PGMCC explores the Biblioverse in 2026: instalment TWO

Books completed in 2025

Title; Author; Start/end date; Number of pages
The Green Man's Holiday by Juliet E. McKenna, 29/12/2025 - 01/01/2026, 322 Pages
Christmas Ghost Stories edited by A. R. Wells 04/01/2026 - 14/01/2026 249 Pages
Rum Punch by Elmore Leonard 25/12/2025 - 12/01/2026 297 Pages
Tradecraft: Writers on John Le Carré edited by Federico Varese 09/01/2026 - 172 Pages
The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner by James Hogg 15/01/2026 - 06/02/2026 267 Pages
One Good Turn by Kate Atkinson 20/01/2026 - 27/01/2026 526 Pages
Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett 26/01/2026 - 31/01/2026 288 Pages
Kolymsky Heights by Lionel Davidson 03/02/2026 - 22/02/2026 454 Pages
Everyone this Christmas has a Secret by Benjamin Stevenson 16/02/2026- 20/02/2026 240 Pages
The Immaculate Deception by Ian Pears 23/02/2026 - 26/02/2026 213 Pages
When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson 27/02/2026 - 06/03/2026 497 Pages
A Flutter of Wings by Mervyn Wall 27/02/2026 - 219 Pages
All of Us Murderers by KJ Charles 03/03/2026 - 10/03/20/2026 352 Pages
The Riverside Villas Murder by Kingsley Amis 10/03/2026 - 12/03/2026 224 Pages
Big Steal by Caimh McDonnell 16/03/2026 - 23/03/2026 348 Pages
Outline by Rachel Cusk 13/03/2026 - 15/03/2026 258 Pages
Started Early, Took My Dog by Kate Atkins 25/03/2026 - 480 Pages

I have been reading Kolymsky Heights and have about 100 pages to go. So why have I started Everyone this Christmas has a Secret without first finishing Kolmsky Heights?

Answers on a postcard to…

Well, the answer is my copy of Kolymsky Heights is a physical book and I am travelling light and only wanted to carry my kindle. I will have to wait a week to read the denouement. This way I built the suspense.

By the way, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret has me laughing out loud in public places.

Happy New Thread!

>2 pgmcc: There should be more books that have you laughing out loud in public places 😁

Happy new thread! I hope you had a sunny morning in Oxford, as we did in London.

Happy new thread! I can't wait to see photos of your excursion to Oxford.

>3 Alexandra_book_life:
Thank you.

I agreed with your comment books that make you laugh out loud.

>4 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you for the new thread good wishes.

We did indeed have a lovely sunny morning in Oxford, thank you very much. It was cold and the afternoon was not quite as sunny.

>5 clamairy:
Thank you for the good wishes on my new thread.

The photos will have to wait until I am home and have access to my laptop. I have not mastered posting photos on LT using my phone. There will, however be updates on this thread. Possibly a few pictures on Facebook.

Oxford Day 1:

It was a beautiful sunny morning in Oxford. Cold and crisp but beautiful and dry.

Our morning involved a walk to the Weston Library, part of the Bodleian Library complex, where the John Le Carré Tradecraft exhibition is located. It is a wonderful exposé of Le Carré’s research, drafting and finishing his books. There is a lot of material on his contacts and travels while researching his books. These materials are cleverly grouped by book which makes it very interesting.

I hadn’t realised that he modelled some characters on his son Nick and Nick’s wife.

We had a brief lunch in the Bodleian café and then I had a look at a cabinet that exhibited memorability of Jane Austen. @jillmwo, rest assured, I took photographs and will post them for you when back home.

Of course we had to go into the Bodleian shop. Yes, I did buy a book. Looking After Your Books, a Bodleian Library publication about, you guessed it, looking after your books.

In the afternoon we went on a Morse tour. It was excellent and the guide was superbly knowledgeable. She has written a book about the subject, a book that, by coincidence, a friend lent me on Sunday evening. He had done the tour recently and greatly recommend the tour guide he had. Another coincidence; we had the same guide.

I would strongly recommend the tour as not just a guide about Morse, Lewis and Endeavour, but also a great introduction to Oxford, the colleges and the libraries.

Afterwards we went looking for someplace for a cup of tea and found the Gulp Fiction bookshop which sells hot beverages and alcoholic drinks. It is a lovely bohemian space and I found a book which I had been waiting to see in paperback, The Haunted Wood by Sam Leigh.

We are now resting in our hotel room before dinner having had a wonderful day in Oxford.

Oops! I nearly forgot. While waiting to meet our tour guide we walked about 100 yards north to see The Eagle and Child and The Lamb and Flag, the two pubs where Tolkein and C. S. Lewis used to meet. Unfortunately The Eagle and Child is obstructed by screens while renovations are in progress.

>7 pgmcc: You're off to a fabulous start in Oxford, including some sunny weather. I'm intrigued by a few things here: the mention of the Austen collection exhibit, the Morse tour, and most definitely the two pubs!! So sorry that one of them was shrouded from view - why be so coy, renovator-people? Geez. I'd love to see it even if undergoing an upgrade.

The mention of a bohemian bookshop makes me smile, too. Oxford sounds like a blast, and you're just getting started.

Stay warm, safe and have fun! We will of course expect photographic evidence of all you have described.

>7 pgmcc: What a wonderful first day you've had. I am very happy for you.

I am looking forward to more updates 😊

>7 pgmcc: Gulp Fiction: ah, I see, in the Covered Market.

The Eagle and Child closed during the Covid lockdown — must be re-opening.

>7 pgmcc: Happy new thread! And what a splendid (and busy) day in Oxford. I am agog for the photos re the Austen exhibit, perhaps some from the Morse tour (?) and all the other visual proofs you will share. Glad you got to the Bodleian Bookshop. As an aside, I keep meaning to lay my hands on The Haunted Wood.

