Well, I think the best that can be said for the Big Finish audio of Mission to Magnus is that it makes me look forward to hearing all the rest of the BF audio plays I shall listen to this year, because they will be better. I commented a few months back that the novelisation of the unbroadcast story felt a bit padded; Philip Martin has stripped out the padding and got down to the bare essentials, and unfortunately the story still is not a very good one.

This is almost entirely the fault of the script. The introduction of yet another Time Lord with a strange past relationship to the Doctor was a repeated mistake of Sixth Doctor stories (from start to finish – Azrael, the Second Doctor, the Trial scenes) and it is not done any better here than in any of the other cases. The Ice Warriors’ plan is a silly one, astrophysically, and the Doctor appears to deal with it by essentially snapping his fingers. And the women-only planet, which is merely dull in the book version, is actually rather offensive here. (Not quite as bad as The Two Ronnies, but this is not saying much.)

Most of the cast give this rubbish their best efforts – the regulars, Colin Baker and Nicola Bryant; returning guest star Nadil Shaban as Sil; also I thought Susan Franklyn among the supporting cast was rather good (and Maggie Steed at least adequate). But Big Finish took the courageous step of getting child actors to play the child characters, and with the best will in the world, this experiment cannot be described as a roaring success. It is a real shame that Wally K. Daly could not be persuaded to liberate his script for The Ultimate Evil, as I think it would have lifted the quality of the Lost Stories season rather considerably.

First round – 30 days
First Doctor – William Hartnell
Season One – 1963-64
1/ An Unearthly Child (4)
2/ The Daleks (7)
3/ The Edge of Destruction (2)
4/ Marco Polo (7)
5/ The Keys of Marinus (6)
6/ The Aztecs (4)

Second round – 27 days
1/ The Sensorites (6)
2/ The Reign of Terror (6)
Season Two – 1964-65
3/ Planet of Giants (3)
4/ The Dalek Invasion of Earth (6)
5/ The Rescue (2)
6/ The Romans (4)

Third round – 28 days
1/ The Web Planet (6)
2/ The Crusade (4)
3/ The Space Museum (4)
4/ The Chase (6)
5/ The Time Meddler (4)
Season Three – 1965-66
6/ Galaxy 4 (4)

Fourth round – 33 days
0/ Mission to the Unknown (1)
1/ The Myth Makers (4)
2/ The Daleks’ Master Plan (12)
3/ The Massacre (4)
4/ The Ark (4)
5/ The Celestial Toymaker (4)
6/ The Gunfighters (4)

Fifth round – 26 days
1/ The Savages (4)
2/ The War Machines (4)
Season 4: 1966-67
3/ The Smugglers (4)
4/ The Tenth Planet (4)
Patrick Troughton
5/ The Power of the Daleks (6)
6/ The Highlanders (4)

Sixth Round – 29 days
1/ The Underwater Menace (4)
2/ The Moonbase (4)
3/ The Macra Terror (4)
4/ The Faceless Ones (6)
5/ The Evil of the Daleks (7)
Season 5: 1967-68
6/ The Tomb of the Cybermen (4)

Seventh round – 36 days
1/ The Abominable Snowmen (6)
2/ The Ice Warriors (6)
3/ The Enemy of the World (6)
4/ The Web of Fear (6)
5/ Fury from the Deep (6)
6/ The Wheel in Space (6)

Eighth round – 34 days
Season 6: 1968-69
1/ The Dominators (5)
2/ The Mind Robber (5)
3/ The Invasion (8)
4/ The Krotons (4)
5/ The Seeds of Death (6)
6/ The Space Pirates (6)

Ninth round – 39 days
1/ The War Games (10)
Jon Pertwee
Season 7: 1970
2/ Spearhead from Space (4)
3/ The Silurians (7)
4/ The Ambassadors of Death (7)
5/ Inferno (7)
Season 8: 1971
6/ Terror of the Autons (4)

Tenth round – 29 days
1/ The Mind of Evil (6)
2/ The Claws of Axos (4)
3/ Colony in Space (6)
4/ The Daemons (5)
Season 9: 1972
5/ Day of the Daleks (4)
6/ The Curse of Peladon (4)

Eleventh round – 32 days
1/ The Sea Devils (6)
2/ The Mutants (6)
3/ The Time Monster (6)
Season 10: 1972-73
4/ The Three Doctors (4)
5/ Carnival of Monsters (4)
6/ Frontier in Space (6)

Twelfth round – 32 days
1/ Planet of the Daleks (6)
2/ The Green Death (6)
Season 11: 1973-74
3/ The Time Warrior (4)
4/ Invasion of the Dinosaurs (6)
5/ Death to the Daleks (4)
6/ The Monster of Peladon (6)

Thirteenth round – 26 days
1/ Planet of the Spiders (6)
Tom Baker
Season 12: 1974-75
2/ Robot (4)
3/ The Ark in Space (4)
4/ The Sontaran Experiment (2)
5/ Genesis of the Daleks (6)
6/ Revenge of the Cybermen (4)

Fourteenth round – 26 days
Season 13: 1975-76
1/ Terror of the Zygons (4)
2/ Planet of Evil (4)
3/ Pyramids of Mars (4)
4/ The Android Invasion (4)
5/ The Brain of Morbius (4)
6/ The Seeds of Doom (6)

Fifteenth round – 26 days
Season 14: 1976-77
1/ The Masque of Mandragora (4)
2/ The Hand of Fear (4)
3/ The Deadly Assassin (4)
4/ The Face of Evil (4)
5/ The Robots of Death (4)
6/ The Talons of Weng-Chiang (6)

Sixteenth round – 26 days
Season 15: 1977-78
1/ Horror of Fang Rock (4)
2/ The Invisible Enemy (4)
3/ Image of the Fendahl (4)
4/ The Sunmakers (4)
5/ Underworld (4)
6/ The Invasion of Time (6)

Seventeenth round – 26 days
Season 16: 1978-79
1/ The Ribos Operation (4)
2/ The Pirate Planet (4)
3/ The Stones of Blood (4)
4/ The Androids of Tara (4)
5/ The Power of Kroll (4)
6/ The Armageddon Factor (6)

Eighteenth round – 26 days
Season 17: 1979-80
1/ Destiny of the Daleks (4)
2/ City of Death (4)
3/ The Creature from the Pit (4)
4/ Nightmare of Eden (4)
5/ The Horns of Nimon (4)
6/ (Shada) (6)

