Angela Carter, The Magic Toyshop

This is my ignorance, but I'm not sure why Angela Carter is held in such high regard. This was a simple domestic tale of a privileged woman who has to go and stay with awful relatives. There was a macabre feel as her uncle was obsessed with puppets and controlling his family, but I didn't feel any horror and the purported magical realism was hardly there at all - very little super natural went on. Maybe if I had ever felt the constraints of being a woman without agency in society I'd understand  more.

Robert Holland, The Warm South: How the Mediterranean shaped the British imagination

 A vast subject, and more an account of how the Mediterranean has influenced specific British artists, poets, writers etc than some shared imagination. The Mediterranean is loosely defined, and as there are so many specific instances it would be possible to argue that it's not the Med so much as Greece, or Italy, or Spain, or France, that has exerted its influence rather than an overall Mediterranean culture. Lovely title for a book though, and I'm not doing it justice in my summary. Freddie got his GCSE results yesterday, and did really well. He got the grades he needed to go on and do A Levels, including 9s in Maths and Geography, so he is happy. We offered him his choice of celebration, but all he wanted was a Chicken Katsu from Kokoro. . . 

Andrew Lowe, Creepy Crawly

I can't remember how I heard about this, but it's a Scandi-noir crime thriller set in the Peak District with a flawed detective called Jake Sawyer. So it's a genre I enjoy, set in a place I love with a main character with an excellent name. I'm very much the target demographic, it could have been tailor made for me. I did enjoy it, it's not spectacularly original, and Jake Sawyer is a bit of a cliche with his traumatic past, his quirks, quips, and love of indie music. Bit of wish fulfilment from the author going on there. So many places in the Peaks are namechecked, and I loved that, being able to picture the murder scene in Padley Gorge and knowing where the cafe in Hartington is where the detective sits and broods. Not sure I'd read any more unless in the area, maybe I'll ration it one per trip to the Peak District

Ben Crystal & David Crystal, You Say Potato: the Story of English Accents

 I always enjoy reading anything by David Crystal, who has a love for the English language without being snobby about grammar or 'correct' English. Comforting to know he has a son whose writing is just as much fun to read. Freddie's GCSE results come out this week, so we're waiting to see how he gets on. I'm sure he'll get the grades he needs to go on to A Levels, but we'll all relax a bit once it's confirmed. just over a week since we came back from holiday, so I'm already thinking about what to do at October half term. . . 

Ivo Andric, The Bridge on the Drina

The last of the holiday reading, so read in part at Bordeaux Airport and on the plane back.  Very sad to be leaving, and after the first few days when I struggled to adjust to both the heat and the pace of life, I settled in to a happy regime, sleeping well, reading lots and mooching. Still managed a few cycles and runs, as well as some fun times with the kids. They are growing up and it could very well be the last time we all go on holiday together. I suspect not, Freddie seems in no rush to get a summer job or do his own thing, but lots could change by next summer. He's waiting for his GCSE results to come out next week and seems very confident of getting the grades he needs. The book was by a Yugoslav Noel Prize winner, and is centred around a bridge built by the Ottomans in a small Balkan village of mixed moslem, orthodox christians and jews. It could be seen as  a series of short stories told chronologically and only linked by the geographical location, but it's more than that, it's about the changes and tragedies the Balkans have seen, how different cultures affect each other and how the outsiders, whether they are Ottoman authorities or Austrian impact on everyday life. Much better than I could describe it

Colin Thubron, Among The Russians: From the Baltic to the Caucasus

Written in the '80s about Thubron's road trip through the old Soviet Union, and while so much has changed since the Iron Curtain came down, his insights and analysis still make for a cracking read. He covers the suffocating bureacracy of the communist system, the ethnic tensions in the Baltic, the Caucasus and the tragedies of Belarus and Ukraine in the two world wars and since. Brilliant on the role of the church and its complicity with communism too

Jilly Cooper, Tackle!

