Evelyn Waugh, Put Out More Flags, Thomas Dixon, Weeping Britannia: Portrait of a Nation in Tears, Tonke Dragt, A Letter For The King, Serhii Plokhy,The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine,Mick Herron, Slow Horses, Edmund De Waal, The Hare With Amber Eyes: A Hidden Inheritance, Elena Ferrante, My Brilliant Friend, Stephanie Barczewski, Heroic Failure and the British, Tim Marshall, Prisoners of Geography: Ten Maps That Tell You Everything You Need to Know About Global Politics

Another long gap. I've voted for Corbyn, my opinion having crystallised folliwing so many attempts to smear and besmirch him by members of the PLP and their supporters. Also the fact that Owen Smith is just utterly uninspiring. Like so many before, he seems to take which ever position is popular rather than being a politician of conviction. There is much I do not agree with JC about, particularly on foreign policy, but at least he says what he believes.

Just back from another lovely holiday in Wales too (Celtic Haven in Lydstep again), and today is the kids' first day back in school. Fred and I are spending far too much time at the moment catching Pokemon on my iPhone. Gotta catch 'em all. . . . 

The Draining Lake, Arnaldur Indridason. Home: A Time Traveller's Tales from Britain's Pre-History, Francis Pryor, Sword of Honour, Evelyn Waugh, Wolsey: The Life of King Henry VIII's Cardinal , John Matusiak, Dancing In The Dark: My Struggle Book IV, Karl-Ove Knausgaard, Broken Vows: Tony Blair The Tragedy of Power, Tom Bower

It's been a while. Have had a wonderful holiday in the Vendee, Fred's first cub camp and Libby has been a mermaid in the school assembly. Last week was the family camp out at school and the kids had a fabulous time. However, today we found out that the UK has voted to leave the EU. I'm still in a state of shock and feel numb. I vacillate between moments of post-hoc rationalisation (can it really be that bad? Who do I know and respect who wants to leave [Dennis Skinner, basically]) and deep depression. Cameron's resigned, and the prospect of Boris as the next PM is just hideous, as it the fact that he'd win against Corbyn. What are the Labour Party to do to reconnect? Apparently we need to be anti-immigrant or 'listen to ordinary people's concerns' as the euphemism puts it.

Andrea Camilleri, the Track of Sand, Stephen Biddulph, Raising Boys

Another Montalbano, and the normal wonderful escapism. I think I enjoy the books more than the series, even with its beautiful locations and the pratfalls of Catarella. 'Raising Boys' was more parenting advice, and of course I'm the parent who neglects their children to read a book on why it is important to pay attention to your children. . . .

I've just had another letter published in The Guardian. I think it's my 5th. One on the US Constitution happily preventing a Schwarzenegger or Kissinger presidency, one on the Hay festival (May 2009), one on the morality of private education (October 2009), one on David Davies' choice of a song condoning drug use on Desert  Island Discs, and now one more on sloppy writing:

I saw nine tautologies in your article (Has M&S gone too far with its pre-cut avocado?, G2, 27 April). Every time I read “pre-peeled” or “pre-diced” I shuddered, and by the sixth paragraph a nervous tic had developed. A “pre-peeled banana” is a peeled banana. A “pre-sliced avocado” is a sliced avocado. “Prepared sandwich” would be bad enough; it’s obviously been prepared, as it exists. To go one stage further and call it a “pre-prepared sandwich” is just pre-preposterous.

David Sawyer

Woking, Surrey

It was  pointed out the next day on the letters page that 'nervous tic' is itself a tautology. . . .

It's a pretty good hit rate, I think every letter I've submitted has been published except one, which was about the names of the tube stations at the western extremities of the Piccadilly Line. There had been a discussion on the letters page about tube station trivia (the only tube station that contains none of the letters in the word 'mackerel'? St John's Wood), and how it was possible to go through 10 stations in a row all beginning with the same letter (Hounslow East-Hounslow Central-Hounslow West-Hatton Cross-Heathrow Ts 1,2,3,-Heathrow T4-Hatton Cross-Hounslow West-Hounslow Central-Hounslow East). I wrote in that it was ironic given that locals like me were unable to pronounce the letter 'H' at the beginning of words; ''Ounslow East, 'Ounslow Central, 'Ounslow West. . . '

Joanne Parker Britannia Obscura: Mapping Britain's Hidden Landscapes

This was a strange one. Read it in 24 hours, a collection of chapters about different landscapes in Britain - caves, ley lines, canals and so on. It didn't really flow, I didn't understand the thread holding them together and so it felt  disjointed to me. I had my interview to be a cub leader last night, I'm getting sucked in. . . 

PG Wodehouse, The Drones Omnibus

Should be dipped into occasionally, not read cover to cover, as what should be a delightful  little slice of humour becomes a heavy meal of fat uncles, bets gone wrong and failed pursuits of eligible young gels.  I didn't do that though, I slogged on and on. Not sure it was Wodehouse's best efforts, I certainly didn’t get the same delight as Wooster or Blandings; I remember how much I loved Mr Mulliner as a teenager, maybe I should try them again. They were more like Psmith, which left me cold.

I had to stop and think at one point, when a passing reference to events in the '50s made me realise that the events were supposedly set in post-war England, despite the ambience and references being of Wodehouse's mixture of Edwardian England in the long summertime and an England of the '20s and '30s where the First World War hadn't happened.

Frits Barend & Henk Van Dorp, Ajax, Barcelona, Cruyff: The ABC of an Obstinate Maestro

This is a collection of interviews over the decades with Cruyff by two Dutch pundits, and has been sat on the shelf for years. Finally reading it was prompted by two factors: his recent death, and Freddie's burgeoning interest in football superstars. He's been watching the 'Football's Greatest' series n You Tube about great footballers and really enjoying it, particularly the showboating personified by the 'Cruyff Turn' or his audacious penalties. He's supporting Barcelona at the moment too (during Tottenham's best ever league season in MY lifetime too, let alone his! Does he not realise??), so that adds to the attraction of Cruyff. He even read a very short chapter about how JC started hanging around at Ajax's De Meer stadium aged 6 helping his uncle, the groundsman

At the moment we've busy collecting the panini stickers for Euro 2016. How strange to see glossy pages about Albania, Wales and Northern Ireland. Not sure whether this expanded European championship will be a good idea or whether it will mean some RWC style tonkings. Maybe someone will do a Japan though. .  . .

Robert Caro, The Power Broker: Robert Moses and the Fall of New York, Evelyn Waugh, The Loved One, Stephen Biddulph, Raising Girls, Mark Haddon, The Red House

'The Power Broker' lived up to the hype as one of the great political biographies. Moses is practically unknown over here, I'd be interested to find out what level of awareness there is about him in the US these days. 1000 pages of how to attain power, how to use it, how it corrupts and the hubristic fall of an imperial court.

'The Loved One' slipped by, made me smile a few times, but nothing to justfy its billing as one of the great 20th century comic novels. Not a patch on Scoop.

I should have read 'Raising Girls' a long time ago. Being a self-help manual, there's plenty of truisms, common-sense and anecdotes to support an argument, but there's enough in there to make you stop and think about how you behave towards young girls. I don't always deal well with Libby when she is refusing to comply with requests, and it's a good reminder that she responds well to love and encouragement rather than being summarily dismissed to her room.