>7 pgmcc: That sounds like a great day! I haven't been to Gulp Fiction, although IIRC there are a couple of booksellers in the covered market. The haunted wood was a good find. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! I had heard that the Bird and Baby had closed; if it's being renovated in preparation for reopening then that is great news. I had some good lunches there in the past.

ETA When the default touchstone for The haunted wood came up, I had to double check which book you had actually bought. The book by Allen Weinstein looked like it would be a fitting addition to your library!

I'm very much looking forward to some adventures with you tomorrow!

>12 Sakerfalcon:
We are looking forward to seeing you too. If today is anything to go by you will need to wrap up well. Currently we are in The Morse Bar enjoying the ambiance and warmth. Lunch is arriving soon. :-)

The Weinstein book does look interesting.

Oxford Day 2:
Today was not as busy as yesterday but was pleasant and interesting. We started by scoping out a roof-top restaurant for this evening’s dinner. It gave us a view of the Oxford skyline with its spires and college architecture.

Next we headed to the Oxfam Bookshop where I acquired two books and my wife acquired three. Details of the books purchased will be forthcoming in a subsequent post.

Next we travelled to the covered market where we had a cup of tea in the bookshop come coffee shop come bar that we visited yesterday - Gulp Fiction. Yes, I bought a book.

We stayed there a while drinking tea and reading before heading out to visit The Morse Bar at The Randolph Hotel. The Morse Bar has photographs and portraits of John Thaw both as himself and in the character of the iconic Morse. The bar is very luxurious and classical music that Morse loved is playing quietly in the background creating a wonderful ambiance. That is where we had lunch.

As it happens. A bookshop recommended by @Sakerfalcon, The Last Bookshop, is just next door to The Randolph. Sure we had to go in.

My wife bought a book…but I did not. There were a couple I was thinking of getting but I think the damage I have done so far might already be threatening our baggage allowance. :-)

We have returned to our hotel and are reading and drinking tea. We shall rest before going out for dinner.

>14 pgmcc: Surely there is a local FedEx office or similar shipping entity there in Oxford that might be willing to ship your books home for you? Eases up the concerns over baggage allowance and minimize shoulder strains as one maneuvers through various arrival/departure. (Also allows you to acquire EVEN MORE BOOKS...)

>14 pgmcc: This was a good day for buying books, I think 😁

>14 pgmcc: Sounds like a perfect day so far. Stay warm!

>14 pgmcc: Enjoyable and laid-back day, with books included! Love the rooftop restaurant idea.

I agree with @jillmwo's idea of shipping home book purchases - after all, you just got there! Just getting started. :)

>2 pgmcc: Benjamin Stevenson is coming to town for a book talk in March! I’m excited to hear him speak. It’s at a tiny indie bookstore, too, so nice and small.

Happy new thread! Sounds like a great trip. 'Gulp Fiction' is a perfect name for a bookstore.

Just a quick drive-by post to say we are on the train to the airport at the end of our week in Oxford. Updates and replies will follow, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon.

Safe journey home! At least you have plenty to read on the way.

>22 Sakerfalcon:
Understatement! :-)

>21 pgmcc: I hope the trip is uneventful, unless they are very pleasant events!

Blackwell's Bookshop, Broadstreet, Oxford


This is the basement of the Blackwell's Bookshop on Broadstreet in Oxford. It holds approximately 150,000 books on three miles of shelving. Above it one finds four floors full of books. I entered the basement, which is called The Norrington Room, from the main store. In the opposite left corner in the picture is a doorway that leads into the basement of another Blackwell bookshop down the street. I had to sit down and have a calming cup of tea after exploring this bookshop.

Oh wow! I've only been to the Blackwell's London branch. This photo is wonderful and what a magnificent experience! I would have needed several Diet Cokes and a snack to recover.

>25 pgmcc: I love this! Very impressive :) I would also want a cup of tea afterwards.

>25 pgmcc: That looks like paradise.

>24 clamairy:
I hope the trip is uneventful, unless they are very pleasant events!

It was at the railway station that things started to go off the rail. When we went to scan our tickets to go onto the platform the machine made a rude noise and would not open the gate. There happened to be a helpful staff member at hand to looked at my ticket and said, "Your ticket is for Friday the 20th...of March".

Ooops! Obviously a senior moment back in January when I was booking for the trip.

Well, I had to go to the ticket counter where another helpful member of staff helped us get tickets for our journey and managed to minimise the extra cost to us.

This is why I have asked @jillmwo to pass on the washcloth when she is finished with it. (Point of information: I grew up using the term "facecloth". It appears to be falling into disuse with the increased appearance of "washcloth". It is only recently I have noticed people saying or writing "washcloth". I still use the term facecloth, but used washcloth here because that is what @jillmwo used.)

Anyway, we accepted the world as it was and got on our train to Birmingham airport.

At the airport we settled on a rather expensive place to eat. We picked it as a special treat and because it was the least crowded and most comfortable place to sit for our six hour wait in a pretty crowded airport.

When our food arrived and we were about to eat I received a text message from one of my sisters. It asked, "Are you home yet?"

This sister is twelve years my senior and is also my godmother, or as she always says, my fairy godmother. We are very close. It was not usual for her to send a text message during the day so I suspected something was up. I called her. After she enquired about our trip to Oxford she said she wanted to tell me something before I heard it from anyone else. She then told me about her trip to the hospital the previous day and how she had tumours in her neck and the hospital will be doing a CT scan to decide on the treatment approach. She has always been very discreet about he health, but she has been suffering from a form of cancer for some years. She said this is a "progression" of that. This was not good news. It was not the type of thing one wants to hear at the end of a great week.

