Janet

I've done this year's. But yes, Sari is doing the 2014 version.

Kay/Claire - help! When we met up, I'm sure you said I should look at one of the professionals in the opening credits - and I though that celeb was Kevin from Grimsby but I don't think he's doing anything funny/odd so it must have been someone else. Who was it, please? I keep forgetting to ask!

Some clues, if you want them Train - Pink roll - I can't remember the 1 on the notepad.

I was exactly the same! I picked it up on a whim in the library. I have to say I wouldn't have if I'd known what the subject matter was, so I'm glad I didn't.

I read that in 2013 gave it 5/5, but I'm trying to be a bit tougher with my marking this year (I was having too many top scores, which meant the really fantastic ones didn't stand out!) so it would probably get a 4/5 now. I downloaded another of hers as soon as I'd finished this as it was a 99p Kindle deal, but I haven't even thought about it since! I should try to read it next year. I agree with your spoiler.

Yay! I actually just posted in my blog saying I hoped you'd like it when you got round to it - and here you are having got round to it already and you're enjoying it! I forgot to post what I'm reading! I've just started Mystery in White - A Christmas Crime Story by J. Jefferson Farjeon. So far, so good!

Yay - I hope you enjoy it if you do. I do wonder if listening helped? I got it from the library and the narrator (who also narrated The Radleys) was excellent. I thought it was funny, but I understand why it isn't for everyone. Oh, that's such a shame. I seem to remember someone (Michelle?) didn't like his recent non-fiction book because he didn't come across very well.

Are you the author?

I can't see the quiz you're doing - I have a new one with signposts on it when I follow the link in the first post...? Maybe because I completed that one?

I finished it today - it was a great story. Bobs - I do recommend The Radleys so I hope you can fit it in soon (but I know what it's like - too many books, too little time!).

Thank you. Someone (Bobblybear, Chaliepud...?) tried The Humans recently and didn't get on with it, but I'm really enjoying it. I don't know if the fact I'm listening to it is helping? The narrator is excellent. I really enjoyed listening to The Radleys by the same author (with the same narrator). They are both similar in style. I hope you enjoy it when you get round to it. I have another Matt Haig (a children's book) on reservation from my library. It's a Christmas book so I hope I get it before Christmas eve!

I'm loving it. I've listened to two discs today. Sadly I ran out of ironing so I had to stop!

I forgot to say that I started listening to an audio book of The Humans by Matt Haig on Monday and have just finished disc 5/8 (a long journey on Monday, and back on Tuesday helped!). It's great! I can feel another long journey coming on at the weekend so that I can finish it!

Thanks, Gaia. That's the children's department, but the whole store is lovely. I was a good girl! I'm trying going to not buy any more books (book club excepted) until after Christmas.

I've had a lovely day today. I got the bus into Bristol (an hour each way of reading time - yay! And cheaper than paying to park, not to mention petrol...) and met up with Kay, Alan and Claire! We spent nearly four hours in the café in Waterstone's (and I didn't buy any books!). The café was lovely, with probably the best carrot cake I've ever had, and the company was great! Thanks, guys. Here's to next time. I finished my book, Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute, on the bus on the way home. I'm going to start Flambards by K M Peyton next. I've already read the choice for Essex in the English Counties Challenge (The Turn of the Screw by Henry James), so this is my alternative. I adored the TV show that was on in the 80s but I don't really recall much of it now, so I'm hoping the book is as good.

Having just watched again on iPlayer with Peter who was out earlier (I wasn't really paying attention earlier as I was chatting to Abs) I can only agree with you!