Nineteenth round – 24 days
Season 18: 1980-81
1/ The Leisure Hive (4)
2/ Meglos (4)
3/ Full Circle (4)
4/ State of Decay (4)
5/ Warriors Gate (4)
6/ The Keeper of Traken (4)

Twentieth round – 22 days
1/ Logopolis (4)
2/ K9 and Company (2)
Peter Davison
Season 19: 1982
3/ Castrovalva (4)
4/ Four to Doomsday (4)
5/ Kinda (4)
6/ The Visitation (4)

Twenty-first round – 22 days
1/ Black Orchid (2)
2/ Earthshock (4)
3/ Time-Flight (4)
Season 20: 1983
4/ Arc of Infinity (4)
5/ Snakedance (4)
6/ Mawdryn Undead (4)

Twenty-second round – 20 days
1/ Terminus (4)
2/ Enlightment (4)
3/ The King’s Demons (2)
4/ The Five Doctors (4)
Season 21: 1984
5/ Warriors of the Deep (4)
6/ The Awakening (2)

Twenty-third round – 24 days
1/ Frontios (4)
2/ Resurrection of the Daleks (4)
3/ Planet of Fire (4)
4/ The Caves of Androzani (4)
Colin Baker
5/ The Twin Dilemma (4)
Season 22: 1985
6/ Attack of the Cybermen (4)

Twenty-fourth round – 27 days
1/ Vengeance on Varos (4)
2/ Mark of the Rani (4)
3/ The Two Doctors (6)
3.5/ In a Fix With Sontarans (1)
4/ Timelash (4)
5/ Revelation of the Daleks (4)
Season 23: 1986 (“The Trial of a Time Lord”)
6/ The Mysterious Planet (4)

Twenty-fifth round – 21 days
1/ Mindwarp (4)
2/ Terror of the Vervoids (4)
3/ The Ultimate Foe (2)
Sylvester McCoy
Season 24: 1987
4/ Time and the Rani (4)
5/ Paradise Towers (4)
6/ Delta and the Bannermen (3)

Twenty-sixth round – 21 days
1/ Dragonfire (3)
Season 25: 1988-89
2/ Remembrance of the Daleks (4)
3/ The Happiness Patrol (3)
4/ Silver Nemesis (3)
5/ The Greatest Show in the Galaxy (4)
Season 26: 1989
6/ Battlefield (4)

Twenty-seventh round – 16 days
1/ Ghost Light (3)
2/ The Curse of Fenric (4)
3/ Survival (3)
4/ Dimensions in Time (1)
5/ The TV Movie (4)
6/ The Curse of Fatal Death (1)

Twenty-eighth round
1/ Death Comes to Time (6)
2/ Real Time (3)
3/ Shada (6)
4/ Scream of the Shalka (3)
Christopher Eccleston
Series 1: 2005
5/ Rose
6/ End of the World

1/ The Unquiet Dead
2/ Aliens of London • World War III
3/ Dalek
4/ The Long Game
5/ Father’s Day
6/ The Empty Child • The Doctor Dances

1/ Boom Town
2/ Bad Wolf • The Parting of the Ways
David Tennant
Series 2: 2005-2006
2.5/ Pudsey cutaway
3/ The Christmas Invasion
3.5/ Attack of the Graske
4/ New Earth
5/ Tooth and Claw
6/ School Reunion

1/ The Girl in the Fireplace
2/ Rise of the Cybermen • The Age of Steel
3/ The Idiot’s Lantern
4/ The Impossible Planet • The Satan Pit
5/ Love & Monsters
6/ Fear Her

1/ Army of Ghosts • Doomsday
Torchwood Season 1
2/ Everything Changes
3/ Day One
4/ Ghost Machine
5/ Cyberwoman
6/ Small Worlds

1/ Countrycide
2/ Greeks Bearing Gifts
3/ They Keep Killing Suzie
4/ Random Shoes
5/ Out of Time
6/ Combat

1/ Captain Jack Harkness
2/ End of Days
Series 3: 2006-2007
3/ The Runaway Bride
Sarah Jane Adventures pilot
4/ Invasion of the Bane
Series 3
5/ Smith and Jones
6/ The Shakespeare Code

1/ Gridlock
2/ Daleks in Manhatten • Evolution of the Daleks
3/ The Lazarus Experiment
4/ 42
5/ Human Nature • The Family of Blood
6/ Blink

1/ Utopia • The Sound of Drums • Last of the Time Lords
2/ The Infinite Quest
Sarah Jane series 1
3/ Revenge of the Slitheen
4/ Eye of the Gorgon
5/ Warriors of Kudlak
6/ Whatever Happened to Sarah Jane?

1/ The Lost Boy
1.5/ Time Crash
Series 4: 2007-2008
2/ Voyage of the Damned
Torchwood Series 2
3/ Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang
4/ Sleeper
5/ To the Last Man
6/ Meat

1/ Adam
2/ Reset
3/ Dead Man Walking
4/ A Day in the Death
5/ Something Borrowed
6/ From Out of the Rain

1/ Adrift
2/ Fragments
3/ Exit Wounds
Series 4: 2007-2008
4/ Partners in Crime
5/ Fires of Pompeii
6/ Planet of The Ood

1/ The Sontaran Strategem • The Poison Sky
2/ The Doctor’s Daughter
3/ The Unicorn and the Wasp
4/ Silence in the Library • Forest of the Dead
5/ Midnight
6/ Turn Left

1/ The Stolen Earth • Journey’s End
Sarah Jane season Two
2/ The Last Sontaran
3/ The Day of the Clown
4/ Secrets of the Stars
5/ The Mark of the Berserker
6/ The Temptation of Sarah Jane Smith

1/ Enemy of the Bane
Specials: 2008-2010
2/ The Next Doctor
2.5/ Sarah Jane: From Raxacoricofallapretorius with love
3/ Planet of the Dead
4/ Torchwood: Children of Earth
Sarah Jane Series 3
5/ Prisoner of the Judoon
6/ The Mad Woman in the Attic

1/ The Wedding of Sarah Jane Smith
2/ The Eternity Trap
3/ Mona Lisa’s Revenge
4/ Doctor Who: The Waters of Mars
5/ Sarah Jane: The Gift
6/ Dreamland