On other non-positive points, we were aware that our son had discovered the dishwasher would not work for him. He had informed us of this on Tuesday. When we arrived home at about 1:30am on Saturday morning, my birthday, he informed us that the central heating had stopped working and that the thought we were out of oil.

Well, I discovered that the dishwasher was "locked". We have only had it a couple of months and it has touch controls which activate at the slightest touch. Apparently the lock button had been touched. What was confusing was that to switch if off one had to touch it for three seconds. Once off the machine worked perfectly.

I checked the central heating which I thought should have had oil left as we had a delivery fairly recently. My conclusion was that we were out of oil. :-(

On Saturday morning I called the oil company, a local supplier who has been providing us with excellent service for over thirty years and ordered a tank of oil. He said it would be Monday. :-( I asked if he could deliver it any earlier and he said he would try to work it in for Saturday. At about 2pm his delivery man arrived and we are now enjoying heat in the house. The delivery man said he was very busy. I can imagine it at this time of year and with the weather being so cold and miserable.

So, except for the news from my sister the other negative happenings were minor and easily resolved.

>26 libraryperilous:
Recovery time was necessary.

>27 Alexandra_book_life:
Definite post traumatic experience treatment required.

>28 clamairy:
I have to admit that as I wandered around the basement looking at the extensive subject coverage and the number of books in every subject I suspected I had arrived in paradise. That is what it felt like.

Last evening we ate a Chinese takeaway and drank red wine while watching the 1944 movie The Mask of Dimitrios based on Eric Ambler's 1938 novel of the same name and also known as A Coffin for Dimitrios. I have been wanting to see this film since I read the book some years ago. The fact that it features Peter Lorré and Sydney Greenstreet added to my sincere desire to watch it.



It took me years to locate a copy and the version I managed to get is a Spanish release. Thankfully there is an option to watch it with the original soundtrack.

It did not disappoint. I cannot imagine any film with Peter Lorré and Sydney Greenstreet being a disappointment. I recommend it to anyone who has a liking of old spy movies/classic gangster movies. It was a joy to watch and has a great ending line from Sydney Greenstreet.

There is not enough kindness in the World today!

>29 pgmcc: Oh no! I am so sorry about your sister's diagnosis. Sending hugs your way and good juju her way.

As for the dishwasher locking itself, I had the same issue with mine in CT. People would inadvertently lean up against the touch panel and lock it, or worse, start it. My solution was to start locking it every time I emptied it. I will never buy another one with a touch panel on the front again.

>29 pgmcc: My mom always called them washcloths. I don't know if it's a Southern US thing or what. Facecloth is what many upscale catalogs of home goods call them. (I can't afford those catalogs for the most part.)

The ticket thing has happened at least once to every single person I know, regardless of age. At least they worked with you to minimize any extra cost. A six hour lay-over in the airport is no fun at the best of times. But you did ultimately get home which is the critical aspect.

Appliances have stopped being a convenience and are now merely ways for corporate engineers and software developers to torment the consumer. ("I'm from the IRS and I'm here to help you.)

Your sister's news is hard to take, I know. (((Hugs)))

>32 clamairy:
Thank you! This is a great place for support at bad times.

>33 jillmwo:
Facecloth is what many upscale catalogs of home goods call them. (I can't afford those catalogs for the most part.)

Is this your way of indirectly calling me a snob? :-)

Our six hour wait was intentional. I booked the latest plane leaving Birmingham for Dublin to ensure we were not under pressure on our journey from Oxford to the airport. I am one of those people, and my wife is also, that does not mind sitting around waiting for something if I have a good book. My wife is currently engrossed in a P. G. Wodehouse and that helped her tremendously.

I hear you about appliances. It used to be they had built in obsolescence to maximise the amount of money they can extract from you. Now they want you to feel miserable when using it too.

Thank you for the hugs.

>34 pgmcc: "It used to be they had built in obsolescence to maximise the amount of money they can extract from you. Now they want you to feel miserable when using it too."

I'm laughing through the tears...

@jillmwo It's a washcloth! (It's not just for faces!) Google says they are not the same although people use the term interchangeably. A facecloth is usually made out of softer material, while a washcloth is usually heavier duty. Apparently I don't own any facecloths.

>35 clamairy:
Am I the only snob here?

How nice!

>36 pgmcc: If you were a snob you'd be calling it a flannel. ;o)

I have reviews to write and Oxford updates to provide, but the excellent Morse tour we took last Tuesday has given my wife the desire to watch the Morse episodes again. When she mentioned that she would like to see I used my phone to surreptitiously order the box set that was waiting for us as we arrived home at 1:30 am on Saturday. I promised I would only be a few minutes on my computer so I now have to rush off and watch the first Morse episode. The great thing about Morse episodes is that they are two hours long, so a good story can be told.

>37 clamairy:
Oh, that hurt. Now I am being socially downgraded. :-)

What ho! Jeeves.

>29 pgmcc: I am very sorry to hear about your sister's diagnosis. Sending healing wishes and many hugs.

>40 Alexandra_book_life:
Thank you. Much appreciated.

>29 pgmcc: I'm so sorry to hear this news about your sister. Hopefully she will get an effective treatment plan very soon. Hugs.

Re: the "locked" dishwasher - this is apparently a new thing for appliances. I have this feature on my washing machine, and sometimes it doesn't unlock itself at the end of a wash cycle and I have to literally pull the plug just to reset it. Not a fan!

Aside from returning home to upsetting news and household problems, I'm glad your trip was so enjoyable.

>33 jillmwo: I grew up in the Midwest, and my mom always referred to them as a washcloth. That's what I've always called them. Never an issue until last summer in Paris, where the hotel didn't supply the bathroom with any. I asked at the front desk if housekeeping would bring a washcloth to my room, and got a blank stare.

>29 pgmcc: So sorry about your sister, Peter. Best wishes to her from us.

