A smashing week's Wild Walk in the Taurus Mountains with the marvellous Mike Belton, fount of all knowledge as far as Turkey goes. Highly recommended. As well as lots of undulations, Hellenistic/Roman ruins and good looking goats, our week featured... Read more
A rather unexpected combination of a mass murder in a remote Swedish hamlet (OK, that's not an unusual Mankell plotline!) with an account of a 19th century Chinese peasant's kidnap and indenture into the building of the railroads of the... Read more
A mystery set in Georgian Suffolk combining a code breaking heroine with dashing military men/spies. Tell me dear reader, what would you expect to happen next? An OK read whilst on a Wild Walk in the Taurus Mountains - I... Read more
An excellent Frinton charity shop purchase - I think I've found my next series of new crime novels in other countries and cultures, in the form of Barbara Nadel's Istanbuli Inspectors Ikmen and Suleyman. Amazon.co.uk link: Arabesk - Barbara Nadel... Read more
A loan from Janette, Innocent Traitor tells the tale of Lady Jane Grey, who ruled England for 9 days in 1553 between Henry VIII's sickly son King Edward VI and catholic Queen Mary. It made me realise with some surprise... Read more
Recommended and rated, I got as far as the Romans before deciding I had got enough background for my forthcoming trip to Turkey. Amazon.co.uk link: Traveller's History of Turkey - Richard Stoneman... Read more
A great start to Professor Harkness's All Souls Trilogy. Witches, vampires, daemons and humans coexist in the modern world. Although the first three are fully aware of each other's existence, we humans find lots of explanations as to why these... Read more
Tales of modern Irish life. Amazon.co.uk link: Taking Pictures - Anne Enright... Read more
Finally.... I've started to upload my photos from this trip to my Three High Passes to Everest - October/November 2011 set on Flickr. Hazel's photos were on Flickr within a couple of weeks... How: Hazel and I have booked onto... Read more
A lovely set of short stories from Rose Tremain. I particularly liked the opening and title tale of an Italian clockmaker who leaves Piedmont in disgust when the King declares the years 1789-1815 to never have existed, thereby wiping out... Read more