a club singer just the same, bless her. Fred & Lib have come to expect my rendition of 'One Spring Morning' and 'Sally Brown' as their lullabies, so both can belt those out too. Last night Lib decided to accompany 'One Spring Morning' by singing an entirely different song (Do You Want To Build A Snowman?) at the same time

Emory Thomas, Robert E Lee: A biography, Peter Ackroyd, The Death of King Arthur, Brendan Simms, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1453 to the Present

Not  a lot of light reading there: next up is Sebastian Faulks' Jeeves & Wooster homage to Wodehouse as some relief from three books full of internecine massacres and unfathomable strategic decisions. I think the American Civil War may be emerging as my principal interest for the next few months. Helen's parents' trip down the east coast jolted memories, and after watching 'Gettysburg-The Movie' I'm back marching with the Army of Northern Virginia. It is most alarming that I instinctively side with the very wrong but wromantic confederacy over the right but repulsive Union. I know perfectly well that at the time I would have supported the Union fully (at least, I would have after the emancipation proclamation), but figures like Lee are just so attractive, noble and dedicated to their forlorn cause.

Michael Pye, The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are, Jo Nesbo, Police

Michael Pye's book has had some great reviews, and the early chapters are very interesting and offer a new perspective, but towards the end it seemed to descend into a fairly standard history of early Modern Europe.  Harry Hole was as entertaining and gory as ever, although no Arsenal-supporting villains cropped up this time. Freddie seems to have turned a corner with reading, and is now doing it voluntarily and for fun. Just Tintin for now, but we all start somewhere. Bibs is an absolute joy - he's so placid, particularly given his big sister pulls and pokes and picks him up against his will all the time. I get a smile whenever he sees me, which  is so lovely. Still haven't run this year, and there's the Surrey half marathon in just over a month. Can't see it being a record pace. . .

Sebastian Faulks, Devil May Care

It's a Bond novel, but very much Fleming's Bond rather than the Bond of the films. That suits me, although there was an element of Bond by Numbers about it; the descriptions of everything Bond eats and drinks, the competitive element sparked in a sporting contest with the main antagonist, and lots of gritty determination and injury to Bond. I love all that through, so really enjoyed it! Libby came in again last night, so her spending the night in her own bed may have been a one-off. . . 

EF Benson, Mapp & Lucia, Tristram Hunt, Ten Cities That Made An Empire.

It's still too dark to run at the moment and I'm missing it very much. I don’t really get the chance at the weekend as I tend to be looking after Fred & Libs. There's a Park Run in Woking that I'm keen to get along to, particularly as Freddie can take part too; it clashes with Libby's Ballet on Saturday morning though, unfortunately.  Lib is still insisting on me taking her to ballet, even though the door is locked for the duration and we can't see what is going on. On the other hand, she did stay in her bed the whole night last night for the first time in months, and I actually managed to get a decent night's sleep. Let's hope she keeps it up. Lots of praise required

Back in November, Fred and I ran a mile down at Guildford Athletics Track: I'm so proud of him for doing it. He didn’t stop once and was faster than many of the older kids. I ran round the track with him to encourage him and keep him moving. What a star. I don’t want to push him to much, but it's great exercise and something we can do together. As the Park Run is only 1K, hopefully it'll be ideal. Helen's talking about taking part too, but she'll have to work up to it.

Mapp & Lucia was lovely and a joy to read, and read at the same time as the BBC adaption over Christmas. Maybe not as funny as Wodehouse, although I've recently become aware of a male/female split over Wodehouse; women seem not to find him quite so funny as men. Tristram Hunt's book was a very interesting take on the British empire seen through the history of ten cities shaped by and that shaped the empire. Starting with  Boston, then to Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town and further east as the empire changes. He's a Labour MP now and the shadow education secretary, but he doesn't seem that inspiring in a field Labour should be wiping the floor with the Tories. Labour's in a state full stop though; to scared of offending the right wing media and the middle-of-the-road voter to offer anything genuinely radical. Rather than do something populust and left wing like bring the railways back under state control, they seem rather to be trying to talk tough on immigration to match UKIP. Embarrassing.