James Morrow, The Last Witchfinder, Bill Bryson, The Road to Little Dribbling, Hilary Mantel, The Giant O'Brien. Neil Hegarty, The Story of Ireland: In Search of a New National Memory, Kate Atkinson, A God In Ruins, Eric Foner, Reconstruction, Paula Hawkins, The Girl On The Train, Peter Ackroyd, Civil War, Karl-Ove Knausgaard, Some Rain Must Fall, John Julius Norwich(ed) The Great Cities in History, Salman Rushdie. Midnight's Children, Neil Forsyth, Delete This At Your Peril,??, Nancy Isenberg, White Trash: The 400-Year Untold History of Class in America, Melvyn Bragg, Now Is the Time

3 months without an update, although so much has happened, the election of Donald J Trump as President in particular. I can hardly remember some of these books, and there is at least one work of fiction between 'Delete This At Your Peril' and 'White Trash' where I can't even remember the name. I do worry about my short-term memory, I struggle to remember so much. We played Scattergories over Christmas and my mind went blank under pressure. I still do ok on the crossword though, so hopefully I'm not deteriorating too much.

My running is though, I hardly did any in 2016 and am struggling on Park Run now - my current times are comparable with when Freddie first did it two years ago, and his friend Abel is about 5 minutes faster than me now. Not sure what has happened, it could be psychological, it could be that I'm playing Pokemon Go as I run round now rather than using Runkeeper. . .

Today is the first day back at work after the Christmas Break. Work has been good in 2016, although my role has changed completely and now its basically admin work. The pay is good, the day goes quickly and I get out of work on time though, so I've no motivation to move to a more challenging role. There's so much uncertainty about Vodafone Group with Brexit coming up, so who knows what could happen. Were living relatively frugally and paying off the mortgage, so hopefully we'll be ok.

Colin Woodard, American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional Cultures of North America

Expanded on one of my favourite works of history, David Hackett Fischer's Albion's Seed. Rather than considering just the 4 British folkways in developing the nations of America, Woodard looks at the other elements  and how they developed - French and Hispanic influences, for example, and how Yankeedom mutated into 'the left coast' on the Pacific. Very readable, and a great explanation of the divides in US culture today; very pertinent with the mass, inexplicable support for Trump (well, inexplicable to the Yankees, which apparently includes me)

PG Wodehouse, The Mulliner Omnibus, Ulrich Hesse-Lichtenberger, Tor! The Story of German Football, Roald Dahl, Danny The Champion Of The World

Wodehouse's prescription was to only read 2 or 3 stories a day, which is why it took so long. He was right, what should be a delight easily becomes a slog through keen curates, game debutantes and blumptious Hollywood producers. I can remember reading a Mulliner omnibus when I was 17 or so, and at the time, mostly enjoying the few paragraphs at the beginning where Mulliner is holding court in the Angler's Rest before the story begins - the same still holds true.

I read Danny The Champion Of The World as Freddie was reading it for school and I wanted to talk to him about it. He seems to be slowly taking to reading now, having acquired a taste for Harry Potter (We, and more specifically, Helen, read it to him rather than him read it himself), and Roald Dahl. I'm not sure I've read it before, and think I can remember being put off as it seemed a very wordy book when I was in Primary School with no pictures. I can’t remember when I made the leap to being a voracious reader, but I hope it happens for Fred.

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. . .