7) From the Dust Returned by Ray Bradbury. Whimsical ghost story, a little light for my taste. Marketed as his new novel” but it turns out several bits date from the 1940s. infinity plus already has a review of it, by someone who knows Bradbury much better than I do, so I aske Keith if I really needed to bother and he said no.

8) The Best of Lester Del Rey. Well, this was worth the €5 I paid for it, and maybe a bit more. A lot of the stories were variations on the themes of robots replace humanity and then have to recreate their makers in the far future, but the one or two that tried to grapple with religious themes – “For I Am a Jealous People” and “The Seat of Judgment” – struck me as well ahead of the curve (for the 1950s anyway).

9) Death: The High Cost of Living by Neil Gaiman. Fun stuff, spin-off from the Sandman series, bought when I dashed down to Waterstone’s during the lunchbreak of today’s conference, read while relaxing on the sofa afterwards.