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.