Nancy Mitford, Love in a Cold Climate and Other Novels

The Other Novels being The Pursuit of Love and The Blessing, both of which I enjoyed rather more than Love in a Cold Climate. 'Love in a Cold Climate' is by far the best title though. Helen and the kids are away in Derby this week, so I spent the evening reading Mitford and making Marmalade. I'm only a twinset away from joining the Woking Women's Institute

Park Run has become our 'Favourite Part of the Week', to join Libby's post-bath towel wrap, the 'Favourite Part of the Day'. I get to do Park Run by myself on Saturday, so hoping for a respectable time which Freddie will no doubt smash before he leaves primary school. . .

Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk, Karl Ove Knausgaard. A Man In Love: My Struggle Book 2, Owen Jones, The Establishment: And How They Get Away With It

I learnt nothing new from 'The Establishment' and agreed with every word. Reinforcing already-held assumptions among lefties the nation over. He does write well and with an incisiveness and clarity. Whether he can be fairly called ' The Orwell of our times', as Russell Brand does, is another question entirely. He does appear to be utterly hated by commentators at The Spectator website though, which has to be in his favour.

I'm fully invested in Knausgaard's fascinating epic now. It does remain the story of his life in the minutest detail, which no-one can possible remember, so it has to be fictionalised. And yet. . . He opens up his soul, exposes his weaknesses and has ruined his own family life over the writing of these books (or has he?). 'H is for Hawk' is a similar confessional, and 3 stories intertwining; a story about the training of a goshawk, the story of the author's grief for her dead father, and the biography of TH White. Goshawks appear to be great, but they're no badgers.

Freddie and I have been regularly doing the Woking Park Run since Christmas. He's up to the full distance and getting steadily quicker - 11 minute miles now. More to the point, he seems to really enjoy it and it's a lovely thing to do together. His keenness to do it every Saturday may also be influenced by the treats lavished on him by an indulgent father if he manages a PB too, of course. Helen is running too, on a 'Couch to 5K' programme. She's finding it touch, but every time she goes out she gets a bit better. I'd love to see her and Fred to a Park Run (3 miles) sometime this summer. She's convinced she's embarrass herself though, so I'm encouraging her as much as poss. Fred would be so proud to do it with her. 

Sebastian Faulks, Jeeves & The Wedding Bells, Robin Fleming, Britain After Rome: The Fall and Rise, 400 to 1070: Anglo-Saxon Britain Vol 2 (The Penguin History of Britain), Rachel Joyce, Perfect

Was concerned  that Sebastian Faulks' latest homage (after his Bond novel) would be a disappointment, but he's obviously a huge fan and stuck generally to the formula. There were a couple of notes that made for a better novel (it was a novel rather than the short stories of Wodehouse), but didn't ring true; Bertie is given more of a back story and is occasionally given to contemplation of the horrors and loss of the Great War which had no place in the sunny Sunday afternoon atmosphere of a Wodehouse story. 'Perfect' was the follow-up to 'The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry'  which I really enjoyed, with it's shameless tugging of the heart strings. 'Perfect' took longer to grip me, but it kept me rapt towards the end, the sort of book you read every spare second you have; walking along, on the loo, surreptitious glances at work. . .

Libby, along with every other UK female aged 3-11 is absolutely obsessed with the film 'Frozen' at the moment. She had a Frozen-themed birthday party with games like Pin the Carrot on the Olaf and just about every card or present had Elsa or Anna on it. Disney are now responsible for a generation that will pronounce 'Anna' with an r sound after the first 'A'. I love her here singing so much. She doesn't know the words, and only just about knows he tune, but she belts it out like a club singer just the same, bless her. Fred & Lib have come to expect my rendition of 'One Spring Morning' and 'Sally Brown' as their lullabies, so both can belt those out too. Last night Lib decided to accompany 'One Spring Morning' by singing an entirely different song (Do You Want To Build A Snowman?) at the same time

