Magnus Mills, The Forensic Records Society, Frank McLynn, 1759: The Year Britain Became The Master of the World, Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, Louis de Bernieres, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Andrew Adonis, Bevin: Labour's Churchill, Magnus Mills, The Field of the Cloth of Gold, John Steinbeck, Of Mice And Men, Thomas Penn, The Brothers York: An English Tragedy, Andrew Miller, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday, Tim Krabbé, The Rider, Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia, Mark Kurlansky, The Baasque History of the World, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time, Agatha Christie, Peril At End House, Seth Godin, Tribes:We Need You To Lead Us, Magnus Mills, The Maintenance of Headway, John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat, Ali Smith, Autumn, Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds, Attlee: A Life in Politics

 More lockdown reding, the last three read mostly in a cottage in Wales. It was our first hoiday since the lockdown, and we had booked for a week in Llanberis. Three days before we were due to go, Helen received her credit card statement and realised she had been refunded the cost of the holiday/ When she called the letting agency we worked out that the booking had been cancelled without us being informed - so no holiday. The next 24 hours were spent frantically trying to find a replacement. I was sat on varuoius search sites pressing 'refresh' hoping for a cancellation. One came up that looked suitable so I booked it straight away, paid in full and contacted the company to confirm. I asked them to double-check with the owner given what had happened, but tbh, I still didn't believe that is was possible this place was free. Even on the drive there I hadn't commited. We couldn't get in until 7 as they had to do a thorough clean, so we went to the beach at Barmouth and had tea in a cafe (the Lobster Pot Cafe, which William became obsessed with and wanted to eat at for every meal). We got to the cottage about 1920 and as we pulled up I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as there was another group outside unloading their car.

So i went up to them and politely explained that I rthought we had the cottage booked. They were confident that they too had booked the cottage quite some weeks ago. I knew it. We both checked out booking confirmation and called the owner to clarify what had happened. In the meantime the kids were in floods of tears at the thought of no holiday. Luckily one of the other group realised there was another holiday let around the back of the cottage, and they had unpacked and unloaded into the wrong cottage. What a relief. They were very apologetic and cleared out at a rapid rate, leaving lots of stuff begind which they kept popping back for - dog leads, loo rolls, crisps. . . 

We have a lovely holiday though, plenty of time n the beach, but the kids weren't that keen on walking. For books, I'm really enjoying Steinbeck and Magnus Mills at the moment, and dipping into Poirot for light relief