1/ The End of Time (2)

a) unread sf, in order of entry to LibraryThing:

1. Irish tales of terror, ed by Jim McGarry
2. Forbidden Acts, ed by Nancy A. Collins
3. Seasons of Plenty by Colin Greenland
4. Mother of Plenty by Colin Greenland
5. The Wizard Knight by Gene Wolfe

b) unread sf in order of LibraryThing popularity:

1. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
2. The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
3. The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay
4. Kushiel’s Scion by Jacqueline Carey
5. Heart of the Sea by Nora Roberts

c) unread sf in order of popularity here (obviously will rejig this ordering to take account of series order):

1. The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
2. The Darkest Road by Guy Gavriel Kay
3. The Wandering Fire by Guy Gavriel Kay
4. Witch Week by Diana Wynne Jones
5. The Lives of Christopher Chant by Diana Wynne Jones

d) unread non-sf fiction, in order of entry to LibraryThing:

1. Thirteen Steps Down by Ruth Rendell
2. Holy Disorders by Edmund Crispin
3. Wandering Star by J.M.G. Le Clezio
4. The Poetical Works of Edmund Spenser
5. Njal’s Saga

e) unread non-sf fiction, in order of LibraryThing popularity:

1. The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
2. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey
3. My Sister’s Keeper by Jodi Picoult
4. The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway
5. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

f) unread non-sf fiction, in order of popularity here:

1. Northanger Abbey by Jane Austen
2. Mansfield Park by Jane Austen
3. Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
4. The Crucible by Arthur Miller
5. Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens

g) unread non-fiction, in order of entry to LibraryThing:

1. The Two Faces of Islam by Stephen Schwartz
2. Radical Islams Rules edited by Paul Marshall
3. Untold Stories by Alan Bennett
4. Half-life of a Zealot by Swanee Hunt
5. The provinces of the Roman Empire from Caesar to Diocletian by Theodor Mommsen

h) unread non-fiction, in order of LibraryThing popularity:

1. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
2. Dreams from My Father by Barack Obama
3. The Koran
4. On the Nature of the Universe by Lucretius
5. The Stuff of Thought by Steven Pinker

i) unread non-fiction, in order of popularity here:

1. The Panda’s Thumb by Stephen Jay Gould
2. The Language of the Night by Ursula K. Le Guin
3. Profiles of the future by Arthur C. Clarke
4. The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin
5. The Koran

j) books already read, in order of LibraryThing popularity

1. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
2. The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams
3. Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
4. Frankenstein by Mary Shelley
5. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain

k) Hugo-winning novels that I haven’t previously reviewed on-line:

1. The Uplift War by David Brin
2. Hyperion by Dan Simmons
3. The Vor Game by Lois McMaster Bujold
4. Cordelia’s Honor (for Barrayar) by Lois McMaster Bujold
5. A Fire upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge

l) unread New Adventures of Doctor Who (new list)

0. Timewyrm: Genesys
   Timewyrm: Exodus
   Timewyrm: Apocalypse
   Timewyrm: Revelation
1. Cat’s Cradle: Times Crucible by Marc Platt
2. Cat’s Cradle: Warhead by Andrew Cartmel
3. Cat’s Cradle: Witch Mark by Andrew Hunt
4. Nightshade by Mark Gatiss
   Love and War
5. Transit by Ben Aaronovitch

m) unread Eighth Doctor Adventures (new list)

0. The Eight Doctors
1. Vampire Science by Kate Orman
2. The Bodysnatchers by Mark Morris
   Genocide
3. War of the Daleks by John Peel
   Alien Bodies
4. Kursaal by Peter Anghelides
5. Option Lock by Justin Richards

n) other unread Doctor Who books, in order of LibraryThing popularity

1. Wooden Heart by Martin Day
2. The Pirate Loop by Simon Guerrier
3. Forever Autumn by Mark Morris
4. Sick Building by Paul Magrs
5. Wishing Well by Trevor Baxendale

o) Ian Rankin books, starting with the Rebus novels, in series order:

1. Mortal Causes
2. Let It Bleed
3. Black and Blue
4. The Hanging Garden
5. Dead Souls

p) books by writers of colour, in order of entry into LibraryThing:

1. Noughts and Crosses by Malorie Blackman
2. Pomegranate Soup by Marsha Mehran
3. The Emperor’s Babe by Bernardine Evaristo
4. Out by Natsuo Kirino
5. Soul Mountain by Gao Xingjian

q) books on the shelves at end 2005, otherwise not accounted for, going backwards in LT entry order:

1. Wheel Of Engaged Buddhism by Kenneth Kraft
2. Ta Hsueh and Chung Yung
3. Mr. Bloomfield’s Orchard by Nicholas P. Money
4. The Twilight of Atheism by Alister McGrath
5. Saint Therese of Lisieux by Kathryn Harrison

r) books acquired since end 2005, otherwise not accounted for, in LT entry order:

0. Year’s Best SF 8, edited by David G. Hartwell
1. Who Saved Bosnia by Vitomir Miles Raguz
2. The Portadown News by Newton Emerson
3. The Cyprus question and the EU by Andreas Theophanous
4. Peacebuilding and Civil Society in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Ten Years after Dayton
5. A Different Kingdom by Paul Kearney

Plus whatever else should take my fancy.

As it happens, this morning I was re-watching the first episode of The Gunfighters, a generally forgotten 1966 story where the Tardis lands in Tombstone, Arizona, specifically at the OK Corral, and William Hartnell’s Doctor is offered a gun for self-defence by the local dentist, Doc Holliday. As with Tennant’s Doctor this evening, he refuses to take it at first, but (in rather more comic than dramatic terms) does so in the end. I don’t know if it was a deliberate reference, but pleasing all the same.

…that was better than I had feared. RTD has managed to write a decent finale.

Once we had disposed of the actual plot, about 40 minutes in, it was a rather affecting farewell to the Tennant era. I did find something in my eye when it turned out that Jessica Hynes’ character was called Verity Newman. And again when the New Year encounter turned out to be at the start of that momentous year, 2005.

Broadening out a bit, I think it was entirely reasonable to give Ten a chance to say goodbye to his peeps. This happened in virtual reality for Four and Five as well, but it is much more satisfactory to have the next step in the companions’ lives (as happened for Two, just before the Time Lords killed him).