Emory Thomas, Robert E Lee: A biography, Peter Ackroyd, The Death of King Arthur, Brendan Simms, Europe: The Struggle for Supremacy, 1453 to the Present

Not  a lot of light reading there: next up is Sebastian Faulks' Jeeves & Wooster homage to Wodehouse as some relief from three books full of internecine massacres and unfathomable strategic decisions. I think the American Civil War may be emerging as my principal interest for the next few months. Helen's parents' trip down the east coast jolted memories, and after watching 'Gettysburg-The Movie' I'm back marching with the Army of Northern Virginia. It is most alarming that I instinctively side with the very wrong but wromantic confederacy over the right but repulsive Union. I know perfectly well that at the time I would have supported the Union fully (at least, I would have after the emancipation proclamation), but figures like Lee are just so attractive, noble and dedicated to their forlorn cause.

Michael Pye, The Edge of the World: How the North Sea Made Us Who We Are, Jo Nesbo, Police

Michael Pye's book has had some great reviews, and the early chapters are very interesting and offer a new perspective, but towards the end it seemed to descend into a fairly standard history of early Modern Europe.  Harry Hole was as entertaining and gory as ever, although no Arsenal-supporting villains cropped up this time. Freddie seems to have turned a corner with reading, and is now doing it voluntarily and for fun. Just Tintin for now, but we all start somewhere. Bibs is an absolute joy - he's so placid, particularly given his big sister pulls and pokes and picks him up against his will all the time. I get a smile whenever he sees me, which  is so lovely. Still haven't run this year, and there's the Surrey half marathon in just over a month. Can't see it being a record pace. . .

Sebastian Faulks, Devil May Care

It's a Bond novel, but very much Fleming's Bond rather than the Bond of the films. That suits me, although there was an element of Bond by Numbers about it; the descriptions of everything Bond eats and drinks, the competitive element sparked in a sporting contest with the main antagonist, and lots of gritty determination and injury to Bond. I love all that through, so really enjoyed it! Libby came in again last night, so her spending the night in her own bed may have been a one-off. . . 

EF Benson, Mapp & Lucia, Tristram Hunt, Ten Cities That Made An Empire.

It's still too dark to run at the moment and I'm missing it very much. I don’t really get the chance at the weekend as I tend to be looking after Fred & Libs. There's a Park Run in Woking that I'm keen to get along to, particularly as Freddie can take part too; it clashes with Libby's Ballet on Saturday morning though, unfortunately.  Lib is still insisting on me taking her to ballet, even though the door is locked for the duration and we can't see what is going on. On the other hand, she did stay in her bed the whole night last night for the first time in months, and I actually managed to get a decent night's sleep. Let's hope she keeps it up. Lots of praise required

Back in November, Fred and I ran a mile down at Guildford Athletics Track: I'm so proud of him for doing it. He didn’t stop once and was faster than many of the older kids. I ran round the track with him to encourage him and keep him moving. What a star. I don’t want to push him to much, but it's great exercise and something we can do together. As the Park Run is only 1K, hopefully it'll be ideal. Helen's talking about taking part too, but she'll have to work up to it.

Mapp & Lucia was lovely and a joy to read, and read at the same time as the BBC adaption over Christmas. Maybe not as funny as Wodehouse, although I've recently become aware of a male/female split over Wodehouse; women seem not to find him quite so funny as men. Tristram Hunt's book was a very interesting take on the British empire seen through the history of ten cities shaped by and that shaped the empire. Starting with  Boston, then to Bridgetown, Dublin, Cape Town and further east as the empire changes. He's a Labour MP now and the shadow education secretary, but he doesn't seem that inspiring in a field Labour should be wiping the floor with the Tories. Labour's in a state full stop though; to scared of offending the right wing media and the middle-of-the-road voter to offer anything genuinely radical. Rather than do something populust and left wing like bring the railways back under state control, they seem rather to be trying to talk tough on immigration to match UKIP. Embarrassing.