Colin Woodard, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

Expanded on one of my favourite works of history, David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed. Rather than considering just the 4 British folkways in developing the nations of America, Woodard looks at the other elements  and how they developed - French and Hispanic influences, for example, and how Yankeedom mutated into 'the left coast' on the Pacific. Very readable, and a great explanation of the divides in US culture today; very pertinent with the mass, inexplicable support for Trump (well, inexplicable to the Yankees, which apparently includes me)

PG Wodehouse, The Mulliner Omnibus, Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, Tor! The Story of German Football, Roald Dahl, Danny The Champion Of The World

Wodehouse's prescription was to only read 2 or 3 stories a day, which is why it took so long. He was right, what should be a delight easily becomes a slog through keen curates, game debutantes and blumptious Hollywood producers. I can remember reading a Mulliner omnibus when I was 17 or so, and at the time, mostly enjoying the few paragraphs at the beginning where Mulliner is holding court in the Angler's Rest before the story begins - the same still holds true.

I read Danny The Champion Of The World as Freddie was reading it for school and I wanted to talk to him about it. He seems to be slowly taking to reading now, having acquired a taste for Harry Potter (We, and more specifically, Helen, read it to him rather than him read it himself), and Roald Dahl. I'm not sure I've read it before, and think I can remember being put off as it seemed a very wordy book when I was in Primary School with no pictures. I can’t remember when I made the leap to being a voracious reader, but I hope it happens for Fred.

Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags, Thomas Dixon, Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears, Tonke Dragt, A Letter For The King, Serhii Plokhy,The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine,Mick Herron, Slow Horses, Edmund De Waal, The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend, Stephanie Barczewski, Heroic Failure and the British, Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

Another long gap. I've voted for Corbyn, my opinion having crystallised folliwing so many attempts to smear and besmirch him by members of the PLP and their supporters. Also the fact that Owen Smith is just utterly uninspiring. Like so many before, he seems to take which ever position is popular rather than being a politician of conviction. There is much I do not agree with JC about, particularly on foreign policy, but at least he says what he believes.

Just back from another lovely holiday in Wales too (Celtic Haven in Lydstep again), and today is the kids' first day back in school. Fred and I are spending far too much time at the moment catching Pokemon on my iPhone. Gotta catch 'em all. . . . 

The Draining Lake, Arnaldur Indridason. Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Pre-History, Francis Pryor, Sword of Honour, Evelyn Waugh, Wolsey: The Life of King Henry VIII's Cardinal , John Matusiak, Dancing In The Dark: My Struggle Book IV, Karl-Ove Knausgaard, Broken Vows: Tony Blair The Tragedy of Power, Tom Bower

It's been a while. Have had a wonderful holiday in the Vendee, Fred's first cub camp and Libby has been a mermaid in the school assembly. Last week was the family camp out at school and the kids had a fabulous time. However, today we found out that the UK has voted to leave the EU. I'm still in a state of shock and feel numb. I vacillate between moments of post-hoc rationalisation (can it really be that bad? Who do I know and respect who wants to leave [Dennis Skinner, basically]) and deep depression. Cameron's resigned, and the prospect of Boris as the next PM is just hideous, as it the fact that he'd win against Corbyn. What are the Labour Party to do to reconnect? Apparently we need to be anti-immigrant or 'listen to ordinary people's concerns' as the euphemism puts it.

Andrea Camilleri, the Track of Sand, Stephen Biddulph, Raising Boys

Another Montalbano, and the normal wonderful escapism. I think I enjoy the books more than the series, even with its beautiful locations and the pratfalls of Catarella. 'Raising Boys' was more parenting advice, and of course I'm the parent who neglects their children to read a book on why it is important to pay attention to your children. . . .

I've just had another letter published in The Guardian. I think it's my 5th. One on the US Constitution happily preventing a Schwarzenegger or Kissinger presidency, one on the Hay festival (May 2009), one on the morality of private education (October 2009), one on David Davies' choice of a song condoning drug use on Desert  Island Discs, and now one more on sloppy writing:

I saw nine tautologies in your article (Has M&S gone too far with its pre-cut avocado?, G2, 27 April). Every time I read “pre-peeled” or “pre-diced” I shuddered, and by the sixth paragraph a nervous tic had developed. A “pre-peeled banana” is a peeled banana. A “pre-sliced avocado” is a sliced avocado. “Prepared sandwich” would be bad enough; it’s obviously been prepared, as it exists. To go one stage further and call it a “pre-prepared sandwich” is just pre-preposterous.

David Sawyer

Woking, Surrey

It was  pointed out the next day on the letters page that 'nervous tic' is itself a tautology. . . .

