Agatha Christie, Death In The Clouds, Magnus Mills, Three To See The King, Nick Hayes, The Book of Trespass: Crossing The Lines That Divide Us, John Steinbeck, The Acts of King Arthur And His Noble Knights, Agatha Christie, a Halloween Mystery, Daniel Levin, Nothing But A Circus, Ali Smith, Winter, Leonora Carrington, The Hearing Trumpet, Susanna Clarke, Piranesi, Eamonn Duffy, The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580, Junichiro Tanizaki, A Cat, A Man, And Two Women, Sam Selvon, The Housing Lark, Owen Jones, This Land: The Story of a Movement, Dashiell Hammett, The Thin Man, Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence: Why it can matter more than IQ, Keith Roberts, Pavane, John le Carre, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, Robert Dallek, Franklin D Roosevelt: A Political Life, Hope Mirrlees, Lud-in-the-Mist, Saul Bellow, Herzog, Peter Sarris, Byzantium: A Very Short Introduction, Jerome K Jerome, Three Men In a Boat, John Steinbeck, The Winter of Our Discontent

Still in a Steinbeck fanboy situation at the moment. 'The Winter of our Discontent' was superb. Unlike so much else of his fiction, it's set on the east coast in  a whaling town, where the scion of a once prosperous puritan family has been reduced to working as a grocery clerk. He's honest, happy and poor. Throughout the book a string of circumstances open up opportunities to him to enrich himself and be the person in town he is expected to be given his name. So he takes advantage at the expense of those that trust him, gains the power and money he has never craved but which he has been tempted by, and in the end, once it has been revealed that his son, following his example, cheated to win an award, he commits suicide. A candidate for the Great American Novel as the dream turns sour?

 'Three Men in a Boat' was a comfort read, and remains as joyful as ever, just what was needed as we enter a second lockdown. Our government continue to manage the whole thing ineptly, using it only as an excuse to enrich themselves and their chums. Public health, safety and the welfare of the economy don't even seem to exist in their calculation until they are forced to show some consideration by public opinion. In the meantime, Labour are doing well in the polls, but have chosen the Kinnock approach of bashing, marginalising and blaming the left as a precursor to electoral victory. It's horrible, and leaving aside the cynicism and realpolitik of it all that should render such a move reprehensible anyway, it's a strategy that seems doomed to me. The vast majority of Labour members and Labour voters are left wing. They want public services to be run in the interest of the community, not profit, they want the wealthy to pay their fair share and they want the government to be responsible for housing, education and health rather than leaving it to the marketplace. The people advising Starmer don't seem to agree and are wanting to present a future Labour government as non-ideological and just a more competent management team than the Tories. OK, this might attract the very small Change UK liberal, educated, wealthy remainers back to the party, but it offers nothing to the millions of voters who need a Labour Government and the hundreds of thousands of Labour members who want real, socialist change. Honestly, I'd be ok with just one thing. Keep the internal market in the NHS, continue privatising government agencies, keep academies and private schools, keep Trident, keep allowing the wealthiest to avoid paying a fair share of tax, but build decent public sector housing. Or leave housing to the failed market and do one, just one, of those other things. That's all I'd need to be enthusiastic for a new Labour government. 

Amongst all the other books, 'Piranesi' and 'Lud-in-the-Mist' stood out as fantastic novels in two senses. Susanna Clarke +must+ have read Lud-in-the-Mist before writing JS&MN.

Magnus Mills, The Forensic Records Society, Frank McLynn, 1759: The Year Britain Became The Master of the World, Agatha Christie, The Mystery of the Blue Train, Ryūnosuke Akutagawa, Rashomon and Seventeen Other Stories, Tim Moore, French Revolutions: Cycling the Tour de France, Louis de Bernieres, Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Andrew Adonis, Bevin: Labour's Churchill, Magnus Mills, The Field of the Cloth of Gold, John Steinbeck, Of Mice And Men, Thomas Penn, The Brothers York: An English Tragedy, Andrew Miller, Now We Shall Be Entirely Free, John Steinbeck, Sweet Thursday, Tim Krabbé, The Rider, Agatha Christie, Murder in Mesopotamia, Mark Kurlansky, The Baasque History of the World, James Meek, To Calais, In Ordinary Time, Agatha Christie, Peril At End House, Seth Godin, Tribes:We Need You To Lead Us, Magnus Mills, The Maintenance of Headway, John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat, Ali Smith, Autumn, Nicklaus Thomas-Symonds, Attlee: A Life in Politics

 More lockdown reding, the last three read mostly in a cottage in Wales. It was our first hoiday since the lockdown, and we had booked for a week in Llanberis. Three days before we were due to go, Helen received her credit card statement and realised she had been refunded the cost of the holiday/ When she called the letting agency we worked out that the booking had been cancelled without us being informed - so no holiday. The next 24 hours were spent frantically trying to find a replacement. I was sat on varuoius search sites pressing 'refresh' hoping for a cancellation. One came up that looked suitable so I booked it straight away, paid in full and contacted the company to confirm. I asked them to double-check with the owner given what had happened, but tbh, I still didn't believe that is was possible this place was free. Even on the drive there I hadn't commited. We couldn't get in until 7 as they had to do a thorough clean, so we went to the beach at Barmouth and had tea in a cafe (the Lobster Pot Cafe, which William became obsessed with and wanted to eat at for every meal). We got to the cottage about 1920 and as we pulled up I had a sinking feeling in my stomach as there was another group outside unloading their car.