It was also rather beautiful to have the deliberate echoing of Five’s dying spaceship landing (and perhaps we will watch Caves of Androzani again in tribute over the weekend). Tennant was certainly copying Davison’s grimace. Of course, absorbing radiation was the killing factor for Three and Nine as well.

Anyway, plenty of loose ends left. Who was the mysterious female Time Lord? Susan? Romana? Iris Wildthyme? River Song? Are the Time Lords (who are, as I thought, now Evil) dead forever? And the Master?

Not long to wait, anyway. Good to see Matt Smith get a decent lead-in as well.

(hat-tip to the lovely Alex.)

My 2009 reading ended on a high note, with Edward Gibbon’s short and entertaining autobiography, telling the story of his life and of how he wrote the Decline and Fall.

(Incidentally I shall be writing up the most controversial chapters, XV and XVI, on early Christianity on tomorrow and next week. You can sample them here and here – they feature some of his most savage and memorable sarcasm.)

The two chapters in which Gibbon describes the completion, publication and reception of the Decline and Fall ought to be essential reading for anyone planning a writing career. In particular, his reflections on completing the twenty-year project are poignant:

It was on the night of the 27th of June 1787, between the hours of eleven and twelve, that I wrote the last line of the last page in a summer-house in my garden. After laying down my pen, I took several turns in a berceau, or covered walk of acacias . I will not dissemble the first emotions of joy on the recovery of my freedom, and, perhaps the establishment of my fame. But my pride was soon humbled, and a sober melancholy was spread over my mind by the idea that I had taken an everlasting leave of an old and agreeable companion, and that whatsoever might be the future fate of my history, the life of the historian must be short and precarious.

There is lots more here as well: his political career (which was entirely the result of Gibbon’s recepit of patronage – two different seats in parliament for pocket boroughs, and a junior government position which appears to have involved no actual duties in return for a large salary), his experience of Oxford (and some of his trenchant criticisms of the Oxbridge system remain valid), his reflections on living in Lausanne rather than London, his experience as an officer in the militia. Gibbon comes across as, of course, tremendously intelligent, but also rather modest with it: he is conscious of some of the flaws of Decline and Fall, but claims that his own satisfaction at a job well done is more important than public praise or condemnation, though at the same time praise is always welcome. He expresses the vague hope, in 1791, that people will still read his work in a hundred years’ time. I was reading this aloud to Anne as she drove us home from England yesterday, and I found I had got something in my eye, also affecting my throat, as I got to the end:

The present is a fleeting moment, the past is no more; and our prospect of futurity is dark and doubtful. This day may possibly be my last: but the laws of probability, so true in general, so fallacious in particular, still allow about fifteen years…. The warm desires, the long expectations of youth, are founded on the ignorance of themselves and of the world: they are gradually damped by time and experience, by disappointment and possession; and after the middle season the crowd must be content to remain at the foot of the mountain; while the few who have climbed the summit aspire to descend or expect to fall. In old age, the consolation of hope is reserved for the tenderness of parents, who commence a new life in their children; the faith of enthusiasts, who sing Hallelujahs above the clouds; and the vanity of authors, who presume the immortality of their name and writing.

The Penguin edition is not the text made famous by Gibbon’s friend Lord Sheffield, but a new (well, 1983) treatment of the manuscripts by Penguin’s editor Betty Radice, who steps from behind the curtain and explains her methodology in an interesting introduction. Well worth getting.

I read slightly fewer books last year than in 2008, 342 rather than 374. This was partly due to reading fewer Doctor Who novelisations (having read almost all of them last year) and also due to a deliberate choice of reading more classics of non-sf literature. For most of the year I was still reading books at an almost neurotic rate; I have slowed down since September, partly because I rejigged my reading lists to take it more slowly, and partly because I started a couple of other projects (watching Doctor Who from the beginning, weekly chapter of Gibbon) which ate into reading time.

Scores on the doors:
Total pages read 100,000 (to nearest 1,000), which is roughly 270 a day. My commute is often an hour and a half each way, and I am a fast reader
68 (20%) by women (ie female author or editor credited on front cover; does not include female pseudonym of male author), up from 2008’s 46 (12%)
16 (5%) by writers of colour (not terribly impressive but double my previous rate and three times 2008’s 1.6%)
36 (11%) rereads (italicised below)
48 added to LT catalogue in 2005; 6 in 2006, 3 in 2007, 79 in 2008. 65 had been on the slelves for more than a year before I read them.

Non-fiction

Total 88 (26%) in 2009, up slightly from 72 (19%) in 2008.

Best in category: Survival In Auschwitz, by Primo Levi – a searing account of an incredible situation.

Also excellent: Gibbon’s Memoirs, The Road from Coorain, Emma’s War: Love, Betrayal and Death in the Sudan, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Collapse, EU Accession Dynamics And Conflict Resolution: Catalysing Peace Or Consolidating Partition In Cyprus?, About Time 3: The Unauthorized Guide to Doctor Who (Seasons 7 to 11), 2nd edition, Doctor Who: The Writer’s Tale, Target: A History of the Target Doctor Who Books

Very very good: Rocks of Ages, Shakespeare’s Wife, Galileo’s Daughter, The Lyncher in Me, The Dissolution of the Religious Orders in Ireland under Henry VIII, Early Belfast,  Imagining the Modern: The Cultures of Nationalism in Cyprus, Kosovo: What Everyone Needs to Know, Fall Out: The Unofficial and Unauthorised Guide to The Prisoner, From Genocide to Continental War: The Congolese Conflict and the Crisis of Contemporary Africa

Worst in category: Blue Like Jazz, an uninspiring articulation of liberal Christianity

Fiction (other than sf and comics)

Total 57 (18%) in 2009, substantially up from 25 (7%) in 2008 due to deliberate policy of reading more classics.

Best in Category: Of Mice and Men, by John Steinbeck.

Also excellent: To Kill a Mockingbird, Lolita, Catch 22, Nature Girl, Oedipus Rex

Very very good: Jane Eyre, Pride and Prejudice, The Go-Between, To the Lighthouse, As I Lay Dying, Les Liaisons Dangereuses, Middlesex, Song of Solomon, The Angel Makers, Mr Singh Has Disappeared, The Secret Garden, The Story of Tracy Beaker, The New Hennessy Book of Irish Fiction

Worst book I read all year: Angels and Demons, the book which made Dan Brown’s name. It is slightly better written than The Da Vinci Code, but this really isn’t saying much.