It's a pretty good hit rate, I think every letter I've submitted has been published except one, which was about the names of the tube stations at the western extremities of the Piccadilly Line. There had been a discussion on the letters page about tube station trivia (the only tube station that contains none of the letters in the word 'mackerel'? St John's Wood), and how it was possible to go through 10 stations in a row all beginning with the same letter (Hounslow East-Hounslow Central-Hounslow West-Hatton Cross-Heathrow Ts 1,2,3,-Heathrow T4-Hatton Cross-Hounslow West-Hounslow Central-Hounslow East). I wrote in that it was ironic given that locals like me were unable to pronounce the letter 'H' at the beginning of words; ''Ounslow East, 'Ounslow Central, 'Ounslow West. . . '

Joanne Parker Britannia Obscura: Mapping Britain's Hidden Landscapes

This was a strange one. Read it in 24 hours, a collection of chapters about different landscapes in Britain - caves, ley lines, canals and so on. It didn't really flow, I didn't understand the thread holding them together and so it felt  disjointed to me. I had my interview to be a cub leader last night, I'm getting sucked in. . . 

PG Wodehouse, The Drones Omnibus

Should be dipped into occasionally, not read cover to cover, as what should be a delightful  little slice of humour becomes a heavy meal of fat uncles, bets gone wrong and failed pursuits of eligible young gels.  I didn't do that though, I slogged on and on. Not sure it was Wodehouse's best efforts, I certainly didn’t get the same delight as Wooster or Blandings; I remember how much I loved Mr Mulliner as a teenager, maybe I should try them again. They were more like Psmith, which left me cold.

I had to stop and think at one point, when a passing reference to events in the '50s made me realise that the events were supposedly set in post-war England, despite the ambience and references being of Wodehouse's mixture of Edwardian England in the long summertime and an England of the '20s and '30s where the First World War hadn't happened.

Frits Barend & Henk Van Dorp, Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff: The ABC of an Obstinate Maestro

This is a collection of interviews over the decades with Cruyff by two Dutch pundits, and has been sat on the shelf for years. Finally reading it was prompted by two factors: his recent death, and Freddie's burgeoning interest in football superstars. He's been watching the 'Football's Greatest' series n You Tube about great footballers and really enjoying it, particularly the showboating personified by the 'Cruyff Turn' or his audacious penalties. He's supporting Barcelona at the moment too (during Tottenham's best ever league season in MY lifetime too, let alone his! Does he not realise??), so that adds to the attraction of Cruyff. He even read a very short chapter about how JC started hanging around at Ajax's De Meer stadium aged 6 helping his uncle, the groundsman

At the moment we've busy collecting the panini stickers for Euro 2016. How strange to see glossy pages about Albania, Wales and Northern Ireland. Not sure whether this expanded European championship will be a good idea or whether it will mean some RWC style tonkings. Maybe someone will do a Japan though. .  . .

Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One, Stephen Biddulph, Raising Girls, Mark Haddon, The Red House

'The Power Broker' lived up to the hype as one of the great political biographies. Moses is practically unknown over here, I'd be interested to find out what level of awareness there is about him in the US these days. 1000 pages of how to attain power, how to use it, how it corrupts and the hubristic fall of an imperial court.

'The Loved One' slipped by, made me smile a few times, but nothing to justfy its billing as one of the great 20th century comic novels. Not a patch on Scoop.

I should have read 'Raising Girls' a long time ago. Being a self-help manual, there's plenty of truisms, common-sense and anecdotes to support an argument, but there's enough in there to make you stop and think about how you behave towards young girls. I don't always deal well with Libby when she is refusing to comply with requests, and it's a good reminder that she responds well to love and encouragement rather than being summarily dismissed to her room.

Cormac McCarthy, The Road, Michael Frayn, The Tin Men

Two fiction books in a row? What is happening? 'The Tin Men' was read as some light relief a third of the way through Robert Caro's magisterial biography of Robert Moses, which weighs more than Bibs. 700 pages to go, including a world war and a state-wide  freeway building programme, as well as the inexorable descent into corruption of an idealist faced with the realities of power. 'The Road' was a very good read, set in a dystopian future where America is a wasteland, and a father and son are trying to survive and escape to a better future. The love and sacrifice of the (unnamed) father for his (unnamed) son was choking. Helen's having a read of it now. 'The Tin Men' is over 50 years old, but seemed so relevant - programming computers to carry out roles traditionally performed by humans, including producing novels, newspapers and resolving ethical dilemmas, and the boredom and ennui of office life. 

David Carlton, MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government

Back on home territory here! This was originally a phd thesis from the sixties, examining an aspect of the second Labour government that gets forgotten with all the domestic financial issues. Snowden still features as a bogeyman, insufferable in his intransigence and all-powerful in his domain as Chancellor, conducting his own foreign policy and diplomacy. If I'd read this 20 years ago it would have helped my own MA dissertation, I'm sure. Reading it reminds me that it's still 20th Century UK political history, particularly of the left that is where I feel most comfortable and knowledgable, despite all the forays into 18th Century politics, and the American Revolutionary period, and the Habsburgs and mitteleuropa, and the Byzantine empire and the Levant.

