Five books piled on a table: The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble, Medusa’s Ankles by AS Byatt, The Call of Cthulhu by HP Lovecraft, Super-Cannes by JG Ballard and The Public Image by Muriel Spark.

Books read in March. The standouts were probably The Dark Flood Rises by Margaret Drabble (never read her before but this was terrific) and the AS Byatt short stories in Medusa’s Ankles (only read half of them so far but I’ll definitely read the rest in April - they’re superb).
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Four paperbacks bought in charity shops - The Making of Doctor Who, The Razor’s Edge, The Bachelors and Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

The charity-shop gods were smiling today …
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Black & white cat sleeping in an armchair.

Happy #Caturday. Beanie, taking an afternoon nap earlier today.

Priest is so underrated. I’ve read a few of his novels and many of the short stories and they’ve all been terrific. Funnily enough A Dream of Wessex is next up for me! I bought a copy the other day. Can definitely recommend The Affirmation and Airside if you haven’t got around to those as yet.

Four books read in February, The House in the Borderland, Offshore, The Dream Archipelago and What we can Know.

Books read in February. The House on the Borderland is an old friend - I must have first read it in a battered secondhand copy when I was about fifteen. The Priest volume contains short stories - all good with ‘The Miraculous Cairn’ and ‘The Watched’ being brilliant.
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Five authors by whom I’ve read at least five books

Agatha Christie
Graham Greene
Iris Murdoch
Rachel Cusk
Thomas Hardy

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The House on the Borderland, by William Hope Hodgson. Recent Penguin Weird Fiction edition.

The House on the Borderland by William Hope Hodgson. I first read it in my teens (long distant times) and rereading it now it still holds up pretty well. Nothing like a bit of cosmic horror to see one through these grey February days.

Books read in January. Quite a productive reading month for me, and reading The Girls of Slender Means after reading Frances Wilson’s biography of Muriel Spark certainly added to my appreciation of the novel.

Possibly my favourite story of all. It looks terrific and it has so many great lines. ‘You know, you’re a classic example of the inverse ratio between the size of the mouth and the size of the brain’. Also, for brevity, ‘Schumfff!’. Happy days …

Haha! That was my intention too but I caved in just before Christmas and bought the hardback.

Ha, yes, that’s a bit strange to put it mildly. Sort of guiltily glad to see The Mind of Evil on the list though. One of those episodes that I do rather love. See also 73 Yards. I’m not going to defend some of the others though …

That’s a terrific opening paragraph, great analogy and absolutely spot on!

Electric Spark: The Enigma of Muriel Spark, by Frances Wilson.

First read of 2026. Such a terrific book, covering Muriel Spark’s path to becoming one of the 20th-Century’s most interesting novelists. Spark is a famously enigmatic figure, but Wilson comes up with some terrific insights into her life.
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Ludicrously late as ever but here are my favourite reads from 2025. Some old friends in there - Iris Murdoch, Agatha Christie, Rachel Cusk - but plenty of authors who were new to me as well. Special mention to the Alan Garner book which is just so thought-provoking.
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Doctor Who, The Seeds of Doom, on the TV with a black and white cat helpfully sitting on the coffee table.

TV night, one of Tom Baker’s finest. Beanie, never a cat to blend into the background, has decided to keep me under close supervision just to make sure I don’t get too frightened.

Two carved figures on the side of a font. Julian’s Church, Norwich.

Figures on the side of the font at St Julian’s Church, Norwich. So evocative, somehow, of distant times.

Beanie, relaxing on this chilly New Year’s Day. An extremely well-read cat …

Five books: Maigret’s Holiday, The Bell, Monsignor Quixote, Cat’s Cradle and According to Mark.

Went into town yesterday and bought a few secondhand books in the charity shops. Particularly happy with The Bell. I’ve got a first edition but those old Penguin copies of Murdoch’s novels with the orange spines are lovely. Good design, good quality paper. Couldn’t resist …

Bushes with orange and red berries amidst the green foliage.

A river, with a single swan. Bare trees in the background, fallen leaves in the foreground.

A bit of December colour on this morning’s walk.

Black and white cat, relaxing on a bed with all four paws in the air.

Beanie, feeling quite relaxed on this grey and damp #Caturday

Yes! Well spotted. It’s a little framed print that I’ve had for years.

Selection of five books including Powsels and Thrums by Alan Garner.

Books read in October, all of which I really enjoyed. As a side note the Alan Garner book contains a chapter called ‘The Valley of the Demon’ which is hands down one of the most unsettling (in a good way) things I have ever read.
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It’s the Season 13 story I’ve seen the fewest times, which is telling. Salamar (Prentis Hancock) is a painful to watch one-note ball of lunacy but otherwise it has its moments. Baker and Sladen are great (but then they always are) and it looks pretty good. You can’t beat a 1970s BBC studio jungle.

Oh, gosh, that brings back memories … I graduated 35 years ago and at the time the ‘d’ in ‘good’ was disappearing making the sentence a rather curious ‘Ah Goo the Sea’. I’m impressed it’s still there. It’s reassuring somehow…

Best season of Doctor Who ever? It has to be right up there. I watched the documentary on Ian Marter last night and was really quite moved by it. Beautifully put together and with plenty of insight but it’s incredibly poignant.
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Probably my favourite Hammer film, and certainly the one I’ve seen the greatest number of times. Barbara Shelley rather steals the show (understandably, as she’s terrific in this) but I’ve always had a soft spot for Suzan Farmer. The cute, likeable blonde amidst all the swirling Gothic chaos …

Books read in September. All terrific, and there isn’t one title here that I wouldn’t highly recommend, but Rhine Journey might be the standout. Beautifully written, very subtle and very perceptive. Great to see it back in print.
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Probably my favourite Hammer film and I must have watched it a dozen times over the years. It’s so stylish, and Lee is superb, but for me it’s Barbara Shelley and Suzan Farmer who really steal the show. They’re both pitch perfect and they work so incredibly well together.

Eric Ravilious jigsaw puzzle completed. Great fun to do with the woodwork being easy to complete, the upholstery being difficult and the landscape being somewhere in the middle. Such a beautiful, evocative painting.

Books read in August. It was a quiet reading month but these were all great. Bonus points for the two Maigret novels on the grounds that the cover designs are so beautiful.
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