SF (other than Who and comics, but including some ancient literature)

Total 78 (23%) in 2009, up slightly from 71 (19%) in 2008.

Best in category: Very difficult to choose between On the Beach, Threshold (vol 1 of the collected Zelazny), The Night Sessions and another Ken MacLeod novel, The Restoration Game, as yet unpublished . Probably in the end I would go for On The Beach.

Also excellent: The Hobbit, A Canticle for Leibowitz, Lord of Light, The War of the Worlds, Divine Comedy

Very very good: Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, This Immortal, The Man in the High Castle, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress, The Big Time,  A Million Open Doors, Kindred, Wizard of Oz, The Blind Assassin, The Graveyard Book, Anathem, Black Juice, The Iliad, The Golden Ass

Worst in category: Bard IV: Ravens Gathering, by Keith Taylor. Admittedly I only managed the  first 20 pages so it may have improved.

Comics

Total 28 (8%) in 2009, substantially up from last year’s 7 (2%) because of reading complete Fables and also the Hugo nominees.

Best in category: Persepolis 2 and Shortcomings

Very very good: With the Light: Raising an Autistic Child v. 1

Worst in category: Schlock Mercenary: The Body Politic – I know it has fans, but simply did not strike me as very impressive.

Shakespeare Plays (in most cases rating refers to both text and Arkangel performance)

Total 19 (6%) in 2009 compared to 20 (also 5%) in 2008; this is one category that will not appear in 2010’s list!

Best in category: Has to be Hamlet!

Also excellent: Twelfth Night, Macbeth

Very very good: Othello, King Lear

Worst in category: The Two Noble Kinsmen

Doctor Who Spinoff Fiction (other than comics and audio plays)

Total 70 (19%, substantially down from last year when I read most of the novelisations). The Doctor, or spinoff series, is given in brackets.

Best in category: Gary Russell’s Beautiful Chaos, which has the Tenth Doctor, Wilf and Donna teaming up against the return of a classic-era enemy.

Very good: Farewell Great Macedon (1), Doctor Who – Ghosts of N-Space (3), Romance of Crime (4), Sands of Time (5), Zeta Major (5), Millennial Rites (6), Only Human (9), The Eyeless (10), Snowglobe 7 (10), The Day of the Troll (10), Decalog [first volume], Downtime, Border Princes (Torchwood), Slow Decay (Torchwood), The Sin Eaters (Torchwood), Beyond the Sun (Bernice Summerfield)

Worst in category: Byzantium! (1)

To round the year off, notes on audio plays and films.

Audio plays (including Doctor Who)

Best in category: The Lord of the Rings, the definitive BBC version.

Also excellent: The Mahogany Murderers (a Doctor Who spinoff with Jago and Litefoot from The Talons of Weng-Chiang), Moths Ate My “Doctor Who” Scarf (a confessional autobiography, adapted from the stage show), Kaldor City: The Prisoner (a brilliant two-hander between Paul Darrow and Peter Miles)

Very very good: The War of the Worlds (Original 1938 Radio Adaptaion), Sympathy for the Devil (alternate Doctor Who story), The Doomwood Curse (6th Doctor and Charlie), The Bride of Peladon (5th Doctor, Peri and Erimem), Death in Blackpool (8th Doctor and Lucie)

Worst in Category: The Poison Seas, a Bernice Summerfield story that was probably OK but marred by poor production.

Films:

One of my 2010 resolutions is to watch more films and to track them better!

Wii Fit Plus tells me that my BMI is in the ideal range, and that I have the body of a 28-year-old.

(It did not say which 28-year-old.)

(You can guess which New Year’s resolution I have been implementing.)

Happy new year everyone!

I’m still working up my review post of 2009’s books, but here is the full list in poll form. Which have you read?

Made it home from our three days in England, various family members suffering from various bugs. I think for once I may go to bed early. Have a good New Year, all.

Non-fiction 4

Non-genre fiction 3

sf (non-Who) 2

Doctor Who etc (not comics) 5

Comics 2

~4,300 pages
4 by women (van der Wal, Hodgson Burnett, Jenkins, Moore; but not ‘Tara Samms’); total of 68/341 (19.9%) for 2009
1 by PoC (Jenkins)
Owned for more than a year: The Jesuits, The Year’s Best Science Fiction Twenty-Second Annual Collection
Rereads: None

Help me decide what to read next year – I did this last year and the year before and found it very useful! (I will post a poll of the books I have read this year tomorrow, all being well; there are still a couple I may finish in the meantime.)

I included a text box for recommendations for or against particular books when I did this last year, but I think it is better to invite any such remarks to be posted as comments.

A very approachable introduction to the history of the Dutch language, aimed at undergraduates. It starts with Indo-European and Gothic and then follows the development of Dutch from the point where it is identifiable (700-1000 AD) to the present. One point that I was not left clear about: how exactly the linguistic frontier between Germanic and Latin became established, and when – was it before or after the fall of the Roman Empire?

The more recent history of Dutch has much more controversy and politics than I had realised. The first attempts to standardise came at exactly the same time as the partition of the Dutch-speaking area between the Spanish and the independent Dutch spate; the standard language therefore started based on the dialect of Holland (ie the province of that name) but with substantial input from Brabant. A fascinating map much later in the book shows that the areas where locals habitually drop the final “n” in infinitives and plurals, etc, reflects this early alliance – the “n” is pronounced in Zeeland and the Belgian provinces of East and West Flanders; also to the northwest, everywhere above a line going roughly from Alkmaar to Arnhem; and in patches of both Limburgs. But it is silent in Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven, as in The Hague, Amsterdam and Utrecht. As a Dutch student, this is practically the first exception you are taught for the language’s generally phonetic spelling; it is certainly the most common such exception.

Scientists like Stevin and the Huygens family made Dutch an international language of knowledge, as well as of commerce. Much of the following centuries are taken up with debates about how far the written language should reflect its spoken form, mainly resolved in favour of the demotic. It took the French-educated rulers some time to catch up – French was the court language as late as Queen Emma, who was Regent until 1898. It was also, incredibly, not until 1898 that Dutch was recognised as an official language alongside French in the relevant parts of Belgium (not surprisingly the chapter on the Flemish language struggle is one of the longest).

