I’m taking this to mean the best books which I have read for the first time since the start of 2010. This is where my LibraryThing cataloguing is useful – I see that I have awarded five stars to the following:

Non-fiction
The Language of the Night, by Ursula Le Guin
Dreams From My Father, by Barack Obama
The Bloody Sunday report

Non-genre fiction
Njal’s Saga
The Sun Also Rises, by Ernest Hemingway
The Dubliners, by James Joyce
A Town Like Alice, by Nevil Shute
A Farewell To Arms, by Ernest Hemingway

sf and fantasy
The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett
The Turing Test, by Chris Beckett
Lavinia, by Ursula Le Guin

Another reading of the question would be my favourite book published this year. The only book on the above list in that category is the Bloody Sunday report, but other books of 2010 which I have enjoyed include:

Non-fiction
Triumph of a Time Lord by Matt Hills, a very approachable academic treatment of Doctor Who;
A Fortunate Life: The Autobiography of Paddy Ashdown

sf and fantasy (non-Who)
The Restoration Game by Ken MacLeod, which I read in proof last year and thought was fantastic;
The Hundred-Thousand Kingdoms by N.K. Jemisin

Doctor Who
Dead Air by James Goss, the final Tenth Doctor audio

Day 01 – Your favourite series of books (with more than 3 in the series)
Day 02 – A book that you wish more people had read
Day 03 – Your favorite recent book
Day 04 – Your favorite book ever
Day 05 – A book you hate
Day 06 – Your favourite writer
Day 07 – A writer you don’t like
Day 08 – Your favourite work in translation
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 – A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – An book you’ve read more than twice
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book
Day 14 – Favorite male character
Day 15 – Favorite female character
Day 16 – Your guilty pleasure book
Day 17 – Favorite trilogy or tetralogy
Day 18 – Favorite book cover
Day 19 – Best ensemble of characters in a book
Day 20 – Favorite kiss or love scene
Day 21 – Favorite fictional romantic relationship
Day 22 – Favorite ending/climax
Day 23 – Most annoying character
Day 24 – Best quote
Day 25 – A book you plan on reading
Day 26 – OMG WTF? plot
Day 27 – Favourite non-mainstream writer
Day 28 – First book obsession
Day 29 – Current book obsession
Day 30 – Saddest character death

This was an early entry on my list of sf and fantasy set in Ireland, since when I’ve got to know its author from various sf conventions; with slight embarrassment I admit that this is the first of Diane’s novels that I have actually read. It’s the fourth in sequence of her successful ‘Young Wizards’ series, and takes her protagonist Nita Callahan to Ireland from her home in the USA to do battle with the evil Lone Power by reuniting the four ancient treasures of Ireland; there’s also some relationship tension between her usual partner Kit and local boy Ronan. The author had lived long enough in Ireland by the time she wrote it to avoid the kind of Oirishry that infects most of the books on my checklist, and local readers will accept her apology for messing with the geography of County Wicklow and feel pleased that she caught the mood of the early 90s rather well. I guess the whole series now can be seen as an ancestor of both Buffy and Harry Potter, an earlyish example of the urban fantasy sub-genre. I may even look out for some of the others in the series, now that young F is approaching the target age.

I liked this book much more than I had expected to. The story moves back and forth between the 1940s and the 1980s, telling the life of its central character, Penelope Keeling, and her relationships with her artist father, her husband and her wartime lover, and her adult children; she’s a sympathetic character who deals sensibly with life’s challenges and makes her dispositions accordingly. Two of the three children are almost, bit not quite, too awful to believe; and by the end of the story everyone gets their just reward. I guess I picked this up thanks to its appearance the BBC Big Read list – I would never have looked for it otherwise – and although I doubt I will delve much further into the ‘Aga saga’ sub-genre I rather enjoyed this excursion.

date specified in canon

19th September 1835: The Sixth Doctor and Evelyn encounter Charles Darwin and the Silurians on the Galapagos Islands (in Bloodtide, a 2001 Big Finish audio – one of their best, IMHO).