Your senior moment about the ticket beats the time I checked Mrs H in for a flight from Doha to London on the wrong day. The online check-in didn't protest because Qatar Airways' online check-in allows you to check in 48 hours before a flight. I tried to check her in for a flight on Monday when her flight was actually on Tuesday. At the airport, yes, the gate wouldn't open. No harm done.

As to your seaside residence: one of my abiding memories from an Earth Sciences course that i did at Macquarie University is of a lecturer discussing the prospects for sea levels rising. He said that before coming in that morning he had looked up the topographic data for the building we were in, and he estimated that in 100 years' time, sea level would be about six rows from the back of the lecture theatre. This was in 1980. (The Macquarie Uni campus in suburban Sydney, several miles from the nearest bit of ocean.

I finished Kolymsky Heights this morning. This is a book a friend strongly recommended telling me it was brilliant. It is an ok spy thriller, but is not brilliant. My review is attached.



Things I did not like about it:
- It was totally dependent on the “Ninja” character. A person who could do everything, was super intelligent, has amazing linguistic skills, oozes charisma and charm, and who has the amazing ability to make friends with anyone.
- The cycle of plans made and then being derailed needing ingenious innovation from the hero became boring.
- There were too many dodgy arrangements that all had to work for the hero’s plans to work out. Too often things went right to give verisimilitude to the story. When things went wrong the hero was able to pull things out of the fire no matter how desperate the circumstances.
- Too many info-dumps.

We were not snobs and called them facecloths all when I was growing up. I don't have to refer to them often, but I still call them that.

>30 pgmcc: Sorry to hear about your sister's news, I hope further testing gives good results.

Doesn't your oil company deliver on a schedule based on 'degree days', so you don't run out like that?

>29 pgmcc: Sorry to hear your sister's news. Hope the treatment options come through for her.

>29 pgmcc: I'm sorry to hear your sister's diagnosis, and of the other mishaps you returned home to. I'm glad the household issues are fixed and hope that your sister has good doctors to give her the best care.

>45 Bookmarque:
I think the increase in showering has reduced facecloth usage.

>46 Karlstar:
Thank you for the good wishes. My sister is 81 and says she is starting to feel it.

Our supplier is a small family distributor and would not have sophistication for such a system. Also, our usage tends to fluctuate a lot depending on room usage , whether we have people staying with us, whether or not we are on missions abroad, and, last but not least, the weather. Weather here is quite variable and fluctuates a lot. It would be difficult to have a reliable model to prevent our running out of oil.

>47 AHS-Wolfy:
Thank you. That is what we are all hoping.

>48 Sakerfalcon:
Thank you, Claire. Her specialist is someone she has been dealing with for ten years and my sister likes her a lot.

I have started reading The Immaculate Deception by Ian Pears. I picked because I have not read any of his books for a long time and because after finishing a rather lengthy book I was something short and light. The book is about the theft of a painting in Rome and the dilemma it lands the acting head of the police’s art theft division in.

Did you see he wrote a non-fiction book recently - Parallel Lives: A Love Story from a Lost Continent - it's in my wishlist at Amazon and I'll get it eventually.

>51 Bookmarque:
That looks interesting. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

I have not provided an update of last Thursday in Oxford. The major happening of the day was meeting up with @Sakerfalcon. She kindly travelled to Oxford for the day and we had a good time together.



This is us in the Oxford Bookshop on The Gilles. (There are two in Oxford)

Before meeting Claire off the train my wife and I popped into the Sheldonian Theatre. It was very impressive.



The views from the cupola are dramatic even on a cloudy day.



We met Claire at the station and adjourned to a lovely eatery called The Old Fire Station for lunch. This was a place Claire recommended and it was ideal for what we wanted.

After lunch we made our way to the Ashmolean Museum. We looked at a lot of items but I have selected one for posting.



The museum was very interesting but also very warm and oppressive. When we exited the main entrance we were facing the Randolph Hotel. There is a bar in the hotel known as The Morse Bar because it featured in the series. It has many picture of Morse, i.e. John Thaw on the walls. We had to go in and have a cream tea, as one does.



On a cloudy day with mizzly rain not far away drinking tea and eating scones with jam and cream beside a nice blazing fire was just the thing to do.

After cream tea we headed to the Oxfam Bookshop where the first photograph above was taken. We then headed to the Weston Library and Claire had a chance to look at the John Le Carré exhibition while my wife and I had a little sit down.

It was then time to visit The Covered Market and specifically Gulp Fiction, the coffee bar, bar & bookshop. It is quite a charming little place. I recommend it strongly if anyone is in the area. The picture below shows the upstairs reading area in Gulp Fiction.



When we were finished in Gulp Fiction we headed back to the railway station with Claire and bade her farewell and a safe journey home. It was a great day.

>53 pgmcc: I've been to a couple of concerts in the Sheldonian. It's the world's second least comfortable concert venue (originally designed for graduation ceremonies). But still a great place. Apparently the University Press used the space above the ceiling for storing books. As we all know, books are heavy. But the ceiling, designed by Wren in accordance with a theory developed by John Walllis, at the time Savillian Professor of Geometry, stood up to it, and still does.

>54 haydninvienna:
Our Morse tour guide told is about attending her son’s masters graduation in the Sheldonian. She said it was two hours of total discomfort on a hard bench.
The area under the roof was referred to as the old print room for the university press. It is now the location of an audio visual on the history of the venue. From that room we ascended to the cupola for a panoramic view of the city.

Being in Oxford off-peak was a blessing. There were plenty of tourists about at the Bodleian Library sites so we can imagine what it must be like at peak times.

>53 pgmcc: That sounds like a lovely day full of adventures, made even better by meeting friends.

>56 BrokenTune:
It was indeed. It added to the hoard of lovely memories.