I was a little uncomfortable with the way that the authors slip rather easily and unconsciously into the dialectic of territorial conquest: most of Flanders is now secure, and losses in the Brussels area have been stabilised; Frisian is under control; Indonesia and South Africa (and, cough, New York) may have been lost, but at least the Caribbean is still there (though it seems likely to me that Dutch is an elite language in that last case, with most people speaking Papiamento or other creoles). But I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it; Dutch speakers who want to learn more about the language will find it of interest.

This came out in 2005, the year of the Glasgow Worldcon, and I guess that because I felt I had thoroughly chewed over that year’s short fiction in the Hugo process I didn’t urgently need to read this. That was wrong: Dozois has as ever pulled together an excellent set of stories, full of variety of approach and length. As noted below, I had read only the few stories which got shortlisted for the major awards, and one other which I had seen in its original anthology. Of the stories new to me, the standouts were Stephen Baxter’s “Mayflower II” – I often find his prose style annoying but this time it worked – and Walter Jon Williams’ “Investments”, a hard sf story with softer edges. But they are all good, and I should get back into the habit of reading the “Best of the Year” anthologies as soon as they come out.

The lack of overlap with the 2005 (and 2006 Nebula) award nominations is striking. Dozois includes three of the Hugo novelette nominees, and three novelettes and one novella which made it to the final Nebula ballots, but not “The Fairy Handbag” which won both Hugo and Nebula – indeed not a single winner in any category. (ETA: points out that in fairness “The Fairy Handbag” was not science fiction. But the other winners by and large were.)

A well-written account for an Irish audience of the characteristics of ten European countries – Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Poland. In each case Connelly has done some of the essential academic background reading, and interviews locals (and in the earlier chapters also Irish emigrants) to flesh out what makes the Poles Polish, the Germans German, and so on. In addition, he is honest about the fact that the Irish perception of many of these countries is mediated by English media (there is a painful scene in Brentwood with a German standup comedian). I felt he was particularly good on Germany and France, though rather weaker on Italy (where he spends too much time on Sicily). The one country on his list that I haven’t visited myself is Poland, and I learned a lot from his chapter on it (though the main point is to go and read Norman Davies’ book). If Connelly’s journalism is as good as this, then RTÉ have an important asset – not just for the domestic Irish audience, but for explaining Europe better to the English-speaking world (a job which the British media dismally fails to do).

• FiveThirtyEight: Politics Done Right: The Odds of Airborne Terror
  How likely is it that your flight will be attacked? Roughly one chance in 10 million, according to Nate Silver.
  (tags: war)
• Sesame Street – Monsterpiece Theater: Waiting for Elmo
  (tags: funny youtube)
• God bless Twitter
  Pete Birks makes a good point about how Eurostar’s problems demonstrate that the public are increasingly gaining access to mass media as producers
  (tags: internet twitter)

A few months back I did a poll on books published in 1959, 1909, 1859, 1809, 1759, 1609 and 1509. For the publications to be commemorated in 2010, I found the pickings much slimmer for the older set of anniversaries, but on the other hand 1960 appears to have been a rather good year (indeed, deserving a poll of its own). Here are the top books from 1910 and 1860 (again ranked by LibraryThing popularity).

(Yes, I know that When the Sleeper Wakes was originally serialised in 1899, but I am assured that The Sleeper Wakes of 1910 is very different.)

I’m in the middle of Framley Parsonage at the moment.

These 50 books were all published in 1960. (I have selected them by the scientific method of identifying the top 46 from that year on LibraryThing, plus another four that I happened to have read myself.)

NB some of these I wasn’t sure of myself and had to check, as follows:
For Your Eyes Only – is a collection of James Bond short stories
Jeeves in the Offing – is the one which starts with Bertie discovering that he is engaged to Bobbie Wickham (when her mother phones up, sobbing, to ask if “the dreadful news” is true); also features Aunt Dahlia, the psychiatrist Sir Roderick Glossop and the Rev. Aubrey Upjohn, but not much Jeeves
A Burnt-Out Case – is the particularly depressing Graham Greene set in a leper colony in the Congo
Dorsai! – an episodic book about Donal Graeme, warrior extraordinaire
The Adventure Of The Christmas Pudding etc – is a short story collection mainly featuring Poirot
False Scent – is the one with an aging actress who is murdere with ehr own insecticide
The Clue in the Old Stagecoach – is the one where Nancy Drew searches for an antique stagecoach that, according to legend, contains something of great value to the people of Francisville

Happy to clarify any other cases where confusion is possible…

A letter of 22 September 1590 from Adam Loftus, Archbishop of Dublin, to William Cecil, Lord Burghley, recommending fines and imprisonment as a method to force the Irish to accept the Reformed religion. Noted here because Sir Nicholas Whyte is mentioned as a dangerous liberal.

To the Right Honourable my singular good Lord the Lord Burghley, Lord Treasurer of England.

It may please your good Lordship — I have been lately made partaker of your Lordship’s letter to my speciall good Lord, the Lord Deputy, wherein you lament the general corruption of this realm in the cause of religion, and do wish his Lordship and myself to enter into some speedy consideration how thesame may be remedied. I am thereby emboldened, humbly craving your Lordship’s good acceptation, both at large to discover unto you the means and degrees by which this people are fallen into this general revolt and to signify mine opinion how they may be reduced to better conformity.

And looking back unto the times past, I cannot forbear to inform your Lordship of that which in mine experience I know to be true :—that albeit there hath been in this people a general disposition to popery, as to a thing wherein they are misled, ever from their cradle, yet this general recusancy is but of six years continuance at the most, and began in the second year of Sir John Perrott’s government, in the beginning of the parliament holden by him. Before which time I well remember, and do assure your Lordship, there were not in the pale the number of twelve recusants, gentlemen of account. But, since, they have grown to such obstinacy and boldness that it is to be feared—if some speedy remedy be not provided—upon pretence of religion they will shake off all duty and obedience. Before that time they were restrained by the Ecclesiastical Commission, and—howsoever they were affected inwardly in their consciences—yet outwardly they shewed great duty and obedience, in resorting to service, sermons and in receiving of the communion. In the beginning of the parliament, Sir Nicholas White, in the name of his countrymen, moved Sir John Perrott with sundry reasons before the most of this Council, to permit this people to have the liberty of their consciences and the free use of their religion, wherein they had been bred and brought up, assuring Sir John, that granting that unto them, they would not only condescend to the repeal of Poyning’s Act but to any other reasonable motion which should be propounded in the parliament. His good success with the Lord Deputy at that time moved another of his country, one Edward Nugent, a lawyer, to come into the lower house with a premeditated speech in defence of the Mass and Romish religion, declaring the good success her Majesty’s progenitors had while they embraced the Mass and the Catholic religion, as he termed it, and the bad success which pursued the rejecting thereof.

