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Sorry to hear that Vanessa, I hope he gets some positive news soon. I've put 1066-The Aftermath to one side as I have to be in the mood for the Battle of Hastings. I've started Berlin Noir - the Bernie Gunther trilogy by Philip Kerr as it was actually in the library and I wanted to grab it before anyone else.

Hi Booknutt Yes, Kier turned out to be a grossly misunderstood person and wow, that was some "coma" he was in at the end. I too was worried about the dogs .... I thought they had eaten the sandwiches ! I wonder if Abi remains a priest/vicar or becomes a new age hippy and walks off into the sunset with Justin I don't think I've read Warriors Daughter (can't remember as I've been reading her books for years now. But I loved Hiding from the Light. Have you read Whispers in the Sand set in Egypt, that's lovely.

I've finally finished Time's Legacy which I thought was really great. It has to be one of her best books (I thought she was getting a bit predictable but this has turned that on the head) - certainly since Hiding from the Light anyway. Well worth the read.

Haha, Agatha Raisin is hilarious. I started her books earlier this year and after reading one, I then download the next onto kindle and so on. Well worth the read. My favourite of all books are Brother Cadfael. If you want to go down the medieval route, there is a great series of books by Paul Doherty called the Sorrowful Mysteries of Brother Athelstan which take place in Southwark in South London. His descriptions of London are fantastic (Southwark being more like a village than a suburb in those days). There is also a series of books centred in Exeter by Bernard Knight called Crowner John which are worth exploring. Great set of books these. I read them a while back when I was visiting the Lake District. I believe there are 4 in all. There is a good series of books set between the two wars about Maisie Dobbs who is a private investigator. Although she is based in London, her work often takes her out to the Kent countryside (based not too far from my home actually). Very enjoyable series too. The write, Jacqueline Winspear is a Kent girl who now lives in US. The Inspector Morse series are great too, Katrina, set in the town of Oxford, by Colin Dexter.

That's on my TBR pile so will look forward to hearing what you think of it Roland. I've just finished a great book called Russian Winter - a novel about a prima ballerina in the Bolshoi during the Stalin years. I'm now starting on 1066 - The Aftermath which is looking to be quite exciting.

She is also a master of short stories - that might be a good start to Du Maurier. The Birds and Don't Look Now are full of suspense. I found a great short novel of hers recently in OXFAM called The Scapegoat and that was great too.

Yes, good luck everyone - although if you were an Arsenal supporter you would wish the start of the season to be some weeks off yet.

Thanks Raven. I may well have look at the George Smiley books. I downloaded a sample of The Russia House and can't say it moved me to want to buy it - yet. But I might look for it in the library one of these days.

I've put Time's Legacy on hold as I was getting behind in my Amazon reviews. I shall revisit it once I have finished Russian Winter from the library. I was so pleased to get hold of this book as the price hasn't gone down yet on Amazon.

I remember writing in a post about online reservation fees (can't find the posts right now) and how much different this fee is around the country. My online reservation fee is only 25p - that's quite a big difference. I don't know how these fees are costed out.

You might like Kate Mosse's Labyrinth and Sepulchre. They would make for good holiday reading.

Shall I consign this to the middle of the TBR pile? I don't know why I bought it. I loved Birdsong and The Girl from the Lion d'Or and was a bit disappointed with Charlotte Grey but I don't really want to pick A Week in December up just yet.

Indeed it was Weave, and heartbreaking reading how the little lad made his way over to England and what happened shortly after that! It's not often I get emotional reading a book but that did it for me.

I agree with you Weave, an excellent read. I was fortunate as well to get a free copy due to the Amazon Vine programme.

I'll be interested to know what you think of this book Lucybird. I bought it a while back but haven't yet found the right mood to read it. I haven't done any reading since yesterday morning - I went up in a hot air balloon last night and I'm still up in the clouds!

I tend to go for British rather than American authors simply because of the genre I read the most. Having said that Steinbeck's Grapes of Wrath was such a classic as is Mark Twain and Scott Fitzgerald. But I had the misfortune to pick up a Chris Kuznetski book once where he couldn't be bothered to research English universities and came up with the University of Dover - and made England sound like ye olde jolly Dicken's style country. That annoys me sometimes and I've found a few American authors tend to patronise us! Edit to add I started a book earlier this year which was a pastiche of Sherlock Holmes v Jack the Ripper by an American author. I was doing OK with it until he started to quote the Baker Street Irregulars in the most dreadful cockney ish accents to quote: "Some sez 'e's a Jew w'iv a wild beard down 'is chest an some sez 'e's a butcher fwom da slaughter'ouses w'iv a l'edder h'apron, an' some sez 'ees a toff fwom da West H'end out to kill all da 'ores..." and I'm afraid the book lost all credibility after that.

Thanks Lynb. I like Barbara Erkine's work but was finding some her stuff getting a bit predictable. I believe though that Time's Legacy is a bit different to her usual work. I look forward to getting into it.

I finished All Quiet on the Western Front over the weekend. What an absolutely brilliant book. I've now started Time's Legacy by Barbara Erskine.

Yeah well this was going to be my New Year's Resolution ...... and then that thing called Kindle came along and I have been buying at the rate of knots (as well as the odd Paperback) and then of course there is the Oxfam bookshop in the town and I can't walk past there without looking in. But hey, you know what, I don't care. I am a book addict and I can't or won't do anything to stop it. As Dorcas in Larkrise to Candleford says "it is my one weakness"

Me too, absolutely not Easy Reader.

I haven't got very far yet with All Quiet on the Western Front but it's quite a short book so hopefully will finish it in the next day or so.

I downloaded Time's Legacy recently onto my Kindle so think it will be my next read. I like the sound of it and I'm in the mood for something different from my usual read.

I too was delighted to see the first part repeated last night. It's amazing how much you can forget over a period of a year. Parts 2 and 3 are on the next two weeks - does that bode well for the new series to be shown shortly after that?

OK ..... would have to be: The Crimson Petal and the White - Faber Dr Zhivago - Pasternak Slaves of Solitude - Hamilton additionally, I hope I would be able to take the Kindle which has upwards of 50 books on it