Susan Cooper, The Dark is Rising

 Meant to finish on Twelfth Night really, but had read one chapter a day since Midwinter's Eve. I've given a copy to cousin Jack too in the hope that he will read it as my kids aren't interested, although Helen did try reading it to William at bedtime, but didn't get far. Still so enjoyable, but mad that it's set between Slough and Windsor. I've been over that way a few times to Dorney looking for the locations in the book, and the manor house and the church are there, but unlike in Susan Cooper's youth there is also the roar of the M4, the Dorney Lakes and all sorts of urban encroachment - not the bucolic Buckinghamshire of the book at all.

Jan Morris, Spain

 Maybe it's from an earlier time, but Jan Morris seems to be allowed to get away with saying things that wouldn't be allowed nowadays. Not in a pc way, but she is prone to sweeping generalisations and ascribing traits to whole peoples or places that are romantic, beguiling, wonderful to read but not necessarily true. I guess that is poetic licence and part of her Celtic outlook. Really enjoyed the book, but it's her imagined Spain rather than the 'real' Spain, and a Spain that was still very much the country of Franco, with repression, suspicion, dark corners and a powerful church.

Richard Ayoade, The Unfinished Harauld Hughes

 Richard Ayoade is very funny, very clever and wonderful to watch in so many things, but this is the second book of his I've read where I haven't quite got the humour, I suspect a lot of it is going over my head. Back at work today after Christmas and Boxing Day, but it is very quiet so I'm tidying up spreadsheets, which is wonderful. I'm also wearing my brand new White Horse of Uffington t-shirt, so I'm looking very stylish too. We're heading up to Derby tomorrow, taking Grogu on a long car journey for the first time. . . 

Amy Jeffs, Saints: A New Legendary of Heroes, Humans and Magic

 More folklore and quite a nice read in bite sized chunks. Amy Jeffs seems to have a Stakhanovite approach to folklore and is churning out these sort of books, including the illustrations too. They are very good looking books, irresistible to purchase. It's Christmas Eve, and I still have a lot of wrapping to do. . . 

Richard Adams, Watership Down

 I've not read the book before, but I remember the film and a book of the film I had when I was a child vividly. The story was therefore familiar, but there is so much to it - a whole invented world of rabbit mythology, a convincing attempt to understand the rabbit psyche and outlook on the world, loads of nods to classic mythology and a retelling of the Iliad, wonderful stuff and it all takes place between Basingstoke and  Newbury. I'll have to head over that way and explore more. Just 2 days to christmas, I'm hoping work is quiet today and tomorrow. . .

Michael Wood, In Search of the Dark Ages: A History of Anglo-Saxon England

Two books in a row that I've been able to follow, enjoy, and not doze off whilst reading. Not doze off too often, anyway. This was an update of a classic, and I may not have read the original but can see how it had changed. The original was built around chapters on 'great men' - Athelstan, Ethelread, William The Conqueror partly I guess because that's the best you can do with the sources we have and partly 'cause that was the mindset once. The updated book takes advantage of new archaeology and scholarship and also brings in other characters, notable women and non-white men from the period who weren't on the radar before.

Daniel Mason, North Woods

 Loved it. A series of connected stories taking place in the same smallholding somewhere in Western Massachusetts. A couple of times at the end of chapters I let out a 'no!' I had become so invested. Helen's Uncle and Aunt must be aware of this given where they live, but I'll have to check as it is so good. I'll badger Helen to read it too. At home, everyone seems to be over the sickness bug now and I've turned a corner with Grogu. He didn't seem to want to go out with me, but I took Friday off work, we went out for a long walk and since then we've been out each day and he seems to be increasingly happy in my company - and me with him. Long may it continue, although in the house he still gets a bit bitey as he's teething, the poor guy. Almost ready for Christmas, although I need to get something for Helen from me that isn't a bin.

Simon Kuper, Good Chaps: How Corrupt Politicans Broke our Law and Institutions - And What We Can Do About It

 An entirely unsurprising polemic. So unsurprising it got me wondering why it was written in such a revelatory fashion when all of these facts were known. An astonishing quote from Alastair Campbell on the blurb, 'I got angrier and angrier and angrier and angrier as I read it'. As if Campbell of all people didn't know exactly what was going on, he was at the heart of it. It makes him sound like Captain Renault in Casblanca claiming to be shocked at gambling occurring as he collects his winnings. Read this while very very ill with a sickness bug. I'm over it now, but Helen and William have gone down with it. Hopefully all better soon.

Hakan Nesser, The Inspector and Silence

 Been a while since I've read a Van Veeteren novel, but I've always enjoyed his rainy, miserable north European Maardam, with its mixed up elements of the Netherlands, Scandinavia and even Finland and Poland. I struggled to follow this though. The only character I could identify was VV, and I couldn't follow the plot and who had been murdered and when. I struggle more and more with reading and i do worry that it is a sign of my brain decaying! It seems to happen more with  fiction than non-fiction, and maybe i just need to spend quality time with uninterrupted reading rather than snatches when I'm thinking about other things