>53 pgmcc:. On a cloudy day with mizzly rain not far away drinking tea and eating scones with jam and cream beside a nice blazing fire was just the thing to do..

If that's not the quintessential Oxford thing to do, I don't know what is. The sad part is that eventually one just has to get up and move. It's a pity that one can't just sit eating scones and sipping tea for a full eight hours a day.

When I was traveling for the great and mighty multi-national publisher, I was never of the elite allowed to stay in the Randolph. (Although I know that in one episode of Morse, they did show the not-quite-a-business-hotel where people like me might be housed while there.)

>53 pgmcc: That sounds like a perfect day. I'm so glad Claire was able to meet up with you!

>53 pgmcc: It was a wonderful day! Good friends, food and books - all the perfect ingredients!

>58 jillmwo:
You may have noticed elsewhere that I investigated staying at The Randolph for our four night stay and I looked at The Premier Inn. We opted for The Premier Inn for almost one thousand reasons, each one of those reasons being a pound sterling. :-)

Yes, The Morse Bar cream tea is very civilised.

Were you in Oxford often? If you were there did you get a chance to explore?

>59 clamairy:
It was a lovely day and we were delighted that Claire could join us.

>60 Sakerfalcon:
Hear! Hear!

I promised details of the books bought on our Oxford trip. I have already mentioned the first two acquired on Day 1, Tuesday, 17th February.

Looking After Your Books by Francesca Galligan; purchased in the Weston Library shop.

The Haunted Wood: History of Childhood Reading by Sam Leigh; purchased in Gulp Fiction

Day 2, Wednesday, 18th February.

Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler; purchased in Gulp Fiction.

I Am the Border, So I Am by @BorderIrish; purchased in Oxfam Bookshop, Turle Street.

This is written from the point of view of the invisible border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. It is a whimsical look at the catastrophe of Brexit from the viewpoint of the border. The border was the elephant in the room that campaigners for Brexit not only ignored, but did not realise it was there. To be fair, politicians campaigning to remain in the EU did not even realise how significant the border would be if Brexit happened. Remember, there is always an elephant.

Nonsense on Stilts: How to Tell Science from Bunk by Massimo Pigliucci; purchased in Oxfam Bookshop, Turle Street.



Day 3, Thursday, 19th February.

Murder in Oxford by Christina Koning; purchased in Blackwell's Bookshop*.



This is a book @jillmwo was waiting to see the title of. It appears to be the ninth in a series. When I spotted this book on our last day, and given our Morse Tour experience I had to pick it up. It is set in Oxford during WWII but was first published in 2025.

*I say Blackwell's Bookshop, but it was actually Blackwell's Music Shop which sells books on the ground floor and music in the basement. The basement is how I entered the shop having passed through the immense Blackwell's Bookshop basement and exited via the music shop. You just have to go visit Blackwell's; it is amazing.

>53 pgmcc: Great pictures and what a great day.

>63 Karlstar:
Thanks. It was a great day. The pictures are a sure way of remembering it.

>53 pgmcc: "....just the thing to do," indeed! Frankly, I don't know how any of you could stand to get up and leave! Cozy perfection!

Thank you for all the pictures! What a delight Oxford seems to be. And a wonderful meet-up included!

I'll just stare out the window now at the snow on the ground. Lol

>65 terriks:
I don't know how any of you could stand to get up and leave! Cozy perfection!

That is easily explained. We were heading to a book shop. :-)

Sorry about the snow. Keep warm.

Oxford is a lovely place. I strongly recommend spending time there. I am glad you like the pictures.

>53 pgmcc: What a wonderful day day you've had! Your photos and descriptions made me very happy 🥰

>62 pgmcc: So that's a nice set of books you've brought home with you. I do want to read The Haunted Wood. I have read Parable of the Sower although that reading experience was awhile back in time so I doubt that I have a handle on story details.

As for the series book, Murder in Oxford, that one had a cover that rang a bell in my head. It appears that I have the first one in that series as well as the one set in Cambridge (both as ebooks). The artist did a nice job on design throughout the set of titles. I will be interested to hear your verdict on the detective.

So are you bustling about there taking care of home-related tasks or are you settling in to read?

>67 Alexandra_book_life:
It was a day to remember. I am glad you like the photos and descriptions and that they made you very happy. That is a delight to know.

>68 jillmwo:
I am pleased with the selection. One book I forgot to list is Robert Kee's Ireland: A History. This book was brought out to accompany Kee's thirteen episode TV documentary on Ireland which was broadcast in 1980. A key thing about Robert Kee's reporting of history is that he brought an amazing degree of objectivity to his work. He was the first person I came across who presented facts and did not favour any factions involved in any situation. He let the facts speak for themselves. Given that The Troubles were in full swing at the time it was a great eye-opener to see a British journalist/historian broadcasting a very balanced and factual series on Irish history and the forces that led to the civil unrest that was ongoing at the time.

In 1994 he published a book on the life of Charles Stewart Parnell, The Laurel and the Ivy: Story of Charles Stewart Parnell and Irish Nationalism, and I was able to attend his launch of the book at Waterstone's Bookshop in Dublin and listen to him talking about the book. After his talk he signed copies of the book and when he signed my copy I was able to thank him for his fairness and tell him how his TV series had been a wonderful laying out of factual information. You might say he is one of my heroes, so I was very pleased at having had a chance to thank him for his work.

While in Oxford I read the introduction to The Haunted Wood and the first chapter of Parable of the Sower. I enjoyed both and am looking forward to continuing with these books.

I saw the covers of the books in Christina Koning's series of detective stories and I agree with your comment about the nice design job on the covers. It is the style of the cover that caught my eye. My thoughts when buying the book were along the line of a murder mystery in Oxford having been on a Morse tour, but having looked at the book in more detail I see it also involves espionage, to the book combines the Morse and Le Carré themes of our visit to this city of colleges and spires. The fact that this is the ninth book in the series reassures me that it must be quite good. My only concern is that I may be at a disadvantage not having read the earlier books.

