Colin Dexter, Death Is Now My Neighbour, Eleanor Parker, Conquered: The Last Children of Anglo-Saxon England

 The last Morse and my final reread. As I've said before, the attitudes and assumptions have dated badly, but he is still a compelling character. When I thin of reading Morse I'm on a platform at Clapham Junction, so I guess the first time I read them was when I was working in Hammersmith and commuting in from Woking, so the early 2000s. It wasn't the best of times for me from what I can remember, I hated the commute and remember I was always rushing to get trains, but why? What was I rushing to get home for? Helen would have been working to late anyway and my social life was in town rather than Woking. I was unfit too, it was a bit later I started swimming that got me back to a reasonable level of fitness. It was about the time we were married, so there were obviously some good times. Work was a bit dull too up in Hammersmith. Not at all challenging. Although I remember being on a conference call for an hour and thinking what a colossal waste of time - now it's what I seem to do all day, every day.

John Goodall, The Castle

 Nice to read something by someone who knows and loves his subject, apparently this is a companion piece to John Goodall's well-respected 'The English Castle', which is in my 'to-read' pile but is so big and heavy the bedroom floor is bowing under its weight. It's too big to carry so will never be one of my everyday reads, it's next in line after a similar behemoth about William Morris that I read a few pages of at night sometimes. 'The Castle' was nice though, lots of bite-sized chunks about various castles at various notable points in history to illustrate the development of the castle as a thing and as a concept. Freddie left for his school trip to Newquay earlier today and has already WhatsApped me from the service station asking which sun cream to buy as he forgot to pack his. I can see that he's in Newquay now, hopefully out on the beach and will have a great time over the next few days

John Steinbeck, To A God Unknown

 'An early Steinbeck, his second I believe. Unmistakably Steinbeck, though, set in the Californian valleys  with a mix of mythology and messianism and the struggle to exist and make the ground bloom. Libby is back from her school trip to Swanage, and hasn't said much but seems to have had a good time. a few of her friends had to come home as they were a little upset or ill, but Lib coped. Fred is off to Newquay on Friday for a similar thing, I hope he has fun. He seems to take most things in his stride, but does get worried sometimes about little things. William and I went to Bazzaz on Saturday, an event for all Surrey Beavers. It was total chaos and trying to keep control of 6 Beavers was impossible. At one stage I lost two, including William. Luckily they  eventually showed up at the Lego tent

Richard Abels, Aethelred the Unready

 Another of the newly released Penguin Monarchs series, a little pocket book of condensed history. Nice easy reading, and has an attempt to rescue the Unready from his 'bad king' reputation acquired in Victorian times. England does appear to have been a very prosperous place under him, but crimes like the St Brice's Day massacre, which would be called Ethnic cleansing today, and the loss of England to Cnut can still be laid at his door. Libby returns from her Y6 residential in a few hours. It's been strange not having her round,  I've really missed her, like with Fred in the Beacons a few weeks ago. I hope she had a wonderful time

David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

 'It's been on the 'maybe read one day' list for a while and finally got around to it. I knew it was a collection of interlocking stories throughout time, but the thread biding them together wasn't always clear to me. Certainly not as effective as similar books like Italo Calvino's 'If on a Winters Night. . .' and the superlative 'Charlie Cook's Favourite Book'. Helen and I went out together for the first time in far too long on saturday to see the revived 'Jerusalem' with Mark Rylance. It really was as incredible as people say, Rylance's performance was astonishing, no idea how he does that every night and twice on saturdays. Spent too much time celeb-spotting too. We saw Jarvis Cocker looking a bit lost on Shaftesbury Avenue (I wish we'd asked him if he knew how to get to St Martin's college), and Tim Robbins bumped into me twice at the interval. He's very tall, he must have struggled in the tiny seats in the Apollo.

Scott G. Bruce, The Penguin Book of Dragons

 'A compilation of mythology, literature and lore relating to the mythical creatures common to many cultures - savage, winged reptiles with a greed for gold and other very human characteristics as well as the ability to terrify and destroy. It was a bit dry in places, and I did skip the excerpt from Spenser's The Faerie Queene that went on and on in Elizabethan english. I read this with my niece Amy in mind, who loves mythology and animals and I thought she might like this. I've whatsapped her about it, but she hasn't yet replied to her dull uncle who keeps forcing books on her. 

Libby is in the middle of her SATS at the moment and seems to be coping, but it is incredible the pressure some of the kids are under - they are being hothoused, tutored, removed from normal after-school activities. I don't understand. The outcome will be a higher grade than the grade the student is naturally capable of, meaning they go into a higher class with more expectations that they won't be able to meet without more tutoring, hothousing and stress, and on and on through university and life. It's a recipe for miserable people in positions they are not capable of performing and the concomitant stress and misery.

John Le Carré, A Murder Of Quality

 His second book and more of a murder mystery than a spy thriller, although Smiley remains the central character. There is an afterword written recently by Le Carre which is eviscerating about the english education system and the divisive nature that  causes so much damage to society. He said it far more eloquently than I could ever manage, but the dilutes the force of his argument by admitting that he did, of course, send his own children to private school. William had a lovely 8th birthday in the end, although his part is still to come next weekend. Libby has SATS this week and so many of her friends and parents are freaking out with the pressure, another sign of our broken education system

Graham Robb, France: An Adventure History

 'I bet he had fun writing that. Not quite a history, not quite a travelogue, but a book by someone who loves France, loves cycling, and particularly loves cycling around France and writing about it. Luckily I love cycling, love France, and love reading about someone cycling around France. Freddie got back ok from his expedition to the Brecon Beacons. It took him a few days to recover, but he made it up Pen Y Fan and seems rightfully proud of himself for all his efforts. Tomorrow is William's 8th birthday, and we haven't done nearly enough to prepare. I should spend more time and effort with him, I'm beginning to understand how tough it is to be a younger sibling and have to fight for attention. To often he is an afterthought and that's not right