• Sun, 12:56: RT @BakerLuke: A sharp column, and perhaps one that could only be written by someone ending their assignment . A cracking job well done @d…
• Sun, 14:48: RT @MartinGenier: selon @SylvieBermann ancienne ambassadrice à Londres dans une tribune au @guardian Paris estime « qu’il est impos…
• Sun, 15:49: RT @SirJJQC: That’s quite a startling statement from the Lord Chancellor
• Sun, 18:41: The Story of Sex: From Apes to Robots, by Philippe Brenot and Laetitia Coryn https://t.co/hZ9ZsJ0nph
• Mon, 10:06: RT @Si_Hart: Maybe it’s a symptom of my mental state right now but I actually don’t care what anyone else thought about Doctor Who. All tha…

Second frame of third chapter (on Egypt):

This is actually a lot less exciting than it sounds, a brisk history of white people's sexuality (a follow-up volume looks at Asia and Africa) looking also at historical understandings of marriage and other sexual arrangements. Philippe Brenot is a veteran French sexologist who has written two dozen other books on the subject, and artist Laetitia Coryn is a well-known bandes dessinées writer who is also an actor and voiceover artist. It's not especially erotic, though it's certainly descriptive. In general the points landed fairly and not too didactically; but the scope is not particularly broad. Here's one nice frame about religion, sex and St Paul:

You can get it here.

This was my top unread comic in English (though originally in French). Next on that pile is the second volume of Kieron Gillen's Once and Future.

• Sat, 12:56: EM [Entitled Mother] ends my engagement and gets me banned from a steak house all in one night https://t.co/oJzZM9VIhm A classic from the bowels of Reddit.
• Sat, 13:00: RT @chriszbeckett: @nwbrux @slashfilm Interesting. Curious fact I recently learned is that in many of Fellini’s films, not only was the di…
• Sat, 14:48: No Protocol Christmas present, but NY resolution needed https://t.co/6fnQZiYMI6
• Sat, 15:43: Ghost Light, by Jonathan Dennis (and Marc Platt) https://t.co/qBxDozCsC4
• Sat, 16:05: RT @Glasgowin2024: Our first reveal for some fabulous supporter goodies is this fun colouring page of our winter logo by our very own @sill…
• Sat, 17:31: Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve https://t.co/vpv2829IKT
• Sat, 19:33: Feeling a lot better this evening to the point of cooking the family dinner. This also means reviving the tradition where U watches me cook while bopping to 80s classics on the iPad – here, the Pet Shop Boys’ Go West! https://t.co/k3mJdtFFkj
• Sat, 20:48: RT @seanwhelanRTE: A great long read for this weekend on the Anglo-Irish treaty debates 100 years ago. Deep background for Article 16 #Brex…
• Sun, 10:45: Jodie Whittaker on saying goodbye to Doctor Who: ‘I thought, what if I’ve ruined this for actresses?’ https://t.co/ssxSeLYXh9 She sounds lovely.

• Fri, 18:08: Exploding School to Pieces: Growing Up With Pop Culture In the 1970s, by Mick Deal https://t.co/R41z99rpwg
• Fri, 18:32: Friday reading https://t.co/TPccSaaXxC
• Sat, 10:45: Here’s Why Movie Dialogue Has Gotten More Difficult To Understand (And Three Ways To Fix It) https://t.co/vUarYRDxed Very interesting piece, though the ads on the @slashfilm site are really annoying.

Current
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
Lying Under the Apple Tree, by Alice Munro
This Town Will Never Let Us Go, by Lawrence Miles
The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence, 1918-1923, by Charles Townshend

Last books finished
The Last Defender of Camelot, by Roger Zelazny (2002) – did not finish
Shanghai Sparrow, by Gaie Sebold
Beautiful World, Where Are You, by Sally Rooney
Le dernier Atlas, Tome 3, by Fabien Vehlmann
A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine
Staring At The Sun, by Julian Barnes
Ann Veronica, by H. G. Wells
The Secret, by Eva Hoffman

Next books
"Blood Music", by Greg Bear
An Introduction to the Gospel of John, by Raymond E. Brown