My first order of the day on returning home, other than getting the dishwasher and central heating working again, was to do my laundry and a couple of other domestic chores. Then I focused on finishing Kolymsky Heights that I had left with about 150 pages to read when I went to Oxford. My Kindle read in Oxford, Everyone this Christmas has a Secret was a useful length and I got it finished on our journey home. Reading wise I am currently reading Iain Pears's The Immaculate Deception which is a relatively short novel (213 pages) about and art theft in Rome. It is entertaining and I believe at 76 pages I have solved the crime. One thing that adds to it is the political manoeuvrings around the robbery and the police investigation.

In relation to other non-reading activities, i.e. all those things that get in the way of quality reading time, I was out seeing friends yesterday after having taken my wife to lunch at the local garden centre. This weekend we are minding three grandchildren. Tomorrow we are meeting friends. I have tried to shy out of this but I have not been given the option. In the evenings, prompted by our excellent Morse tour, we have been watching episodes of Morse. When we finished the tour my wife said the tour put her in the mood to see the Morse mysteries again, so I ordered the box set which was waiting for us when we got home. So far we have seen the first three episodes. I understand there are 33.

I have mentioned the books I acquired on our trip to Oxford, but, as everyone knows, anyone who goes fishing will have tales of the one that got away. Well, I have been lambasted on this thread for my not making arrangements for transporting more books home from Oxford. If I had made those arrangements, had unlimited baggage allowance, and had muscles of Herculean strength, the books below would have come home with me. These are the ones that got away.

>70 pgmcc: shouldn’t have let the Sarah Ogilvie one get away, Peter: I see I read it back in 2023 and thought it was pretty good.

>71 haydninvienna:
It got away…for now.
Call me Ishmael..

>70 pgmcc: There's only one solution. You will have to come back to Oxford with an empty bag and buy them.

>73 Sakerfalcon:
That is the plan. Book a 20kg check-in bag for the return flight.

I have not yet mentioned the books my wife acquired in Oxford.

Behold:





The World of Jeeves was purchased by me in Gulp Fiction for my wife. The other four books in the first photograph were purchased by my wife in the Turl Street Oxfam Bookshop.

Life at Blandings was purchased by my wife at the Oxfam Bookshop on St. Giles. It was my wife's buying it and getting very interested in it that inspired me to purchase The World of Jeeves in Gulp Fiction.

ETA: Yes, the Agatha Christie is in French.

I forgot to report a purchase from before the trip to Oxford. On 13th February, I acquired, Death and Other Occupational Hazards. I was intrigued by the plot description on the back cover. It has some commonality with one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, so I do not know how original it is, but it is supposed to be funny. I will let you know.

>70 pgmcc: Oh, for heavens sake, what drama is this? Nobody lambasted you. Some of us suggested possible shifts in your planning that would have enabled you to bring home ALL the books that might have fueled your intellectual genius. I mean, you left behind Ursula K. Le Guin? And the three in the bottom picture there all look as if they'd have been entirely worthwhile. (I went and looked up the first two (reading right to left) on Amazon immediately, but I couldn't quite see the title for the third one. so I'm going on faith there.)

Furthermore, I am weeping over what treasures your poor, long-suffering wife must have been forced to leave behind...

>77 jillmwo: There is also always the option of jettisoning one's wardrobe and filling the freed-up space with books. There are always solutions.

>74 pgmcc: However I approve of this plan!

>78 Sakerfalcon: Or wearing all the clothes at once to make more room in the bag!

>77 jillmwo:
The bottom row, right hand side book is The Book Makers: A History of the Book in Eighteen Lives by Adam Smyth.

My wife did not leave behind anything she wanted.

>78 Sakerfalcon:
Stop encouraging her. :-)

I too think it is a good plan.

>79 clamairy:
You are all full of such good ideas. Such inspirational innovation.

Next time I will go by ferry and bring a van.

I finished The Immaculate Deception by Iain Pears.

There were some paragraphs I thought funny or interesting and worth sharing.

The future monsignor looked disapproving. "I've done the best I can. What do you expect? Miracles? The Vatican isn't really the place to come to for that sort of thing, you know."

Also,

"Anyway, from the end of the fifties until the end of the sixties, life was a delight. Age, combined with selective memory, make it seem better than it was, no doubt. But, in my opinion, it was a period of a few years where wealth had not yet brought tawdriness, freedom had yet to descend into self-indulgence, and the freshness of change was hopeful rather than a desperate search for repetitive novelty..."

and

"I feel sorry for the youth of today, I really do," she began. "Their lives are so cramped in comparison to ours. And everything is increasingly the same. Wherever you go, all you see are the same disgusting fast-food restaurants, which seem to have originated in Kansas and should never have been allowed to leave. When I was young, foreign lands were still foreign, life was terribly inexpensive, and jobs easy to get, if you were unfortunate enough to need one."

Today I started reading two books, one a novel and the other a book of short stories.

The novel is When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson, the third book in the Jackson Brodie series.

A Flutter of Wings is the collection of short stories. They were written by Mervyn Wall and his stories tend to be very accurate and amusing.

Like Oscar Wilde, I can resist anything but temptation. This evening the dog started barking after hearing a knock at the front door. I went to see what was happening, and lo and behold I found a package containing:

The Dictionary People by Sarah Ogilvie and Is That A Fish In Your Ear by David Bellos. Isn't that a strange coincidence, the very books I was looking at in Oxford and lamenting not having space for them in my luggage. The world works in mysterious ways.

>83 pgmcc: That is the highest rated of the six books in that series. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. And I hope you enjoy the short story collection, as well.

