David Carlton, MacDonald versus Henderson: The Foreign Policy of the Second Labour Government

Back on home territory here! This was originally a phd thesis from the sixties, examining an aspect of the second Labour government that gets forgotten with all the domestic financial issues. Snowden still features as a bogeyman, insufferable in his intransigence and all-powerful in his domain as Chancellor, conducting his own foreign policy and diplomacy. If I'd read this 20 years ago it would have helped my own MA dissertation, I'm sure. Reading it reminds me that it's still 20th Century UK political history, particularly of the left that is where I feel most comfortable and knowledgable, despite all the forays into 18th Century politics, and the American Revolutionary period, and the Habsburgs and mitteleuropa, and the Byzantine empire and the Levant.

Kazuo Ishiguro, The Buried Giant, Gwyn A. Williams, Artisans and Sans-Culottes: Popular Movements in France and Britain during the French Revolution, Robert Merle, Heretic Dawn, Barry Cunliffe, By Steppe, Desert and Ocean: The Birth of Eurasia

Loved 'The Buried Giant', a very sweet and dreamlike story of an old couple very much in love in the dark ages trying to find their son. 'Heretic Dawn' is the 3rd in the Fortunes of France series which are gradually being translated into english. Everyone compares them to Dumas, and they're full of swordplay, intrigue and romance. Barry Cunliffe's book is a sweeping study of Eurasia and the interplay between the european peninsula, the near east and China via the steppe. Great to read the long view.

Right now, Tottenham are favourites to win the league, something I've never experienced before. We're spurs though, we'll find a way to blow it. It's Arsenal this weekend, let's see how that goes. Even more astonishingly, the bloviating oaf Donald Trump seems to have the republican presidential nomination sewn up. It's genuinely bizarre - the more idiotic and offensive his announcements, the more he goes up in the polls. He calls Mexicans rapists, he goes up in the polls. The sheer amount of chutzpah it takes for a draft dodger to claim John McCain isn’t a war hero is astounding. What’s more, how on earth is a privileged, divorced, unchristian Manhattan resident appealing to conservatives? It's like he's America's id, all knee jerk reaction, no filter. 

Thomas Asbridge, The Greatest Knight: The Remarkable Life of William Marshal, the Power behind Five English Thrones, Karl Ove Knausgaard, Boyhood Island, Tristan Gooley, The Walker's Guide to Outdoor Clues and Signs

 The last in the list was a bit infuriating. Lots of lore about how to navigate by the stars or the trees which basically amounted to immensely complicated ways to work out which way north was, and then the smug author impressing various indigenous tribesmen with his ability to predict there was a volcano round the next bend by the shape of leaves. I do wish I knew more about the natural world, but I just want to be able to tell one tree from another really. New Year's Resolution to go out with a Collins Guide and identify trees maybe? Once they have leaves on to make it easier, obvs.

Another volume of Knausgaard, which has become very moreish without really having a plot or events. It's just one person laying himself bare, and s many of his neuroses and awkward feelings strike a universal chord. William Marshal was great fun, the Angevins really deserve a GoT style mini-series. 'The Lion in Winter' with its one set just doesn't cut it these days.

George MacDonald Fraser, Flash For Freedom!

I don’t think I've read 'Flash for Freedom!' since I was 16 or so, but it's so familiar and I remembered so much; and yet I struggle to remember the names of books I read last month, let alone the content. I enjoyed it so much, I'm such a fanboy for GMF. I spoted a book of his I'd never heard of before last week, but I'm not sure - his later output was a bit patchy, and if it wasn't good enough for release while he's alive. It may not be up to much.

Agatha Christie, Poirot Investigates, Max Adams, In the Land of Giants: Journeys Through The Dark Ages

Comfort reading at Duesseldorf Airport, and then a very of-the-moment meld of dark ages history and travels through the british landscape. V aspirational, we all want to be Max Adams as he travels leisurely through the islands with no day job, having serendipitous encounters with local experts, or seals, or undiscovered Iron Age Barrows. I'm completely, utterly jealous of his life ;-)

Bibs is being absolutely charming at the moment. He fetches my slippers when I get through the door, gets Helen a cup for her tea and is just generally lovely and so easy to make laugh. The long campaign to rename him Billy is still bumping along: Libby has pledged her preference for 'Billy', but has yet to use it, and Fred doesn't like it. It does sound odd on him, to be fair: 'Bibs' has become fixed in my mind for him.

Peter Frankopan, The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, Giuseppe Tomasi Di Lampedusa, The Leopard, Philip Cowley & Denis Kavanagh, The British General Election of 2015

'The Silk Roads' wasn't quite what I was expecting; I was hoping for a history of medieval Central Asia, but it was actually a geopolitical history of the world emphasising the role of the region as a key point. Very ambitious and readable, but I was just after a narrative and was required to think. The Leopard has passed me by; not sure I appreciated quite why it's considered one of the most important works of literature in the 20th Century (maybe something was lost in translation), but it made me smile in places and just want to visit the never-changing Sicily all the more.

The latest Nuffield study was devoured on a business trip to Germany. Very pessimistic reading of course, and right now it's difficult to see how Labour will get back into power for generations. Scotland is lost to the SNP, voters in the north don’t see the Labour Party as representing them any more and are edging in enough quantity to UKIP and in the south, 'Tory Lite' doesn’t convince when the real thing is available. And now Corbyn is in power (whose policies I agree with and for whom I voted), we're moving further and further away from being seen as a centrist party capable of governing.

I'm calling Bibs' first word; it's 'banana'. He's definitely saying 'nana' when I point at one, and while Nana may claim he's saying 'Nana', it's 'banana' alright.

Margaret Atwood, The Blind Assassin

Had to slog through this at first, but it had me captured by the final 200 pages and I neglected other activities to finish it! I am a bit dim though, so needed to check with wikipedia afterwards to make sure I'd understood what had happened. Just as well as I didn’t realise it was built around a novel in a novel in a novel rather than just a novel in a novel. Maybe some light reading is needed to follow

Had a lovely haul of books for Christmas; Barry Cunliffe's new book, Nairn's London, a biography of William Marshal as well as my standard post-christmas hoovering up of the books I wanted but didn't get. The Nuffield study of the 2015 election is out now, which I'll devour (all the time feeling the pangs of agony at the result), but have just started on The Silk Roads, a present from Helen's Mum and Dad