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Another mindless new experience was the school assembly, which was held every morning in the main hall that passed also as a gymnasium. Mr Hall would address the pupils and then the music teacher, Mrs Hicks, would play some classical music on some beat-up old mono record player. I became very familiar with Ravel’s Bolero and Greig’s Peir Guint suite [sic] as a result. The most painful part of assembly though was the singing of hymns. We had all just been issued with new, plastic-covered hymn books, very tasty to nibble on, and it was from these that I’d learn the Christian hits of the day, such as ‘Morning Has Broken’ and ‘Onward Christian Soldiers’. It was all pretty painful stuff, not least because, before and after the hymns, we had to sit on the floor, crammed in like sardines. I would always suffer from pins and needles sat on that floor. Needless to say, it was actually a relief to stand up and complete the morning assembly by mumbling the Lord’s Prayer. Now that was a thing. The only part that ever made any sense to me was the bit about giving me my daily bread. Other than that I was lost. The bit about forgiving us our trespasses had me really confused — I had trespassed on other people’s property before, but I had never thought to ask for the Lord’s forgiveness. Was that what it meant?

I made the mistake of getting this in the middle of my Double Deckers fixation a few years back, because Google indicated that it does have a couple of references to the show, and I thought it might be some kind of academic analysis of the pop culture of the day. No such luck; it’s the autobiography of a not very interesting chap, who has not done even the most basic research on the things he is writing about (“ Greig’s Peir Guint ” !!!!) and really would not even be much use as a primary source for what is anyway a well-researched and well-archived period. I read the first couple of chapters and gave up. You can get it here.

This was the non-fiction book that had lingered longest unread on my (virtual) shelf. Next on that list is The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence, 1918-1923, by Charles Townshend.

• Thu, 12:56: RT @FinancialTimes: Opinion: Boris Johnson’s character and his government, with its taste for brinkmanship, mistrust of diplomats and campa…
• Thu, 17:19: This is the only place where I have seen the raw numbers. Barnier lost out by 1209 votes. (He turns 71 next month.) https://t.co/nhGr0uskZP
• Thu, 17:20: RT @Mij_Europe: All 3 losing candidates have backed @vpecresse. If she can win @lesRepublicains nomination on Sat she will be 1st ever offi…
• Thu, 18:08: Image of the Fendahl, by Simon Bucher-Jones (and Terrance Dicks) https://t.co/dj9DOyhe1C
• Thu, 21:48: COVID, day 15 https://t.co/7EII0QrLzB
• Fri, 10:44: RT @KatyJayne101: If anyone needs cheering up today Nigel Farage’s anti-cancel culture conference has been cancelled.
• Fri, 11:07: Merkel’s punk pick for leaving ceremony raises eyebrows https://t.co/CttebxrzsF For her farewell to German politics, Angela Merkel chose a 1970s Nina Hagen song about a girl who is upset that her boyfriend failed to take colour photos of her at the nudist beach (and elsewhere).

• Wed, 12:09: This was taped exactly 58 years ago, 1 Dec 1963, & has been giving me joy. The Beatles perform 3 songs and banter with Morecambe and Wise, & then John, Paul, George and Ernie sing “Moonlight Bay” à la Barbershop Quartet. Harmony in difference. https://t.co/ymQqDdp3EC
• Wed, 12:56: RT @simongerman600: What an amazing way to visualize early human migration. Lovely map by @HarvardCGA. A great colour scheme and an appropr…
• Wed, 14:44: Gladys Maud Sandes (1897-1968), my fourth cousin https://t.co/N9l3OwRKM4
• Wed, 15:48: RT @tvukzone: BREAKING: Sony Pictures Television officially announce the acquisition of a majority stake in Bad Wolf. (#DoctorWho #HisDarkM…
• Wed, 18:08: Summer, by Ali Smith https://t.co/80jBZok0kz
• Thu, 09:05: Weather report: it’s snowing. https://t.co/E86NP32tYw
• Thu, 10:45: RT @alexhallhall: I’ve had many ask why I took the job as Brexit Csllr, if I was as opposed to Brexit as my recent tweets now suggest? Or w…
• Thu, 11:00: Old Bexley & Sidcup, and its predecessor seats, have been Tory-held since Ted Heath first won by 133 votes in 1950. His Labour predecessor, Ashley Bramall, went on to lead the Inner London Education Authority 1970-81, & was also a Mastermind contestant. https://t.co/cP88DdhjTh