Popery

This turns out to be the answer to one of the later questions as well, but I do wish more people had read Ali and Nino by ‘Kurban Said’, the great romantic novel of the South Caucasus. Set in the time period straddling the First World War, it’s the story of the love between Azeri boy Ali Khan and Georgian girl Nino Kipiani, culminating in the collapse of the British protectorate of Azerbaijan (which I’m sure you have all heard of) in 1919-20. Of course, it’s steeped in the cultural background of its author, an extraordinary character who was an Azeri-born Jew who converted to Islam and wrote Ali and Nino five years before his bizarre death in Italy in 1942. It’s really short and actually quite cheap from The Book Depository (and elsewhere) – go out and buy it!!!!!

>Day 01 – Your favourite series of books (with more than 3 in the series)
Day 02 – A book that you wish more people had read
Day 03 – Your favorite recent book
Day 04 – Your favorite book ever
Day 05 – A book you hate
Day 06 – Your favourite writer
Day 07 – A writer you don’t like
Day 08 – Your favourite work in translation
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 – A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – An book you’ve read more than twice
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book
Day 14 – Favorite male character
Day 15 – Favorite female character
Day 16 – Your guilty pleasure book
Day 17 – Favorite trilogy or tetralogy
Day 18 – Favorite book cover
Day 19 – Best ensemble of characters in a book
Day 20 – Favorite kiss or love scene
Day 21 – Favorite fictional romantic relationship
Day 22 – Favorite ending/climax
Day 23 – Most annoying character
Day 24 – Best quote
Day 25 – A book you plan on reading
Day 26 – OMG WTF? plot
Day 27 – Favourite non-mainstream writer
Day 28 – First book obsession
Day 29 – Current book obsession
Day 30 – Saddest character death

i) births and deaths

18th September 1963: birth of Gary Russell, former editor of Doctor Who Magazine, former producer at Big Finish, author of twelve Doctor Who novels (counting the book-of-the-movie) and of various other related books, script editor for The Waters of Mars and The End of Time, and director of the two Tenth Doctor animated stories.

ii) broadcast anniversaries

18th September 1965: broadcast of “Trap of Steel”, the third episode of the series we now call Galaxy 4. The Drahvins hold Steven hostage while the Doctor and Vicki are sent to explore the Rills’ ship; and Vicki is horrified when she actually sees one.

18th September 1976: broadcast of third episode of The Masque of Mandragora. Sarah is hypnotised and attempts to stab the Doctor; the Mandragora Helix gathers power.

I feel that I would like to have a bit more content in here, and these 30-day memes which are going around are rather attractive. The “book-lovers” meme starts by asking for your favourite series of books with more than three volumes. I’m going to give several answers, as I imagine will be the case for later installments too.

The Vorkosigan saga by Lois McMaster Bujold: Starts off as a slightly quirky set of space opera tales, the hero being both the Emperor’s cousin and a liberal dwarf; but culminates in a set of brilliant character studies – Mirror Dance, Memory, Komarr, and A Civil Campaign – which I would recommend to anyone. (I was disappointed by the more recent Diplomatic Immunity, but hope that the new volume just out will be a return to form.)

Other sf series: the various Doctor Who runs, obviously; apart from that I am a bit pushed to think of any set of four or more sf books in the same series, all of which I have both read and enjoyed.

A Song of Ice and Fire by George R.R. Martin: Tolkien excepted, I find it difficult to care much about epic fantasy. But Martin’s series set in a world halfway between Middle Earth and the Wars of the Roses, told partly through the eyes of a family of noble children, growing up in the middle of a civil war which tears them apart, is an exception, though I wish there was a bit more action in the more recent books (and that the next one will come out soon). Really looking forward to the TV series of this one.

Other favourite fantasy series: Pratchett’s Discworld, Zelazny’s Amber (first half); Le Guin’s Earthsea; Gaiman’s Sandman; Bill Willingham’s Fables; Juliet McKenna. Odd how fantasy seems to lend itself more to series than sf; showing its roots in the sagas?

The Rebus series by Ian Rankin: A relatively recent discovery for me, in a genre that I had not otherwise read much since I was a teenager. Rankin’s Scotland is as much a fantasy country for me as Barrayar or Westeros, and he subverts the police procedural by turning his magnifying glass on the structure of society and the nature of justice; Rebus’ own flawed character is a mirror for his society in a way.

Other mystery series I used to read: Lindsey Davies’ Falco stories set in ancient Rome, which are frankly a bit variable; Patricia Cornell’s Scarpetta novels, about a forensic pathologist in Virginia, which I felt got repetitive and implausible as the series went on; and Janet Evanovich’s series about New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, which stopped being funny after a while. As a teenager I also devoured Agatha Christie, Ngaio Marsh and Dorothy L. Sayers, of which I suspect only the last-named would survive a return visit today.