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, Gwyn A. Williams, Artisans and Sans-Culottes: Popular Movements in France and Britain during the French Revolution, Robert Merle, Heretic Dawn, Barry Cunliffe, By Steppe, Desert and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia

Loved 'The Buried Giant', a very sweet and dreamlike story of an old couple very much in love in the dark ages trying to find their son. 'Heretic Dawn' is the 3rd in the Fortunes of France series which are gradually being translated into english. Everyone compares them to Dumas, and they're full of swordplay, intrigue and romance. Barry Cunliffe's book is a sweeping study of Eurasia and the interplay between the european peninsula, the near east and China via the steppe. Great to read the long view.

Right now, Tottenham are favourites to win the league, something I've never experienced before. We're spurs though, we'll find a way to blow it. It's Arsenal this weekend, let's see how that goes. Even more astonishingly, the bloviating oaf Donald Trump seems to have the republican presidential nomination sewn up. It's genuinely bizarre - the more idiotic and offensive his announcements, the more he goes up in the polls. He calls Mexicans rapists, he goes up in the polls. The sheer amount of chutzpah it takes for a draft dodger to claim John McCain isn’t a war hero is astounding. What’s more, how on earth is a privileged, divorced, unchristian Manhattan resident appealing to conservatives? It's like he's America's id, all knee jerk reaction, no filter. 

Thomas Asbridge, The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power behind Five English Thrones, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Boyhood Island, Tristan Gooley, The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs

 The last in the list was a bit infuriating. Lots of lore about how to navigate by the stars or the trees which basically amounted to immensely complicated ways to work out which way north was, and then the smug author impressing various indigenous tribesmen with his ability to predict there was a volcano round the next bend by the shape of leaves. I do wish I knew more about the natural world, but I just want to be able to tell one tree from another really. New Year's Resolution to go out with a Collins Guide and identify trees maybe? Once they have leaves on to make it easier, obvs.

Another volume of Knausgaard, which has become very moreish without really having a plot or events. It's just one person laying himself bare, and s many of his neuroses and awkward feelings strike a universal chord. William Marshal was great fun, the Angevins really deserve a GoT style mini-series. 'The Lion in Winter' with its one set just doesn't cut it these days.

George MacDonald Fraser, Flash For Freedom!

I don’t think I've read 'Flash for Freedom!' since I was 16 or so, but it's so familiar and I remembered so much; and yet I struggle to remember the names of books I read last month, let alone the content. I enjoyed it so much, I'm such a fanboy for GMF. I spoted a book of his I'd never heard of before last week, but I'm not sure - his later output was a bit patchy, and if it wasn't good enough for release while he's alive. It may not be up to much.

Agatha Christie, Poirot Investigates, Max Adams, In the Land of Giants: Journeys Through The Dark Ages

Comfort reading at Duesseldorf Airport, and then a very of-the-moment meld of dark ages history and travels through the british landscape. V aspirational, we all want to be Max Adams as he travels leisurely through the islands with no day job, having serendipitous encounters with local experts, or seals, or undiscovered Iron Age Barrows. I'm completely, utterly jealous of his life ;-)

Bibs is being absolutely charming at the moment. He fetches my slippers when I get through the door, gets Helen a cup for her tea and is just generally lovely and so easy to make laugh. The long campaign to rename him Billy is still bumping along: Libby has pledged her preference for 'Billy', but has yet to use it, and Fred doesn't like it. It does sound odd on him, to be fair: 'Bibs' has become fixed in my mind for him.

Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, The Leopard, Philip Cowley & Denis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2015

'The Silk Roads' wasn't quite what I was expecting; I was hoping for a history of medieval Central Asia, but it was actually a geopolitical history of the world emphasising the role of the region as a key point. Very ambitious and readable, but I was just after a narrative and was required to think. The Leopard has passed me by; not sure I appreciated quite why it's considered one of the most important works of literature in the 20th Century (maybe something was lost in translation), but it made me smile in places and just want to visit the never-changing Sicily all the more.

The latest Nuffield study was devoured on a business trip to Germany. Very pessimistic reading of course, and right now it's difficult to see how Labour will get back into power for generations. Scotland is lost to the SNP, voters in the north don’t see the Labour Party as representing them any more and are edging in enough quantity to UKIP and in the south, 'Tory Lite' doesn’t convince when the real thing is available. And now Corbyn is in power (whose policies I agree with and for whom I voted), we're moving further and further away from being seen as a centrist party capable of governing.

I'm calling Bibs' first word; it's 'banana'. He's definitely saying 'nana' when I point at one, and while Nana may claim he's saying 'Nana', it's 'banana' alright.