Idly filling in spaces in the family tree, which is about all I’ve had energy for of late, I discovered another celebrity relative, pioneering London gynæcologist Gladys Maud Sandes, my fourth cousin. Although she was born seventy years before me, in 1897, we are the same generation; her father John Sandes was born in 1868, sixty years before my father, his third cousin; Gladys’ grandmother, Anna Whyte, was born in 1835, forty-five years before my grandfather, her second cousin; Gladys’ great-grandfather, Charles John Whyte, was born in 1804, twenty-two years before my great-grandfather, his first cousin; and Gladys’ great-great-grandfather, another Charles John Whyte, was born in 1777, seven years before his younger brother, my own great-great-grandfather. She is from the same branch of the family tree as the unfortunate Letitia de la Beche, the Welsh lesbian campaigner and novelist Amy Dillwyn, and my cousins C, F and K.

The BMJ ran a great obituary of Gladys, which makes her sound like a true force of nature:

GLADYS M. SANDES, M.B., B.S., F.R.C.S.

Miss G. M. Sandes, former consultant surgeon to Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton, and to the Mothers' Hospital, London, died suddenly on 17 January. She was 70.

Gladys Maud Sandes was born in Dublin on 5 November 1897. She received her early education at Wimbledon High School. When her interest in medicine was aroused as a child she was taken by her headmistress to meet Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, then a very distinguished old lady. This memorable meeting remained a life-long inspiration to her. For her medical training she went to the London School of Medicine for Women (since 1947 the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine), qualifying with the Conjoint diploma in 1922, and graduating MB., B.S. the same year. She look the F.R.C.S. in 1930. Among her appointments was that of first assistant to the urological department at the Royal Free Hospital. She had been a consultant at Queen Mary's Hospital, Carshalton, and at the Mothers' Hospital, London. At the time of her death she was a member of the House Committee at Queen Mary's Hospital for the East End. She was at one time consultant surgeon to the London Lock and Marie Curie Hospitals, appointments which she prized and to which she gave devoted service. Her own interests and those of her husband, Dr. Maxwell Alston, and her capacity for hard work, took her to the wider contexts of medicine in the community. Both were active supporters of the Royal Society of Medicine and of the Faculty of the History of Medicine.

Miss Sandes was chairman of the Marylebone Division of the British Medical Association from 1955 to 1957, and was for many years their representative at the Annual Representative Meetings of the Association. She served on the Women's Advisory Committee of the British Standards Institution, was on the executive of the Fellowship for Freedom in Medicine, and chairman of the editorial committee of Mother and Child. She rendered a great but unobtrusive service in the area of patients with venereal diseases, and in particular to children who were the victims of sexual assaults. She served London University as a member of the Standing Committee of Convocation, and was an ardent supporter and one time chairman of the Old Students' Association of the Royal Free Hospital.

She retained an active and passionate interest in her training school, and countless students, member of staff, and their families were her patients. She was a part-time teacher in the anatomy department for 40 years, having joined the staff in 1927. With Dr. Evelyn Hewer she wrote a book for which many students have been profoundly grateful : An Introduction to the Study of the Nervous System, published in 1929. The first edition was so successful that a second one was called for in 1933. Throughout her association with the anatomy department, and after official retirement, she took endless trouble to enrich the material for teaching and research from her own resources and those of others who responded to her powers of persuasion. She would help struggling juniors with generous invitations to assist at private operations. Postgraduate students from abroad were received in her own home, and correspondence continued long after their return. Her vigour of mind and spirit took many forms and wss matched by an unremitting loyalty and service to people, institutions, and causes. These qualities were manifested in practical kindliness to friends and colleagues, by effective service on many committees, and, most of all, in her holistic view of medical practice. Her patients were not cases, but people seen in the content of their family, home, and work. There are many grateful for her professional care who were amazed to find that, in addition to having arranged for their admission to hospital, everything from preoperative dental appointments and additional help for their families to suitable convalescence had been organised for them by Miss Sandes. All this was accomplished at high speed in a firm and kindly manner that brooked neither delay not denial by her colleagues and assistants. Like many generously built people, she was a quick, a shrewd, and sometimes a devastating critic. Her innate and enormous kindliness did not prevent her from giving short shrift to fools.

She was an enthusiastic traveller in many countries in Europe, and she visited Canada, the United Slates of America, Russia, and South Africa. She was always adding to her well-stored mind, catholicity of interests, and to her circle of friends and acquaintances. The interest and efforts of the latter were often enlisted to help those whom she supported. Her gratitude to Wimbledon High School, where she had been an all-round success, was shown in many ways, including membership of the Committee of Friends of the Girls' Public Day Schools Trust.