I am sure there are horrendous omissions from the above, but those are what came to mind.

Day 01 – Your favourite series of books (with more than 3 in the series)
Day 02 – A book that you wish more people had read
Day 03 – Your favorite recent book
Day 04 – Your favorite book ever
Day 05 – A book you hate
Day 06 – Your favourite writer
Day 07 – A writer you don’t like
Day 08 – Your favourite work in translation
Day 09 – Best scene ever
Day 10 – A book you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving
Day 11 – A book that disappointed you
Day 12 – An book you’ve read more than twice
Day 13 – Favorite childhood book
Day 14 – Favorite male character
Day 15 – Favorite female character
Day 16 – Your guilty pleasure book
Day 17 – Favorite trilogy or tetralogy
Day 18 – Favorite book cover
Day 19 – Best ensemble of characters in a book
Day 20 – Favorite kiss or love scene
Day 21 – Favorite fictional romantic relationship
Day 22 – Favorite ending/climax
Day 23 – Most annoying character
Day 24 – Best quote
Day 25 – A book you plan on reading
Day 26 – OMG WTF? plot
Day 27 – Favourite non-mainstream writer
Day 28 – First book obsession
Day 29 – Current book obsession
Day 30 – Saddest character death

On Friday last week we had a major moment of family drama – B, our eldest, who is severely disabled and lives in permanent residential care 30 km away from us, went down with serious food poisoning and had to go into hospital. Because she can’t talk and can be rather difficult if people mess with her (eg, giving her medicine, or more specifically putting a drip in her arm), Anne had to go and stay with her full-time in hospital; I had to rush back early from my business trip to Moldova and look after the other two until B was discharged on Tuesday – not yet fully recovered, but well enough to return to her home.

I found sudden single parenthood tremendously exhausting (I had picked up a nasty bug on my travels which didn’t help the energy levels) and now appreciate my good fortune in the normal management of our household even more than I already did. My wife is pretty amazing, and I am a very lucky man.

And I boggle with admiration for anyone who is a single parent and also has a full-time job.

Thanks to the wonderful , who recorded it on the night and sent it over to me, I’ve been watching my TV appearance on BBC Northern Ireland for the general election coverage back in May. One thing that jumped out at me now, which I was too busy to pick up on the night, was the different reactions of the DUP and UUP to the fate of their leaders. Arlene Foster in the studio and Ian Paisley jr at his count were clearly disappointed but not shocked at Peter Robinson’s defeat; thinking about it, and reflecting on my conversations at the time with DUP activists, there had clearly been a central party decision to prepare lines to take once it was realised that East Belfast had probably been lost, and all DUP speakers were well briefed. By contrast, David McNarry of the UUP, asked to react to Reg Empey’s failure in South Antrim, hemmed and hawed for ages (despite Noel Thompson’s prodding) before declaring that Empey’s leadership was finished. The party’s campaign ended as it had started and continued, in confusion and without any real preparation. The new leader elected on Wednesday will have a very tough job ahead of him.

While I’m on the UUP election, Alan in Belfast has done a fascinating pair of video interviews with the two candidates. He rightly identifies the key differentiating question as one that is not overtly about politics at all.

Mac or PC?

[Elliott] Oh, PC.

Tom is traditional, conservative, low key and low risk. There used to be a phrase in industry that said “no one ever got sacked for buying IBM”. And Tom fits that space. I doubt whether as leader he would change much of the party structures or its appeal, and if I was a UUP member I’d worry that his profile outside the party would be lower than Margaret Ritchie and David Ford. He comes across as steady rather than inspirational. A good man to have on your team, but does he have the right strengths to be coach and leader?

[McCrea] “Undecided. Dithering with a Mac, but probably PC.”

Basil comfortably lives life on the edge. He can make decisions, but he’ll postpone making the commitment as long as possible. While he projects the image that if he wins he’ll turn the party upside down, the reality might be more nuanced. He’s media savvy and comfortable talking. At Proms in the Park – on his Hillsborough constituency doorstep – he managed to appear on the big screen at the side of the stage twice by standing in the right place striking the right pose when the producer needed a fun crowd shot. While a (very) small number of MLAs and councillors might walk away from the party if Basil is elected leader, he’d be well shot of them, even if it means his chance of winning back lots of Assembly seats for the UUP is even more remote. He sounds like a leader, and projects a mood of hope: growing the vote, beating the DUP. But he’ll need all the hope he can muster along with asbestos underwear if the UUP members vote him in as leader in the Waterfront next Wednesday.