So i went up to them and politely explained that I rthought we had the cottage booked. They were confident that they too had booked the cottage quite some weeks ago. I knew it. We both checked out booking confirmation and called the owner to clarify what had happened. In the meantime the kids were in floods of tears at the thought of no holiday. Luckily one of the other group realised there was another holiday let around the back of the cottage, and they had unpacked and unloaded into the wrong cottage. What a relief. They were very apologetic and cleared out at a rapid rate, leaving lots of stuff begind which they kept popping back for - dog leads, loo rolls, crisps. . . 

We have a lovely holiday though, plenty of time n the beach, but the kids weren't that keen on walking. For books, I'm really enjoying Steinbeck and Magnus Mills at the moment, and dipping into Poirot for light relief

Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince, Magnus Mills, All Quiet on the Orient Express, Simon Cooper, The Otter's Tale, Agatha Christie, Death's Folly, Robin Cooper, The Time Waster Letters, Mick Herron, Spook Street, Agatha Christie, The Hollow, Simon Winder, The Man Who Saved Britain. John Steinbeck, Cannery Row, Agatha Christie, Appointment With Death

3 Poirot novels as my comfort reading continues in lockdown. It really is an omnishambles at the moment in the UK. The government are utterly incompetent, the advice given is unclear and contradictory and they genuinely don’t seem to give a stuff about the welfare of ordinary people. Johnson appears on TV and just blusters and bullshits. Last night there was a photo of him holding up some Timtams in triumph at the prospect of a trade deal with Australia. I assumed it had been photoshopped, but it turns out that no, it was real. That's why he's triumphant. Because apparently the massive damage done to the economy and to our international standing  done by Brexit is all worth it because it means we will be able to buy some penguin knockoffs. It's too depressing to point out that we can buy them anyway, hence why he is fucking able to hold some. and yet this lazy, lying, adulterous, dim buffoon is running our country and still ahead in the polls. No wonder I'm taking refuge in the certainty of the rarefied, civilised locked rooms of Agatha Christie.

Agatha Christie, Before The Flood, Kapka Kassabova, To The Lake: A Balkan Journey of War and Peace, Niklas Natt och Dag, The Wolf And The Watchman, John Steinbeck, Travels With Charley

Two fantastic books in a row. Agatha Chrisie was comfort reading, to the Lake another examination of the nuttiness of ethnic, linguistic and religious differences in the Balkan. The Wolf and the Watchman took the Scandi-noir police procedural, with it's grizzled and flawed investigators, its seedy and depraved underbelly of a respectable society, and misogyny, cruelty and torture and moved them all to 18th Century Stockholm for a really refreshing spin. And then Steinbeck. I've not read much Steinbeck, and none of his non-fiction, but this was incredible. Later in life, Steinbeck sets off in a trailer with his dog Charley to go look for the real America. He writes so well - self-deprecating, honest, insightful. He was away a wee bit too long as he starts having conversations with Charley in print, but what he has to say about the creeping consumerism and materialism in America, and the peculiar issues of the Deep South are still as relevant today.

John Lewis Gaddis, On Grand Strategy, Shusaku Endo, The Samurai, Stephen Moss, Mrs Moreau's Warbler: How Birds Got Their Names, Muriel Spark, The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie

Still lockdown reading! Finding it hard to get the time to read as my normal routine of reading on the exercise bike is no longer an option. I did purchase a cheap exercise bike just before the lockdown started, but didn’t read the reviews and it is too small for me. So I bodged a seat post extension, sat on it happily reading a few times until the casing snapped and I went a over t taking the bike with me. I ended up on the floor of the garage with the bike on top of me and my right shin cut to shribbons. Couldn't help noting that throughout it all the book remained clenched in my left hand on the correct page. I've rebodged it, but not high enough to sit back and read, so instead I'm listening to podcasts. On the books, I loved The Samurai, a historical globe-trotting novel from a Japanese perspective. I've put the 100 essential novels on hold with just two to go, as the two remaining, William Gaddis' Recognitions and Roberto Bolano's 2666 are huge tomes and I just can't face them without dedicated reading time. Instead I'm going to try to read some classics or oldies, hence The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie. Agatha Christie is on the list next.

Suraiya Faroqhi, The Ottoman Empire and the World Around It, Sam Byers Perfidious Albion

Lockdown reading. The situation in the UK seems to be getting worse and wore, as the death count rises each day and Boris Johnson has been rushed to hospital.  The UK Government's response to the outbreak has been appalling, they've not taken it seriously enough, given out mixed messages -  'stay in!' 'it's ok to go out for exercise', and our PM was only a few weeks ago boasting about shaking hands with everyone in a hospital. It looks like it will hit harder in the UK than anywhere else in Europe because of a) our government's wrong headed response and b) the deliberate underfunding of our health and social infrastructure for the previous decades. Despite this, Johnson appears to have record levels of approval, is eulogised in the press and has people all over the country praying for him.

Magnus Mills, The Scheme for Full Employment, Jerzy Kosinski, The Painted Bird

Can completely understand why The Painted Bird was on the list. It's visceral, brutal and shocking, and presents a harrowing counter-picture to Eastern Europe under the Nazis. No wonder it was banned in the Eastern Bloc as it shows the fear, cruelty, superstition and collaboration of peasants in the persecution of others under the Nazis. Very different from the official history of heroic resistance and solidarity in occupied territories. It's semi-autobiographical apparently, and it's difficult to believe that this boy being beaten, raped, tortured and witnessing horrific acts carried out so casually is only 8 years old. another reminder, like the Handmaid's Tale, that for most of humanity in most of history their lives have been miserable, fearful and oppressed.
THSFFE was a reread, and a reminder of how much I enjoy Magnus Mills. Have just ordered a load more of his books to get through the lockdown