Born a Dubliner, she was an active member of the Irish Genealogical Society, With this background, it is not surprising that she was witty, a telling debater, and a very bonny fighter, whether against seemingly over-whelming illnesses or against powers and principalities. Few can have been as indefatigable as Miss Sondes. Despite fatigue she had returned to work after influenza, and she died in harness to the end, as she and all who cared for her would have wished. Her generous, responsive, and energetic presence will be missed in many circles, and the sympathy of her numerous friend. is extended to her husband, and to their daughter, Lilac.—M. F. L. K. and R. E. M. B.

Sir Alexander HADDOW writes: To the above tribute and appreciation may I append a few lines. The name of Gladys Sondes will ever stand in the history and tradition of medical women in this country. Yet her interests ranged immensely deeper. Everything flowed from a personality of unique vigour and power. To her professional work she brought knowledge and decision, to such an extent as (for the unknowing) on occasion obscured far profounder qualities of perception and of compassion. Not only in the medical sphere but in others also she brought succour to countless numbers when succour was most needed, and often did it by stealth.

Her wider sympathies and intermits ranged from Irish genealogy to courageous support—quite outside the line of ordinary duty—of many public and liberal causes in the spheres of social morality and scientific responsibility —causes which seem, and to a large extent still remain, scarcely popular. Above all we shall keep Gladys Sondes in remembrance as the ideal and steadfast friend, ever helpful in her wisdom and ever kind in one's difficulties, although not uncritical. It was the quality of friendship which mattered most—a quality expressed through that unique mien and through those unforgettable eyes. Friendship we assume all too easily in early years and only realize fully as we grow older—at the very time when death removes our friends. This is the nexus of medicine and indeed of all science. As yet we cannot understand it, but must labour so to do. Although the body is gone, in a strange way Gladys Sondes is still present. We loved her dearly and always shall.

N.M. writes: Mrs. Alston, known to all as Miss Sondes, joined the staff of the Mothers' Hospital and was consultant in charge of the V.D. and vaginal discharge clinics. We all at the "Mothers' "—medical staff, nursing staff, and patients—had the highest regard for her. She had great personal charm, a delightful sense of humour, and an amazing capacity for work. She always found time to take a keen interest is the hospital as a whole, and she remained a member of the House Committee after retirement. Her clear thinking, wit, and worldly experience were always such a help, and she will be missed by all of us.

I hope it will be some time before it happens to me, but it would be nice to be the subject of such fulsome tributes from one’s colleagues!

Not mentioned here, but discussed in her Wikipedia article: the London Lock Hospital, to which she devoted her early career, was the first London specialist hospital devoted to sexually transmitted diseases. It was closed as part of the process of introducing the NHS, because it was believed that antibiotics would eradicate all STDs in the short term, so specialist hospital treatment would no longer be needed. Marginalised women, of course, were the big losers of this policy decision.

Gladys and her husband had one child, a daughter born when Gladys was 44. She was a cover girl for Country Life in 1963:

As far as I can tell, she is still alive and has two living children; her husband died exactly a year ago today, after 49 years of marriage. I have no contact with them, but hope this post will comfort and amuse them if they come across it.

Edited to add: Fellow Balkanologists will be interested to know that Gladys was also the fourth cousin of Flora Sandes, the famous Englishwoman who joined the Serbian army in WWI, both 3x great-granddaughters of John Sandes of Kerry (1640-1733) and his wife Mary Blennerhassett. They probably did not know each other well – Flora was more than twenty years older, they were not closely related and they never lived near each other. But given Gladys’ interest in genealogy, she must at least have been well aware of the connection.