For a contest in which I have very little stake – I’ve never voted UUP, have not lived in Northern Ireland for over thirteen years, and can’t really imagine the party changing to the point where I might vote for them in the unlikely event of my moving back – I’ve been grimly fascinated by this leadership election. I think it’s partly that the party’s campaign earlier this year was so monumentally badly run from a political-technical point of view, and I want to know what happens next; and partly also that the Unionist bloggers, and Alan and the rest of the Slugger O’Toole team, have made it a commendably open process (even if this doesn’t always go with the UUP’s own instincts). Anyway, come Wednesday evening it will all be over.

i) births and deaths

17th September 1972: death of Peter Stephens, who played Cyril, the Kitchen Boy, and the Knave of Hearts in The Celestial Toymaker (1966), and Lolem the high priest in The Underwater Menace (1967).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

17th September 1966: broadcast of third episode of The Smugglers. Ben and Polly use witchcraft to escape the villagers, but are recaptured; the Doctor fails to escape the pirates.

17th September 1977: broadcast of third episode of Horror of Fang Rock. People start dying; Reuben starts glowing; and the Doctor admits to Leela that he has locked the enemy in rather than out.

17th September 1993: broadcast of fourth episode of The Paradise of Death on BBC radio. Some very weird stuff with tame giant bats.

i) births and deaths

None that grabbed me.

ii) broadcast anniversaries

16th September 1967: broadcast of episode 3 of Tomb of the Cybermen. The Cybermen reveal their plan to convert all the explorers into Cybermen; the expedition have different views on this prospect.

16th September 1978: broadcast of episode 3 of The Ribos Operation. K9 rescues the Doctor and Romana from the Graff, but they encounter him again in the catacombs (with Binro the Heretic).

iii) date specified in canon

16th September 1909: Martha and the Tenth Doctor get caught up in Lord Haleston’s hunt for monsters near the Lake District village of Templewell (in Stephen Cole’s 2007 novel, Sting of the Zygons).

It’s very rare for Doctor Who to visit Ireland – the only other story set there of which I am aware is Simon Guerrier’s Seventh Doctor audio, The Settling, which took a measured look at Cromwell’s campaign. So I was looking forward to The Book of Kells as another Whovian take on my home territory, not worrying too much about whether it was any good.

The setting is Kells, Co Meath, in the year 1006; the plot is basically people running around after the famous Book, trying alternately to steal it and to prevent its theft, which gets a little pointless by the end – though in fact the real point of the play is two big reveals, one at the end of each episode, the first of which I should really have seen coming, and the second of which I might have spotted if I’d looked more carefully at the CD cover.

The Irish setting is not developed in huge detail, and I doubt if it would pass muster with anyone who knows more than I do about the period. King Sitric of Dublin apparently has jurisdiction over the Kells monastery, which I suspect is not really accurate. Terence Hardiman and Graeme Garden are rather delightful as King Sitric and the abbot. The new companion, alas, really doesn’t gel for me as yet. Though the ending of the story hints that she may be supplanted before long. Let’s hope.

I really don’t see why not. Announcement here, pledges here.

i) births and deaths

None that grabbed me.

ii) broadcast anniversary

15th September 1979: broadcast of episode 3 of Destiny of the Daleks. Davros and the Doctor bicker, and the Movellans are revealed to be robots.

iii) date specified in canon

15th September 1954: birth of Pete Tyler, Rose’s father.

i) births and deaths

14th September 2006: death of Peter Ling, who wrote The Mind Robber (though not the first episode; see below).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

14th September 1968: broadcast of first episode of The Mind Robber, one of the best single episodes of all time, written at short notice by script editor Derrick Sherwin when it became apparent that Peter Ling’s script would not fill the time made available by cutting The Dominators. The Dorctor escapes the lava flow by taking the Tardis outside space and time, to a mysterious white void, where it explodes, leaving Zoe memorably clinging to the console.