Christmas with the Savages by Mary Clive The ‘blurb’ Prim and proper Evelyn would far rather talk to grown-ups than play with other children, so she’s somewhat dismayed at the prospect of spending Christmas with the Savages – the unruly grandchildren of her mother’s old acquaintance, Lady Tamerlane. Evelyn is soon swept along with the rumbustious Savages and their outrageous games, and even begins to enjoy herself, that is until she’s unjustly accused of ruining Lionel’s play… This book was displayed on a table in Waterstone’s (and I’ve since seen large displays of it in other branches so I guess they’re pushing it…) and I was attracted to the pretty cover. I love Christmas and stories about it so thought I’d give it a go. Evelyn is a precocious only child whose parents treat her like a mini-adult, so instead of spending all her time upstairs with a nanny and only coming down to kiss mother and father before bedtime, she has been allowed to spend time in the drawing room in the company of grown-ups. When her father is taken ill on a trip in Scotland with her mother, her parents are unable to come home for Christmas and so instead it is arranged that Evelyn will go to stay with an old friend of her mother’s – together with assorted grandchildren. Being an only child and unused to the company of other children she is rather alarmed at the thought of spending time with the Savages! She is slightly reassured when her governess confirms that they aren’t cannibals – Savage is their family name - and she is soon on the train with her French nursery maid Marguerite heading towards… Evelyn isn’t sure what! This autobiographical story, which is based on Clive’s Christmases spent at her mother's ancestral home, is a sweet reflection of an Edwardian upper-class childhood. For me, it didn’t quite live up to expectations. That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy it at all, but it didn’t captivate me in the way I hoped and, unlike other Christmas books, I can’t see this becoming a regular December re-read. The paperback edition is 186 pages long and is published by Puffin. It was first published in 1955. The ISBN is 9780141361123. 3½/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 5 November 2015)

Surely it's going to be bye, bye, Jamelia tonight?

The Lake District Murder by John Bude The ‘blurb’ 'Luke flung the light of his torch full onto the face of the immobile figure. Then he had the shock of his life. The man had no face! Where his face should have been was a sort of inhuman, uniform blank!' When a body is found at an isolated garage, Inspector Meredith is drawn into a complex investigation where every clue leads to another puzzle: was this a suicide, or something more sinister? Why was the dead man planning to flee the country? And how is this connected to the shady business dealings of the garage? This classic mystery novel is set amidst the stunning scenery of a small village in the Lake District. It is now republished for the first time since the 1930s. Having enjoyed The Cornish Coast Murder by the same author earlier this year, I snapped this up when I came across it in a charity shop. Returning home from a dinner in Keswick and needing to fill up with petrol, a man stops at a garage and is horrified to discover that one of the owners has seemingly committed suicide. Enter Inspector Meredith of Keswick police who, together with PC Railton and the assistance of officers from nearby Penrith, sets out to solve this unexplained death. As he digs into the dead man’s activities he uncovers a scheme that the man and his business partner were involved in which may well have contributed to the young man’s death… I didn’t find it to be quite as good as The Cornish Coast Murder but I did enjoy it. However, it seems to me to be more ‘told than shown’ than the first book. As this book was published in 1935 it is, understandably, dated and some of the police procedures are laughable when seen through modern eyes. Some of the dialogue also suffers from being old-fashioned – I did laugh at the comment from Inspector Meredith when his superior officer suggests something and Meredith responds thus: …suddenly he slapped his thigh and let out a brisk exclamation. “By Jove, sir! I can see what you’re driving at now…” However, if one takes it for what it is – vintage crime – then it was an enjoyable read and I am sure I shall go on to read some more of Bude’s novels. The paperback edition is 286 pages long and is published by British Library. It was first published in 1935. The ISBN is 9780712357166. 3½/5 (I enjoyed it) (Finished 3 November 2015)

Not with this book (I've never read any Stephen King) but I used to always struggle to the end of a book, but now I'm getting older I think life is just too short to read bad books, so if I'm not engaged by around page 100 then I give up. I have occasionally gone back to a book and enjoyed it, but there are so many other books out there that I no longer stress about unfinished books. I have started Requiem for a Wren by Nevil Shute. I'm only on page 59/286 but so far so good - even if I did guess the 'big reveal' at the end of chapter 2 quite soon after I started the book.