• Tue, 12:56: Wil Wheaton, on separating Art from Artist. https://t.co/YYd0xwwjeX
• Tue, 16:05: Gladys Maud Sandes (1897-1968) https://t.co/0UKOVKWzfN Turns out this pioneering London gynaecologist was my fourth cousin.
• Tue, 17:11: RT @reclamation2022: Eastercon is the UK’s longest running SF convention. 2022’s Guests of Honour include @MaryRobinette, @tashadrinkstea,…
• Tue, 18:15: November 2021 books https://t.co/e48u0wt6yd
• Tue, 20:48: RT @ianbremmer: Germany’s Olaf Scholz (set to be the next chancellor) and US Senator Chris Coons. For the record, we HAVE seen both in th…
• Tue, 23:27: RT @Wiswell: THEY FUNGED https://t.co/HdZoJIi7AT
• Tue, 23:34: RT @bbcdoctorwho: “What’s the point in being alive if it’s not to make others happy?” A very happy birthday to our man Dan, @JohnBishop1…
• Wed, 10:45: How the Beano broke the rules https://t.co/vYPgXiouWk Sounds like a really good exhibition in Somerset House.
• Wed, 11:49: RT @johnston_nessa: Back in 1991 I drew a comic strip, sent it into #RTE‘s #TheDen and Zig and Zag acted it out and did the voices and ever…

Non-fiction 6 (YTD 44)
Paul: A Biography, by Tom Wright
Building Healthy Boundaries: An Over-giver’s Guide to Knowing When to Say ‘Yes’ and How to Say ‘No’ in Relationships, by Helen Snape
Image of the Fendahl, by Simon Bucher-Jones
Ghost Light, by Jonathan Dennis
A Beautiful Mind, by Sylvia Nasar
Exploding School to Pieces: Growing Up With Pop Culture In the 1970s, by Mick Deal – did not finish

Non-genre 3 (YTD 27)
The Ice Cream Army, by Jessica Gregson
Summer, by Ali Smith
Beautiful World, Where Are You, by Sally Rooney

Poetry 1 (YTD 5)
The Lay of Aotrou and Itroun, by J R R Tolkien, ed. Verlyn Flieger

SF 13 (YTD 122)
Not Before Sundown, by Johanna Sinisalo
The Empire of Gold, by S.A. Chakraborty – did not finish
The Eyre Affair, by Jasper Fforde
The Burning God, by R.F. Kuang
Camouflage, by Joe Haldeman
Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve
River of Gods, by Ian McDonald
Waste Tide, by Qiufan Chen
Iron Council, by China Miéville – did not finish
One Bright Star to Guide Them, by John C. Wright
The Last Witness, by K.J. Parker [Tom Holt]
The Last Defender of Camelot, by Roger Zelazny (2002) – did not finish
Shanghai Sparrow, by Gaie Sebold

Doctor Who 5 (YTD 23, 31 inc comics and non-fiction)
The Book of the War, ed. Lawrence Miles
The HAVOC Files 3, ed. Andy Frankham-Allen
The Witchfinders, by Joy Wilkinson
Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl, by Terrance Dicks
Doctor Who – Ghost Light, by Marc Platt

Comics 3 (YTD 37)
Sweeney Todd & Other Stories, by Neil Gaiman
The Story of Sex: From Apes to Robots, by Philippe Brenot and Laetitia Coryn
Le dernier Atlas, Tome 3, by Fabien Vehlmann and Gwen de Bonneval

7,300 pages (YTD 67,900)
12/31 (YTD 111/262) by non-male writers (Snape, Nasar, Gregson, Smith, Rooney, Flieger, Sinisalo, Chakraborty, Kuang, Sebold, Wilkinson, Coryn; Gwen de Bonneval is male)
4/31 (YTD 41/262) by PoC (Nasar, Chakraborty, Kuang, Chen)
5/31 rereads (YTD 31/262) – Camouflage, River of Gods, Iron Council, Doctor Who and the Image of the Fendahl, Doctor Who – Ghost Light

Current
The Lord of the Rings, by J.R.R. Tolkien
A Desolation Called Peace, by Arkady Martine
Ann Veronica, by H. G. Wells
Lying Under the Apple Tree, by Alice Munro

Coming soon (perhaps)
The Republic: The Fight for Irish Independence, 1918-1923, by Charles Townshend
"Blood Music", by Greg Bear
An Introduction to the Gospel of John, by Raymond E. Brown
An Excess Male, by Maggie Shen King
The Idiot Brain: A Neuroscientist Explains What Your Head is Really Up To, by Dean Burnett
Seven Deadly Sins, by Neil Gaiman
The 48 Laws Of Power, by Robert Greene
A Little Gold Book of Ghastly Stuff, by Neil Gaiman
The Martian Chronicles, by Ray Bradbury
Jani and the Greater Game, by Eric Brown
Animal Dreams, by Barbara Kingsolver
Calvin, by F. Bruce Gordon
Staring At The Sun, by Julian Barnes
Once & Future Vol. 2, by Kieron Gillen et al
Tower, by Nigel Jones
Air, by Geoff Ryman
Scherven, by Erik De Graaf
The Space Machine, by Christopher Priest
A Darker Shade, ed. John-Henri Holmberg
The War in the Air, by H. G. Wells