>84 clamairy:
Having recently finished One Good Turn and having thought it was great I was wondering if When Will There Be Good News? was going to live up to the standard. Your post gives me high hopes for it.

I have read two of the short stories already an have high hopes for this collection. One of my all time favourite short stories is included in the collection.

>83 pgmcc: re: When Will There Be Good News- I'm looking forward to your review!

I have it on order (along with the second one of the series) since I struck out at the bookstore the other day.

>83 pgmcc: Nothing like a mysterious knock at the door and finding a package left on the door step with your name on it...Perhaps a little sad however that there was no Le Guin included in the package.

>66 pgmcc: My daughter just reminded me that she was in Oxford 3 weeks ago.

>87 jillmwo:
That may be rectified soon.

>88 Karlstar:
Did she like it?

>86 terriks:
I will be sure to report my views here. Stay tuned for the next exciting episode.

>90 pgmcc: Baited breath, sir...baited breath.

I'm sorry to learn of your sister's diagnosis, and I'm wishing her the best treatment outcome possible.

Lovely photos!

I am reading a collection of short stories by Mervyn Wall. The last story I read was "The Demon Angler" and is a tale of a Dublin shop clerk who has taken a holiday in a small village in Connemara on the West coast of Ireland. The paragraph below is the account of an encounter between the Dublin tourist and the local man who is recounting the incident.

"At last he asked me where the inhabitants were. He said he had been out already that morning and walked the length of the village. He had counted over a hundred houses, but while there was the same number of dogs, one lying at the door of each house with its paws crossed, he hadn't seen a single human being. I explained that most of the people would hardly be up yet - it was scarcely ten o'clock. Of course, between ourselves, another reason why he didn't see anyone, is that we're a very well-bred village. I've heard that elsewhere in Ireland the people all come to their doors to look at a stranger. We'd never think of embarrassing a visitor like that - our people watch a stranger from behind the curtains until he is out of sight."

The collection is entitled A Flutter of Wings.

>93 pgmcc: Lovely 🤣🤣🤣

>94 Alexandra_book_life:
I am glad you like it. The stories are full of this type of humour.

Reading update:

Due to circumstances within my control I am reading three books at the moment and am making progress with all three. Must give myself a gold star.

When Will There Be Good News by Kate Atkinson is excellent. I am approaching the midpoint.

A Flutter of Wings by Mervyn Wall is a collection of short stories. I have read about one third of the stories in this collection and am enjoying them immensely. Wall is an expert at portraying Irish life and injecting gentle humour as he goes. The Ireland he portrays is the Ireland of the early snd mid twentieth century in the stories I have read so far. Strongly recommended.

All Us Murderers by A J Charles is a mock Gothic tale. It reminds me of two films; Clue and Murder by Death. The humour is very much akin to the humour in those films.

>96 pgmcc: Yes, you should definitely get a gold star ⭐🌟 May your books continue to be good!

>96 pgmcc: Gold Star, indeed! I draw the line at two, and try to keep one on the nightstand to keep them separate.

Happy reading!

>96 pgmcc: Really? You need gold stars? Although, I suppose, awarding yourself gold stars is less indulgent than other things you've been known to do.

Just remember for every gold star you give yourself, you have to post at least two reviews.

I have finished When Will There Be Good News? It is a great read.

>97 Alexandra_book_life:
I am on a roll at the moment.

>98 terriks:
I ended up with three for the following reasons:
1. I was travelling light and only had my Kindle with me, so I had to start another book even thought I was well into a physical book. The Kindle book is All Us Murders and the physical book is When Will There Be Good News?

2. I have a complete collection of the hardbacks produced by The Swan River Press (SWP). I have not read them all and want to make sure I get through them soon. For that reason I am making time to read one in parallel to the other books I am reading at the moment. The current SWP book is A Flutter of Wings by Mervyn Wall. It is a collection of short stories sketching elements of life in Ireland using gentle humour and cunning plots. I strongly recommend this collection. SWP also publish a paperback version of the book.

>99 jillmwo:
If I do not give myself gold stars who else will?

Above you will find half payment for a gold star. It is not a review of any great stature, but the book it discusses is excellent.

Getting caught up on threads: your trip to Oxford was inspiring. Definitely on my bucket list. That bookstore, wow, I could spend hours there. How did you drag yourself away from it?

>100 pgmcc: I'm so happy that you enjoyed this one as much as I did. Supposedly she's going to keep going with this series, so I'm thrilled.

>103 clamairy:
I enjoyed it a lot. However, you said it is the best of the series so it is only downhill from here. :-(

:-)

>101 pgmcc: Grab your half-stars when and where you can, I suppose!!!

>104 pgmcc: Not a steep decline, though!!! Also, the sixth book is almost as good as the third. I gave it the same rating.
:o)

>106 clamairy: Oh my, I hope not! It's hard to imagine she could write too much of a stinker, though. ;)

I'm going to pace myself with the series, I have books 2 and 3 of the series and they wink at me every time I pass the bookcase.

>105 jillmwo:
Another half star coming up. I have just finished All Us Murderers. Review pending.

Oooh, that one ended up on my wishlist, too, so looking forward to your epic take.

>106 clamairy:
:-)
I am at the stage of enjoying the Jackson Brodie stories as comfort reads so anticipate enjoying all of them.

The Louise-Jackson relationship reminds me of what John Forde said in his Into the Woods book about story structure: if you have the two characters finally get together you have closed that storyline for future episodes.
Apart from storyline preservation they should just accept reality and go for it.

>107 terriks:
I am forging ahead with them. I hope you enjoy them.

>109 Bookmarque:
I enjoyed it but have some issues with it. Stay tuned.

All of Us Murderers by K.J. Charles

This was a Book Bullet from @Sakerfalcon.