By these encouragements, and by the bad example of some great personages of credit in this state, this people hath ever sithence grown to wonderful obstinacy and therein do persist unto this day — increasing in malice beyond all measure and utter detestation of religion. When we, the bishops of Dublin, Meath, and a few others well affected, perceived this declination, being authorised by her Majesty’s High Commission for Ecclesiastical causes, we convented before us the principal gentlemen and such as we knew to be ringleaders in this cause, seeking to draw them to better conformity. But so soon as they came before us we were forbidden by the then Lord Deputy to deal with them, who told us — but in truth never shewed the same — that he had received direction from their Lordships that this people should not be dealt with for matters of religion. And so we were restrained from proceeding any further. And presently it was bruited throughout the pale, that her Majesty’s pleasure was that they should not be touched for their religion, but should be permitted to use the same at their pleasure, and so they did during the time of Sir John’s government, wherein they took such heart and grew to such obstinacy that now they can hardly be reclaimed. The rather because those noblemen and principal gentlemen by their bad examples do daily draw them backward from the service of God established by her Majesty. And sorry I am that for discharge of my duty I must be forced to note unto your Lordship one particular man, well known to your Lordship, whose example doth of all others greatest hurt in the pale. I mean Sir Lucas Dillon, who, albeit he is both a most grave and wise Councillor and of great experience in this State, yet his notorious recusancy and wilful absenting of himself from the Church these three or four years past (being drawn to this backwardness by his son-in-law, Mr. Rotchfort, a most malicious and dangerous instrument both against religion and this government) is a special provocation and mean to draw the greatest number of this people unto that general corruption wherein they live.

For redress whereof, your Lordship hath most wisely considered that the sword alone without the word is not sufficient. But yet I assure your Lordship their obstinacy now is such that unless they be inforced, they will not ever come to hear the word preached, as by experience we observed at the time appointed by the Lord Deputy and Council for a general assembly of all the noblemen and gentlemen of every county, after her Majesty’s good success against the Spaniard, to give God thanks for the same. At which time, notwithstanding the Sheriffs of every county did their duties with all diligence, and warned all men to repair to the principal church in every county, wherein order was taken for public prayers and thanksgivings unto God, together with a sermon to be preached by choice men in every diocese, yet very few or none almost resorted thereunto, but even in Dublin itself the lawyers, in term time, took occasion to leave the town of purpose to absent themselves from that godly exercise—so bewraying in themselves, besides their corruption in religion, great want of duty and loyalty unto her Majesty, and giving just occasion unto us to conceive a doubtful opinion of them.

For preachers (God be thanked) my cathedral church and these civill dioceses hereabouts are indifferently furnished, but it is almost a bootless labour for any man to preach in the country out of Dublinj for want of hearers—the people are grown to so general a revolt—which thing, notwithstanding, is not so far gone but in mine opinion it may be easily remedied without any danger and with great gain to her Majesty, if the Ecclesiastical Commission be restored and put in use, for this people are but poor and fear to be fined. If liberty be left to myself and such Commissioners as are well affected in religion to imprison and fine all such as are obstinate and disobedient, and if they persist—being men of ability to bear their own charges—to send them into England for example sake, I have no doubt but within a short time they will be reduced to good conformity.

If it be objected that this severe course may perhaps breed some stirs, I assure your Lordship there is no doubt of any such matter, for they are but beggars, and if once they perceive a thorough resolution to deal roundly with them, they will both yield and conform themselves. And this course of reformation, the sooner it is begun the better it will prosper—and the longer it is deferred the more dangerous it will be. All which I leave to your Lordship’s wise consideration, and so, most humbly craving pardon for my wonted boldness, I commend your good Lordship, with my prayers, to God’s best blessings. From Rathfarnham this xxii of September 1590. Your Lordship’s humbly at command. Ad. Dublin, Canc.

From State Papers concerning the Irish Church, ed. W.M. Brady, 1868.

One of the early Torchwood books – set just before Cyberwoman, I think. Andy Lane has written some good Who novels and this too is excellent; good depictions of all the team (not much Ianto, but lots of Owen), and of how alien tech threatens to infilltrate Rhys and Gwen’s relationship. I was also impressed by the first season Torchwood novel Border Princes, and on the basis of that and this will now be looking out for more of them.

Another dip into the sub-genre of African-American romance, as told by Beverly Jenkins, whose books are among the highest-rated on LibraryThing. If anything I enjoyed this slightly more than Jewel. Most of the action takes place in 1897 Philadelphia, with the last section in a free black town in Kansas (the fictional settlement of Henry Adams, where a lot of Jenkins’ other books are apparently set). There is not much to the plot; former bank robber Teresa July and businessman Madison Nance are obviously destined for each other, and some detailed and well-written erotic passages explain how they make up their minds to accept this destiny. Jenkins does throw in a fair bit of political commentary as well – the dispute between Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Dubois, corrupt Republican party bosses, feminism (Teresa’s sister-in-law is mayor of Henry Adams), certainly enough to keep me happy and maintain my interest. It’s really not a type of book I would normally read, but I’ll look out for more Jenkins in the charity bookshops.

• Reading Gibbon’s "Decline and Fall" – Chapter XIV: The Rise of Constantine
  Diocletian’s system does not long survive his abdication. His four succesors squabble among themselves, and at one point there are six mutually recognised rulers of different bits of the Roman Empire. But one of them, Constantine, defeats all the others, through superior statesmanship and military skill. "The successive steps of the elevation of Constantine, from his first assuming the purple at York, to the resignation of Licinius at Nicomedia, have been related with some minuteness and precision, not only as the events are in themselves both interesting and important, but still more as they contributed to the decline of the empire by the expense of blood and treasure, and by the perpetual increase, as well of the taxes as of the military establishment." The whole chapter is an impressive marshalling of historical facts, complex narrative and geography running from Britain to Asia Minor over a period of almost two decades.
  (tags: gibbon)

Well, I enjoyed it. RTD tends to do much better with penultimate episodes and then fumble the climax, so I hope that doesn’t happen again this time. Particular comments below the cut, but if you want the collected wisdom of (part of) the internets, check here.