 First Jilly Cooper I have tried to read, and had to abandon it after 100 pages. It's not my normal read, but it got good reviews from normally trustworthy places ' Infectiously joyful and funny' in The Observer, for example. I knew it was going to be a guilty pleasure rather than high literature, but that's fine, and as a poolside read it should have worked. It was execrable from the very beginning though.  A novel about football written by someone who knows nothing about football or how to write. The characters are all paper thin and the situations so contrived. I very nearly stopped reading after the first sentence 'Rupert Campbell-Black, despite being one of the most successful owner/trainers and one of the handsomest men in the world was in the darkest of places.'  The first few paragraphs explain how his wife has cancer, his factotum has betrayed him and has 'assassinated' his favourite horse. I stuck with it despite the absurdities, hoping for some wit and gossip. It's just dire though. Jilly Cooper seems to be aware that football crowds sing, so makes up songs for them that show none of the wit, knowledge or references of real football chants - sample 'You'd better go back to racing, Campbell-Black. Poor old Searston will end in tears soon. They're going down, You'll lose your crown, Poor Prince charmless, Your side's quite harmless.' in the novel this is greeted with 'howls of laughter and tumultuous cheering'.  I've  been to a fair few football matches, and I shudder to think what would happen to anyone who came up with chant 'Your side's quite harmless'. There are so many awful punning nicknames that don't quite work - the team's Czech midfielder is 'the pouncing Czech'. The loud mouth keeper is called Barry Pitt, so is 'Pitt Bully' . It's like Jilly Cooper thinks of a nickname she thinks is funny and and then gives a millisecond of thought to a character for the name. Loads of people love her books though, so she's obviously doing something right. 

Danny Dorling, Shattered Nation: Inequality and the Geography of a Failing State

More preaching to the converted, and a very pessimistic view of the current state of the UK and its future if we don’t drastically reverse the hollowing-out of the state and a society run in the interests of the ultra-wealthy. Sadly can't see there being any change happening with the current political parties we have, and the demonisation of anyone who looks like making even the slightest move towards social democracy. It's only going to lead to an increase in civil unrest and the far right growing in influence as they offer a simple answer to the current problems - blame immigrants and progressives.

Alexander Lernet-Holenia, Count Luna

Another buy from Daunt, based on the principle that all books from there are good a someone has gone to the trouble of translating it. As it's also set in the world of post WW! Habsburg aristocracy of course I'm going to enjoy it. Have added another book of his, Baron Bagge, to my wishlist

Bettany Hughes, Istanbul: A Tale of Three Cities

A big book for a big subject, with things like the Varangian Guard, or the Battle of Manzikert, or the displacement of the  Greek population after the First World War, dealt with in a few pages or even a few sentences when they warrant massive books in themselves. Very ambitious and a great overview of a city with three names. Another holiday read, often first thing in the morning while it was cool and I could sit on the verandah drinking coffee while the others snoozed (except William, who was off playing football as soon as the sun came up).

Francois Mauriac, Therese Desqueyroux

I wanted to read something set in the locality, but I knew absolutely nothing about Bordeaux or Les Landes. This was recommended in a guidebook and I bought a copy in Daunt, and  I'm starting to believe it's impossible to buy a bad book from there. There's a bar set by the fact that most book there have been translated, and who is going to translate a bad or unsuccessful book?  Audrey Tautou from Amelie is on the front cover of the edition I bought, as she made a film based on the book in 2012. It's the story of a murderous bourgeois woman trying to make her way and assert her independence, but it's very much set in the pines and flat sandy landscape of Les Landes, so i could look up from the book and see the very countryside where it is set.  Luckily Helen didn't attempt to poison me as Therese does to her husband. 

Ned Boulting, 1923: The Mystery of Lot 212 and a Tour de France Obsession

Second holiday read in the mad sun of Biscarrosse, and this read almost entirely by the pool on a lounger in the share. Ned Boulting is always worth reading, very funny and engaging, and what sounds like a dull read  - one man's boredom during covid leading him to investigate to the nth degree some old footage of a cyclist crossing a bridge in the 1923 TdF turns out to be quite a read after all. Probably helped that the TdF had just finished, and the Paris Olympics just started.

Francis Spufford, Cahokia Jazz

First book read on our holiday to Biscarrosse, which I am writing about two weeks later so it seems a long long time ago. We got in at 2 in the morning last night so I am tired and grumpy today. Parts of this read on the plane, parts on the veranda of our chalet and most by the pool as it was so very hot. The first weekend there it was about 30 degrees and I couldn't go into the sun for more than a few minutes. i managed a few run in the morning but it was too much and I switched to cycling. Cahokia Jazz was terrific, set in an alternate US where there is a semi-independent Native American state in the Mid-West. Beyond that it was a crime procedural, but very refreshing and enjoyable - will encourage Helen to read it 

Robert Blatchford, Merrie England

 Read this before going on holiday and cannot remember much now. The normal preaching to the converted.