Simon Kuper, Chums: How a Tiny Caste of Oxford Tories Took Over the UK

 Have been looking forward to reading this for a while, as Simon Kuper's 'Football Against The Enemy' had such a profound effect on me as a teenager. It brought together politics and football in a way that had never occurred to me, at a time when I was being politicised myself . 'Chums' was preaching to the converted, but enjoyable all the same, as the sheer ineptitude, ambition, and entitlement of the group that have been running the country was laid bare

R.F.Kuang, Babel

 'Very good, and the thing most like JS&MN I have read in a long time, which is fine praise. Set in an alternative Oxford run on the magical and mystical properties of silver and arcane languages, underpinning the British Empire. Really enjoyed reading it, have put Huang's other books on my list, although they appear to have been Young Adult fiction up until now. Today I went in to Newbury for the first time since COVID, and the transformation was incredible, It was absolutely deserted, I arrived quite early but even so it could have been the weekend. What a change from the bustle and buzz before COVID. It was like Ratingen, long corridors and vast areas with no-one there. Further redundancies have been announced, it feels like this could be it for those of us left in the UK. Let's see, I've had a good run.

B.A. Ayomaya, Data Center For Beginners, Christopher Hadley. The Road: A Story of Romans and Ways to the Past

 First one read on my company's Spirit Day, an attempt to understand more about the industry I work in. I feel more and more the technology side of things slipping away from me. I still think what I does add value, and I get good ratings and feedback, but so much seems beyond me and I'm very much a generalist now rather than an expert. My value seems to come in my approach and attitude rather than deep knowledge of any technology. I'm thinking more and more about the future though and whether I want to be working in this role or change career. now the mortgage is paid off and we are relatively financially secure, I could do something else - maybe teaching or working in a library. Is this just idle wish fulfillment though? It would also mean a big comedown in salary, so I guess I'll keep doing what I am doing until redundancy comes around, which I think may be inevitable. Then I can take the payout and have a think about what I really want to do. 'The Road' was a micro-study tracing and tracking the course of a section of Roman Road in Cambridgeshire. Very interesting, and how incredible to be able to go out tramping and recognise old bits of pottery and metal and be able to reconstruct a history from it. Libby is at home today as she was very sick following her show. It could be something she has eaten, it could be the comedown from the ballet show she was in last week (it really took it out of her - nerves, late nights, etc), but hopefully she will feel better soon. Already today she seems more chipper

Paul Harding, Tinkers

Aa short book that received a lot of praise and the Pulitzer Prize for fiction. The story of a dying man, his life and his father's life. Very gentle, beautiful language, but not a lot happens (or at least nothing I registered) so it didn't really grab me. I finished reading it on one of my company's Spirit Days, a regular day they give us for personal growth. This is an idea I applaud in theory but struggle with in practice as I'm just not sure what to do. a bot of training, a bit of reading, a bit of thinking. the downside is that all the work I could have done today will now be crammed in to tomorrow

Kurt Andersen, The Fantasy Land: How America Weny Haywire: A 500-Year History

 An amusing pop-history about the exceptionalism of America and the ingrained right to believe what the hell you want to believe, regardless of facts and how this has both always been present in American culture, and how it has gotten out of control with regards to contemporary American politics, where what you believe is more important than reality. Slightly scary and of course we have our own version with Tony Blair. It was the King's coronation on Saturday, and, far more importantly, William's 9th birthday. He had a party with his lunatic friends and they had a wonderful time causing chaos. We went as a family to Paultons Park the day after which he also loved. He's been cycling to school recently as well, things are going ok, although he still is sooo picky about what he eats and he still can't pronounce certain words, eg 'God' and 'dog' both come out as 'dod'. Libby starts dress rehearsals for her ballet show today and is a little nervous.

Kapka Kassabova, Elixir: In The Valley At The End of Time

 'I really enjoyed her previous book about the borderlands of Eastern Europe, and she is an engaging writer on the Balkans, geography, folklore and now nature writing too. A lot of it was the normal wish -fulfilment for us townies that dream of a rural, simple idyll communing with nature and picking herbs in the morning mist, but that's the demographic.  I'm not really doing the author justice, as she undoubtedly knows her stuff and has access to areas through her multilingualism that wouldn't be possible for the vast majority of us. Writing this on the Tuesday after a bank holiday weekend, the first two days of which was spent putting together IKEA furniture for Libby's room ( the wardrobe was bowing in the middle and the only solution I could come up with was to gaffer tape the backboard. it's under a lot of pressure so sooner or later it's going to explode and send leggings and crop tops flying over half of GU21. I slept out on Wheatsheaf Rec on sunday night to guard the marquee before the Grand May Fayre. a job no-one wants apparently, but I rather enjoyed it, maybe will make it an annual event. I got to meet Dangerous Steve too, who showed up in a minivan which somehow contained him and all his bikes, flamethrowers and indian bats.

Muriel Spark, The Ballad of Peckham Rye

 This is what I read while out on Wheatsheaf Rec guarding the marquees against a midnight attack by the  local ragamuffins and ne'er-do-wells. I didn't get into it at all unfortunately, and couldn't even work out whether it was pre or post war (it was postwar).