Bernard Cornwell, The Winter King, Alec Ryrie, Protestants: The Radicals Who Made the Modern World

A bit of a comfort read first, the 3rd or 4th time I've read it, I think. I still remember reading part II in a deckchair on the beach at Wittering (1997?) and enjoying it very much. Still very readable. 'Protestants' was read in Devon where we had a few days in a house in Bideford. Lovely holiday but very short and very cold.

Marilynne Robinson, Gilead

Nothing at all to do with The Handmaid's Tale, which I'd always lazily assumed. An ageing preacher is writing a letter to his young son, who he suspects he will not see grow up. He means to impart his wisdom and experience. John Ames comes across as a fine,gentle, loving man who loves his family. I got a bit lost in the theological debates, but apparently it was Robinson's attempts to humanise Calvinism and puritanism, so often seen as cold, intolerant and, well, puritanical. When it wasn;t dealing with religion, but the relationships between fathers and sons (I guess the religious would argue that you can't separate that), it was very affecting. We've just booked a last minute holiday in Devon, so have ordered Westward Ho! and too many maps

Dan Jones, The Templars: The Rise and Fall of God's Holy Warriors, Sally Rooney, Conversations With Friends, Geoffrey Wheatcroft, Le Tour: A History of the Tour de France, Philip Cowley & Dennis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2017

Lovely reads, I've been waiting so long for the last one to come out. I took a day off to read it, but it didn't arrive in time. Freddie is doing a project on the Tour de France, so I've adopted the role of principal researcher. I need to remember it is his project though.  More important than books,  we have a new family member, Molly Sawyer being born on 4th October!