.

.

(Further space for spoilers for those reading this on non-LJ platforms)

.

Stuff I particularly liked:

The best scene, as many others have said, was the cafeteria conversation between Wilf and the Doctor. Bernard Cribbins is generally excellent. What an extraordinary break it turned out to be for Doctor Who, when Howard Attfield was too ill to continue as Donna’s father, and Cribbins was brought back in! 

I also thought John Simm much better here than in Season Three, where (heretically) I wasn’t actually all that impressed by him. There seemed to be more to the Master this time, perhaps because he isn’t in control for most of the episode. The Master transformation (as someone put it, the Tremasization) of humanity was a great concept, and the Obama thing worked for me, though I note not for everyone.

And I unashamedly loved the end. We knew it was coming – we have known it was coming since the first set photos of Timothy Dalton leaked out – but I love the idea of the Time Lords returning. I particularly like the possibility that their return may actually be a Bad Thing which the Doctor will give his life to prevent. I don’t think there is any chance that Claire Bloom’s mysterious lady character is actually Romana; sorry, folks, I don’t think that is how RTD’s mind works. The Deadly Assassin is seen by many (including me) as the zenith of Old Who, as Robert Holmes, its greatest writer, tackled the Doctor’s own origins. RTD has set himself a similar challenge here.

I was a bit more ambivalent about the plot, or lack thereof; my expectations of RTD on this score are fairly low and I suppose they were met. I hope the Vinvocci aliens get a decent shake of the action and don’t come in for just that one scene. I hope the Nathaniel and Abigail plotline also has a halfway decent resolution. I hope poor old Wilf and Donna aren’t killed off. I hope Wilf himself doesn’t turn out to be a Time Lord in disguise, or (as some think) to be concealing the whole of Gallifrey in his mind.

The one bit, well, two linked bits, that I thought over the top were the secret cult of the Master bringing him back – OK, it had to happen somehow I suppose, but it seemed a bit silly; I think I would almost have preferred his unexplained escape from the certain doom he faced at the end of his previous story which was the Old Who approach  – and the resurrected Master having the powers of shooting energy from his hands, which he mysteriously doesn’t actually use to kill the Doctor and which equally mysteriously desert him once Nathaniel and Abigail have got him. But Simm in general made up for it and was creepy and yet comprehensible.

The companionless Doctor: Picking up on the cafeteria conversation, I’ve just been watching both The Deadly Assassin and The Massacre, the former being the only companion-less Old Who series and the latter ending with a scene where the First Doctor’s companions have all left him. The Doctor does need someone, and it’s been part of Ten’s tragedy that it hasn’t worked out. (Incidentally, both stories feature actor Erik Chitty – in The Massacre he plays Charles Preslin, the scientist who conceals the Doctor from the main narrative for three episodes, and in The Deadly Assassin he is Coordinator Engin, in charge of the Matrix, who shunts the Doctor into the alternate world of the Matrix for two episodes.) Ten has now had three TV specials without a regular companion, as well as a large number of books (including the ten-volume Darksmith Legacy series). His slightly silly opening scene (including the dogy line about Good Queen Bess) gives cover for all of those being canon, for those who care about such matters. (And was there also a reference to Netty from Beautiful Chaos?)

Next week, I reckon that we will get the mother of all reset buttons, and not only will the Time War be reversed, but so will all of the Doctor’s incarnations taking us back to Matt Smith as a younger version of William Hartnell. That will of course create problems with River Song’s return, but Moffat is the master of timey-wimey stuff so he will have thought of an answer.

…I could never get the missing line.

Yes, I know what the canonical version is, but I don’t really believe it. What should it have been?

(And I never understood why it was always listed as "Boss Cat" in the BBC TV schedules, but that would be an ecumenical matter.)

Young F got this jewel in his cracker yesterday:

Q: What kind of relationship does coral have with algae?
A: A symbiotic relationship.

Now, this answer turns out to be perfectly sound biology (so I at least learned something) but doesn’t seem to me paticularly funny. Am I missing some point about, perhaps, two popular celebrities or fictional characters called Coral and Algy? Or is it just meant to be funny because coral is generally hard and algae generally squishy?

Yep, I have read the first of my Christmas presents: a nice half-dozen Tenth Doctor stories, originally published as separate comics and here as a single volume by IDW. I really bought it to read the first story, “The Whispering Gallery”, which is by Leah and John, and am glad to say that I enjoyed it and most of the others (the exception being a typically cliched cute robot story in the middle). The standout, however, is Tony Lee’s “The Time Machination”, featuring Ten teaming up with H.G. Wells against Torchwood, with lots of other pleasing references to both New and particularly Old Who. Lee’s The Forgotten was also excellent, and I shall look out for more of his work. And the collection as a whole is excellent value.

• bugshaw: Merry Christmas
  the Dalek nativity
  (tags: doctorwho christmas)

Rereading this classic, which combines the horrors of the 1945 bombing of Dresden with the sfnal captivity of the hero by the aliens of Tralfamadore. Having first come to Vonnegut via Cat’s Cradle and The Sirens of Titan as a teenager, I wasn’t really sure what to make of this. Coming to it again a quarter-century later, I have a much deeper appreciation of Vonnegut’s savaging of the surrealism of war, and of how trauma throws the rest of your life into a weird perspective. But I also find his attitude to women much more annoying – at least, to the women in the main part of the story, the mothers of Billy Pilgrim’s children, Valencia Merble and Montana Wildhack (and Pilgrim’s daughter Barbara). Having said that, the sanest character in the book is probably Mary O’Hare from the ostensibly autobiographical foreword; and it must also be admitted that most of the male characters are pretty unpleasant too.

Anyway, I can’t think of many other sf novels which take the Second World War as their subject, and this is probably the best in that rather small set.

Ursula turned seven yesterday. She cannot talk, but is very musical, as I hope this spirited rendering of “Old MacDonald” will demonstrate.

We have no idea what other tunes she is singing – songs she has heard at school or on TV, or just made up in her mysterious little head?