• Mon, 12:56: RT @English_Channel: This painting is titled: Would It Hurt You To Put The Dirty Bowl In The Dishwasher? https://t.co/AjciNqO6UZ
• Mon, 18:05: February 2014 books https://t.co/4FKxKyW9Vx
• Tue, 10:45: A great process of voting on the best Blake’s 7 episodes, which inevitably ends up here. https://t.co/4H9f6pIIfJ

This is the latest post in a series I started in late 2019, anticipating the twentieth anniversary of my bookblogging which will fall in 2023. Every six-ish days, I've been revisiting a month from my recent past, noting work and family developments as well as the books I read in that month. I've found it a pleasantly cathartic process, especially in recent circumstances. If you want to look back at previous entries, they are all tagged under bookblog nostalgia.

At work, my Swedish intern L left and was replaced by another L, this time English. Swedish L has gone on to a career in international affairs, and announced her first pregnancy a couple of weeks ago. Work otherwise continued to be grim. My only trip that month was to London for a Worldcon planning meeting, with the evening of the 28th seeing the start of the Jonathan Ross debacle, probably the worst media storm any Worldcon has ever had to face.

Here's B at the ruined church that she loves in Tienen:

I read 19 books that month:

Non-fiction 5 (YTD 9)

Double Down, by Mark Halperin and John Heileman
Science Fiction: The 101 Best Novels, by Damien Broderick and Paul di Filippo
Jane Austen, by Claire Tomalin
The Kindness of Strangers, by Kate Adie
The Unfolding Of Language, by Guy Deutscher

Fiction (non-sf) 2 (YTD 6)
Empire of the Sun, by J.G. Ballard
The Snowman, by Jo Nesbø

SF (non-Who) 6 (YTD 12)
Crowe's Requiem, by Mike McCormack
God's War, by Kameron Hurley
The Shining, by Stephen King
Evening's Empires, by Paul McAuley
Ack-Ack Macaque, by Gareth L. Powell
The Adjacent, by Christopher Priest

Doctor Who 6 (YTD 11)
Speed of Flight, by Paul Leonard
GodEngine, by Craig Hinton
The Adventuress of Henrietta Street, by Lawrence Miles
The Forever Trap, by Dan Abnett
Into the Nowhere, by Jenny Colgan
Keeping Up With the Joneses, by Nick Harkaway

6,300 pages (YTD 12,800)
4/19 (YTD 13/40) by women (Tomalin, Adie, Hurley, Colgan)
0/19 (YTD 1/40) by PoC

The best of these were J.G. Ballard's Empire of the Sun, which you can get here, and Claire Tomalin's Jane Austen, which you can get here. None particularly awful. 

• Sun, 13:38: RT @astroehlein: If being asked to wear a mask in some places during a global pandemic is really the greatest “oppression” you’ve ever face…
• Sun, 16:49: The Ice Cream Army, by Jessica Gregson https://t.co/LTGT6VyNM9
• Sun, 17:30: Doctor Who: The Witchfinders, by Joy Wilkinson https://t.co/ShZZ2lNec1

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Right now, it was hurtling on a course towards Westminster Abbey on the bright, frost-flowered morning of 15 January 1559. After their tangle with sinister robots and exploding bubble-wrap at Kerblam!, the whole fam favoured a trip into a tech-free era, far enough back to not jeopardise the existence of any close relatives, but somewhere civilised enough to have decent grub and no cesspits to mess up Ryan's new trainers. Graham suggested the coronation of Elizabeth I, as the feast and flooring were bound to be top notch, and also because his recording of Cate Blanchett's film Elizabeth had clashed with his series-linked Bake Off repeats, so it seemed easier to hop back and watch the real deal rather than hunt down a DVD.