I haven't read the other comments in this thread yet - I shall do so in the morning! 'Swallows and Amazons for ever!' The Walker children - also known as Captain John, Mate Susan, Able-Seaman Titty, and Ship's Boy Roger - set sail on the Swallow and head for Wild Cat Island. There they camp under open skies, swim in clear water and go fishing for their dinner. But their days are disturbed by the Blackett sisters, the fierce Amazon pirates. The Swallows and Amazons decide to battle it out, and so begins a summer of unforgettable discoveries and incredible adventures. I’m normally a bit meticulous about writing my reviews in order, but I’m making an exception for this one because it’s going round and round in my head, which is why I have found myself getting up at 4.30am to get some thoughts down so that I can hopefully go back to sleep! In view of the early hour I hope you will forgive any omissions (or rubbish!) that I've written. Swallows and Amazons, first published in 1930, is a tale of thrilling adventures on the High Seas Lake in Cumbria that is, in reality, a cross between Lake Windermere and Coniston Water. In it we follow John, Susan, Titty (short for Letitia, I presume, and a rather unfortunate moniker these days! ) and Roger – the Swallows of the title, named after their boat. They are on holiday and, after father (who is away at sea) gives his written permission for them to go camping (“Bettter drowned than duffers if not duffers won't drown") on an island in the middle of the lake, they set off with make-shift tents and beds made from sacks stuffed with straw and plenty of tinned provisions and set up camp on Wild Cat Island. Soon they are at war with the Amazons (two girls, Ruth, known as Nancy, and her sister Peggy) but eventually they realise that if they are to defeat the enemy, retired pirate Captain Flint who lives on a houseboat moored nearby, they will have to band together and pool their sailing knowledge… This book put me in mind of my own childhood where, although I didn’t stay out overnight, I did go off with my friend Sarah for the entire day. We would take a picnic and drink, 10p for an ice-cream and 2p for an emergency phone call and head off to Higham Marshes (or even further afield) on our bikes. We had such freedom and obviously there were no such things as mobile phones so our Mums hadn’t a clue where we were all day long! My own children were never ones to spend all day sitting in front of the TV – they’d much rather be out and about and had quite a bit of freedom too. They started venturing further afield when they were in the latter years of primary school and it wasn’t unheard of for me to ring one of them at 3pm to make sure they were okay and to ask where they were only to be told “I’m fine, Mum – I’m up a tree on the batch”! Of course, I wouldn’t have dreamed of allowing them to camp out (apart from in our back garden!), let alone sail off to an island for days at a time, and this is where the story fell down for me a little. It seems incredible to me that Roger, who was, I believe, only seven years old, would be allowed to go off with his older siblings in a boat without a life jacket when he couldn’t even swim! And I wondered at the wisdom of mother, who gave him a knife on the condition that he learnt to swim (he managed three strokes on his back, and this, apparently was enough!). I also question the reality of four siblings spending this length of time together (well, any length really!) without as much as a single row. It just didn’t seem very realistic to me. As I read, I made comparisons to Enid Blyton’s Famous Five – they often quarrelled and I’m pretty certain I recall George slapping a fair few people! The Walker children didn’t even have a cross word with each other! I realise that, at this stage, my review probably makes it sound like I didn’t enjoy the story at all. That isn’t the case though, it just took a bit of suspension of disbelief, and I did get past the issues I had and very much enjoyed the adventure. I know that had I read this as a child I would have loved it and would probably have read the other books featuring these children. What with this and The Lake District Murder by John Bude which I read a few weeks ago, I’ve definitely had a good visit to Cumbria! It’s an area that I love as I have family there and so have been visiting it regularly since I was a baby – another reason I wish I’d read this when I was a child. I’m not sure what today’s children make of it but I’m glad I read it. I’m sure I have marked a couple of things in my book that I haven't referred to here so I may come back to this in the light of day and add some more, but for now I’m going back to bed – hopefully to catch up with some sleep! 3½/5 Edit - the other thing I was going to mention was the completely unbelievable policeman, Sammy! I guess he was meant to be a comedic element but it is just so unrealistic! I suppose this is because I'm reading it through adult eyes!

I missed your review of last week's instalment. I shall go and see what you thought of it. I finished Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome today which is a Counties Challenge book for Cumbria. I'm not sure what to read next. I'd trying to read as many as possible of the physical books that I have bought in 2015, so maybe one of those?

If you like Kate Mosse (I've not tried her myself) then there are a million lots of her books in today's UK Daily Deal.

I started Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome on Tuesday night and am on page 186 of 501, which is really good going for me!

I finished A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens and Crime at Christmas by C H B Kitchin this morning. I'm not sure what I'm going to pick up next...