14th September 1987: broadcast of episode 2 of Time and the Rani. The Doctor escapes the Tetraps, but is caught again, and the Rani prepares to drain his brain.

i) births and deaths

13th September 1915: birth of Alan Bromly, director of The Time Warrior (1973-74) and Nightmare of Eden (1979).

ii) broadcast anniversaries

13th September 1975: broadcast of episode three of Terror of the Zygons. Harry saves the Doctor; Sarah rescues Harry; the Zygon ship takes off for London.

13th September 1980: broadcast of third episode of The Leisure Hive. The aged Doctor and Romana start to uncover the secrets of Argolis; one of the Argolins is uncovered as a disguised Foamasi.

13th September 1986: broadcast of second episode of The Mysterious Planet (ToaTL #2). The Doctor and Peri, with new friends Glitz abnd Dibber, are trapped between the tribesfolk and the nassty robot…

13th September 1989: broadcast of second episode of Battlefield. Modern troops do battle with ancient magic; the Doctor and Ace discover Arthur’s tomb, and trigger a water trap (which proved very dangerous in the studio).

i) births and deaths

12th September 2005: death of Ronald Leigh-Hunt, who played Commander Julian Radnor in The Seeds of Death (1969) and Commander Stevenson in Revenge of the Cybermen (1975).

ii) broadcast anniversary

12th September 1964: broadcast of “Prisoners of the Conciergerie”, sixth and final episode of the story we now call The Reign of Terror, ending the original first season of Doctor Who. Ian and Barbara encounter Napoleon; Robespierre is overthrown; the Tardis crew escape, musing on destiny and history.

I may not be English, but it always sends a chill down my back and sometimes even brings a tear to the eye: here it is, as the author wrote it with his own original colourful background.

Four questions, to each of which the answer is probably ‘no’; and two aspirational verses, which though particular in this case, could reasonably be taken as universal:

“When you read this you’re tagged. Take a picture of you in your current state, no changing your clothes or quickly putting on makeup. NO PHOTOSHOP. Show your F-List the real you!”

With U who was intently watching the people on the computer screen who were imitating her and her father.

So when did we find out who Hex’s mother was? Or have I just imagined that we know?

A book set during the year while the Master ruled the Earth, as seen at the end of New Who Season 3, with a rather good linking narrative by Dan Abnett, during the course of which Martha recounts four of her past adventures with the Doctor to people she meets. The embedded stories are less good than the framing narrative, with the exception of Robert Shearman’s excellent “The Frozen Wastes”.

i) births and deaths

11th September 1981: birth of Lachlan Niebohr, who played Jack’s brother Gray in the second season of Torchwood (2008). (So what happened to him after the Hub was blown up?)

ii) broadcast anniversaries

11th September 1965: broadcast of “Four Hundred Dawns”, first episode of the story we now call Galaxy 4, starting Season 3 of Old Who. The Doctor, Steven and Vicki land on a remote planet where the Drahvins and Rills (the latter assisted by the robot Chumblies) are at odds. But the Doctor discovers that the planet will explode the day after next.

11th September 1976: broadcast of episode 2 of The Masque of Mandragora. The Doctor escapes execution, and Sarah escapes sacrifice, but is recaptured by the cultists.

broadcast aniversaries

10th September 1966: broadcast of first episode of The Smugglers, starting the original Season 4. Polly and Ben are astonished to discover that the Tardis is more than a police box, and incredulous at being transported to the late eighteenth century. The local churchwarden gives them a cryptic message and is promptly murdered; Ben and Polly are arrested by the locals, and the Doctor captured by pirates.

10th September 1977: broadcast of episode 2 of Horror of Fang Rock. The shipwreck survivors reach the lighthouse, but an unseen presence is stalking them…

10th September 1993: radio broadcast of episode 3 of The Paradise of Death. The Doctor, Sarah, Jeremy and the Brigadier reach the planet Parakon and are embroiled in a power struggle over agriculture (no, really).

10th September 2008: radio broadcast of Lost Souls (Torchwood). As the Large Hadron Collider at CERN gears up for opening, the Torchwood crew and Martha are summoned to Geneva to investigate mysterious goings-on.

From here:

A Statement on the Issue of the Proposed Burning of the Qu’ran by Extremist Minister Terry Jones

Greetings to all in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ

As the Islamic world comes to the end of Ramadan, we wish all Muslims, especially Muslims of Sudan, congratulations, good will and blessings on Eid ul‐Fitr. May the Lord God bring peace and love to our land.