This is actually the first novelisation of any Thirteenth Doctor story to be published. I was one of the relatively few who really did not appreciate the televised story it is based on, writing:

This one also fell very flat for me, my personal low point of the series, though a lot of people seem to have loved it; it simply had too many egregious historical errors for me to enjoy it. I was reminded of my similarly hostile reaction to The Plotters, a Who spinoff novel set in the same historical period. Alan Cumming is clearly having great fun as King James; perhaps a bit too much.

I'm glad to say that I liked the novelisation a bit more. As is often the case when bulking out a 50-minute script to 178 pages of novel, Wilkinson has used the extra latitude to give a lot more depth to her setting and characters – particularly the villainous Becka Savage, whose means and motivation are made a lot clearer. She also has the Doctor discovering that being treated as a woman isn't much fun. And the ending is changed, tying in to wider Who continuity. Definitely worth getting hold of, for a Who fan. Not really sure I could recommend to others! You can get it here.

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Irfan had been quieter than usual for a couple of weeks. As the ship ploughed on, southbound and unstoppable, he’d seemed paler, too, and while Irfan had always coughed for as long as Halim could remember, a dry-throated tickle that flared up when he was nervous or embarrassed, the racking, shuddering cough that he had picked up on the ship was new, a cough that seemed to rattle his membranes and tear him up from the inside out. Irfan had assured him that he was perfectly fine, it was just a bit of a cough, it was the change of environment and the dusty, thick-aired dormitory, and Halim had believed him because he’d wanted to believe him, despite his friend’s uncharacteristic lethargy, his increasing reluctance to explore the ports when the ship docked, with the unconvincing excuse that he wanted to stay on the boat and study the English primer he’d filched off one of the Arab boys when his back was turned. That morning, when they had docked in Ceylon, it had been Halim urging Irfan to come and investigate the docks, instead of the other way round. Irfan, sitting, sweating, on the over-bright deck, had just shaken his head, and when Halim insisted, increasingly concerned, Irfan had just grinned wearily and told Halim to tell him all about it later, and when Halim did return, hours later, having swarmed around the port with a haphazard collection of Italian and Egyptian boys, resolutely refusing to worry, he had found Irfan in the exact same position that he’d left him in the English primer, tellingly propped open at the same page Halim and Irfan had been poring over the night before. In all his life; Halim had never known Irfan to sit still for minutes at a time, let alone hours, and he finally collected his courage and demanded to know what was wrong.

Jess is about to publish her third novel, so it’s just as well that I’ve finally caught up with her second. This is an intensely told tale of two Turkish ice-cream sellers and the young Irish woman who befriends them in the Australian outback during the first world war. Things go downhill very rapidly after Gallipoli – even the Turks’ fellow Muslims, mostly Arabs from other parts of the Ottoman Empire, start to shun them – and the situation accelerates to a dramatic ending based on a real historical incident. A grim story told with a very human touch. You can get it here.

I’m sorry to say that this was the non-genre fiction book that had lingered longest unread on my shelves. Next on that pile is Lying Under the Apple Tree, by Alice Munro.

• Sat, 12:56: RT @patmcfaddenmp: Attached is our APPG report out today on Sickle Cell and health care. A story of frustration, lack of understanding, in…
• Sat, 15:34: Latest instalment of @OctothorpeCast. I am invoked at 13:15 and briefly audible at 35:20. https://t.co/uP7RL7q6tu https://t.co/PPxxgVEm19
• Sat, 16:44: Chicago (2002) https://t.co/pj1Hylmbyk
• Sat, 20:12: Not a lot better today in fact, and I’ve been out of bed less than yesterday. I am coughing a bit more but I’ll https://t.co/9wq2VFvIMO
• Sat, 20:13: COVID, day 10 and 620 days of plague https://t.co/adULJEpyj8 #covid19
• Sat, 20:48: Watch how still it keeps its head! https://t.co/vmpqqiNxtr
• Sat, 21:31: RT @simongerman600: This animated map allows us to relive the COVID pandemic in Europe in less that a minute (20 Jan 2020 to 20 Nov 2021).…
• Sun, 04:22: “Mr. Widgett was a journalist and art critic, addicted to a greenish-gray tweed suit and “art” brown ties; he smoked corncob pipes in the Avenue on Sunday morning, travelled third class to London by unusual trains, and openly despised golf.”
• Sun, 04:39: “But is that really so?” said Ann Veronica. “It has been proved,” said Miss Miniver, and added, “by American professors.” “But how did they prove it?” “By science,” said Miss Miniver, and hurried on.