As an Archbishop and Primate, and on behalf of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan, I categorically denounce the suggestion of Terry Jones to publicly burn the Qu’ran on the anniversary of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre, New York, in 2001. We, the church, unanimously denounce all acts of terrorism including the burning of the Book of God.

We remain deeply mournful over the extreme act of violence against our brothers and sisters in America by men who claimed to be Muslims acting in the name of Islam. However, let us remember that these actions are directly contrary to the teachings of the Qu’ran.

Both the Qu’ran and the Bible instruct people to love one another. The fundamentalist acts of the past should not be allowed to generate further fundamentalism in the Christian world. Furthermore, we should not allow bitterness and hatred to drive us way from God, in whose nature the virtues of love, mercy, and forgiveness are perpetual.

As spiritual leaders, whether priest, bishop or imam, our responsibility is to lead people to Heaven, not to crisis. We still have painful memories but we should be teaching tolerance and forgiveness to those who are hurt and who have lost loved ones. Judgement is not for man but for God alone.

I ask my Muslim brothers all over the world not to react to the words and actions of this minister. The terrorist attacks on 9/11 were not a decision of the Muslim world. Neither is the burning of the Qu’ran a decision of the Christian world. Believing that the action of a few equates to the opinion of many is erroneous. Acting on this belief is imprudent and dangerous with potentially far‐reaching and disastrous consequences. The Episcopal Church of the Sudan endeavours to bring Muslims and Christians together to dialogue openly and honestly on a painful past in the hope that our people, still traumatised by war and violence, can be reconciled. We hope and pray that such reconciliation and forgiveness will eventually prevail in the United States of America.

May the Almighty God of compassion and love bless us all.

His Grace the Most Rev. Dr. Daniel Deng Bul Yak
Archbishop, Primate and Metropolitan of the Province of the Episcopal Church of the Sudan and Bishop of the Diocese of Juba

The next Eighth Doctor Adventure in sequence after Longest Day (and the parenthesis of Legacy of the Daleks). A fairly standard romp – exploitation of alien planet (turns out the dreamstones of the title are similar to the rocks in Sherri S Tepper’s 1987 novel After Long Silence / The Enigma Score), with the wrinkle that the Doctor and Sam are apart for almost the entire book and remain parted at the end. There is one memorable tentacular alien character, Aloisse. But nothing very outstanding about this one.

As worked out by , and (also Christopher and Geoff over on Facebook) I’m spending a few days in Chişinău, the capital of Moldova. Vrei sa pleci dar nu mă, nu mă iei, nu mă, nu mă iei, nu mă, nu mă, nu mă ie!

i) births and deaths

9th September 1960: birth of Hugh Grant who played the Twelfth Doctor in The Curse of Fatal Death (1999). (What do you mean, it’s not canon?)

9th September 1968: birth of Julia Sawalha, who played Emma in The Curse of Fatal Death (1999). (Exactly.)

ii) broadcast anniversaries

9th September 1967: broadcast of episode 2 of Tomb of the Cybermen. The expedition explores the vaults, and the Cybermen awake!

9th September 1978: broadcast of episode 2 of The Ribos Operation. The Doctor and Romana escape the shrivenzale, but are captured by the Graff Vynda-K, who orders their immediate execution.

Another excellent crime novel from Rankin, set in late 1998, with the election campaign for the new Scottish Parliament just getting going, and old scores being settled – quite literally a skeleton in a cupboard, or at least a walled-up fireplace – from the failure of the March 1979 referendum (the first time I can remember that event being mentioned in the Rebus series). Rankin is deviating ever further from the standard narrative of solving a crime and bringing the miscrents to justice, and instead painting a gripping picture of a society where justice is not served – at least not formally – and where the real new rulers of Scotland are the criminal elite. A lot of devastating moments in this one, not the least of which is one of Rankin’s most compelling portraits of a family of celebrities, in politics and other fields – we’ve had the occasional politico before, but never moored so intensely to the political changes in Scotland in the 1990s. If these books weren’t written so well (and perhaps if I were myself Scottish and felt I had a atronger stake in the situations rankin is describing), I would find his portrait of a morally eroded society very depressing. As it is, I find it pretty compelling.

This is my fourth visit to this country. The first time I was here was in 2001. But this is my first visit since the Communist Party lost power.

(Of course, you may find me on Google Latitude.)