>113 pgmcc: Very nice review! I skimmed the sex scenes, as I didn't feel they added much to the story. I mostly wanted to get back to the gothic stuff that I enjoyed very much 😊

>113 pgmcc: Gay or straight, explicit gratuitous sex inserted (see what I did there) into the middle of an otherwise well-written novel is off-putting. It should lead to something, a change in direction or character development. If not, one does ponder the point of it all.

>115 terriks:
The point of there being a relationship between the two characters was relevant to the story and their relationship do develop, but the point could have been equally well made without the explicit detail of sexual activity being included.

I finished The Riverside Villas Murder in the early hours of this morning.

>117 pgmcc: You don't usually grump quite this much about a book. I'm surprised you made it all the way to the end. Do you ever just throw up your hands and call something a DNF?

>118 jillmwo:
It wasn’t a complete waste of time and I was getting through it quickly. Had it been really bad I would have DNFed it. I see another reviewer described it as fatuous and that Amis should have known better. I would concur.

>118 jillmwo:
The Colonel who was the lead member of the police investigation team in The Riverside Villas Murder said at one point:

"I don't greatly care for foreigners, do you? Continentals? And, just between ourselves, I'm not over-fond of the Scotch and the Welsh and the Irish. No, the only people I really like are the English."

He was obviously very egalitarian in his xenophobia.

>120 pgmcc:. Well, if it helps at all, I have yet to read a marketing blurb that was sufficiently persuasive to make me buy one of this man's books. I would read the blurbs and then go ''nope, I'm not sufficiently high-brow for this".

>121 jillmwo:
This is the first Kingsley Amis I have read. I was of the impression his works were very literary. I was not impressed by this book at all. It came out in the 70s and I think he was trying to be shocking by talking about teenaged boys sexual development and the obsession with girls and masturbation. It felt forced to me.

I have read his son's book The Information. That was a long time ago and I remember very little about it. I can remember that it did not inspire me to seek out more of his books, but neither did it inspire me to avoid his work at all cost.

>117 pgmcc: Thanks for saving us from reading that one.

>123 Karlstar:
You are welcome.

Arrived at holiday home. We can see Loftus Hall from upstairs. Loftus Hall has the reputation of being the most haunted building in Ireland. Bwahahahahaha…

>125 pgmcc: I find (via a quick and dirty Google search) that you may have an opportunity to meet a mysterious individual with cloven hooves. Based on what I read, you should avoid playing cards with such a person as they tend to play for keeps.

Actually, some of the legends associated with the house remind me strongly of events in The Darkling Bride.

>126 jillmwo:
I will challenge that individual to a fiddling contest.

>127 pgmcc: Is that the same as a piffling contest?

>128 haydninvienna:
Piffling with violins!

>127 pgmcc: Are you exceptionally good with the fiddle?

>130 Karlstar:
I cannot play the fiddle, but keep that to yourself. He doesn’t know that. If he finds out I will know you told him.

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day everyone.

Having had a lovely weekend with children and grandchildren we finished off with a visit to the Duncannon St. Patrick’s Day parade before going our separate ways. Now we are headed back to Dublin.

The latest Caimh McDonnell book is out today.

>132 pgmcc: Thank you - back atcha!

Glad your family visit was such a good time. :)

>134 terriks: Thank you!

Now it is time to report on our trip away with most of our three generations of family, i.e. three of our children, their spouses, and five grandchildren. One of our sons and his partner could not make it.

We travelled down on Friday and despite the warnings of freezing weather, snow and rain, we had a lovely drive to Wexford. We did have a few heavy showers, but they only lasted a few minutes each. We also had great spells of sunshine.

Once we arrived the evening was beautiful. Cold and windy, but beautiful.



As dusk descended a Coast Guard helicopter hovered over the sea just beyond our garden. We were afraid it meant a search and rescue operation was on-going, but it turned out to be night exercises which continued into the following night.

Of course, where we were staying everyone has a medieval castle and a fishing harbour at the bottom of the garden.



There are clues that lobster fishing is important to the harbour.



Round the corner lurked the oldest, continuously operational lighthouse in the world. It was built in the 1200s and has been operating without interruption every since. Apparently there is a lighthouse in Spain that claims to be the oldest operational lighthouse in the world but that lighthouse was destroyed at one point and did not operate until it was totally rebuilt.



From the house we stayed in we could see Loftus Hall. It was about two kilometres from our place. Loftus Hall is reputedly the most haunted house in Ireland. The Devil himself supposedly made an appearance at the hall.



The gates are pretty foreboding with many attempts to warn the unwary traveller.



About two and a half kilometres past Loftus Hall we find Templetown which was a Knights Templar headquarters for the area. The tower was the Templar's building. The church was built later by the Knights Hospitallers when the land of the Templars was given to them. The graveyard contains the grave of one of the Templar knights.



This morning we wound up our family get together with a visit to the Saint Patrick's Day parade at the village of Duncannon.



We had a great time.

Looks like a really cool lace to visit!

>135 pgmcc: I am glad you had such a great time!

I really like the photos. It's a very interesting place!

(Did you see any evidence of haunting?)

>135 pgmcc: Great pics! Thanks for sharing these.

The Knights Templar building looks like something from a movie set - fabulous! Would love to poke around in there and see the graveyard, too.

Fun time! :)

>135 pgmcc: Glad you had a good time and thanks for the photos! Cool car.

>135 pgmcc: Oh my! How wonderful for all of you to be gathered in such a place! Thank you for the photos.

Grrrr!
First world problem: on a bus to town and kindle battery died.
Grrrr!

>141 pgmcc: You will have to try to remember to just plug it in once every two weeks or so. Perhaps put a repeat reminder on your phone calendar.

>142 clamairy:
I never have this problem with physical books.

:-)

>143 pgmcc: Yes, but a physical book can't contain 500+ separate books and still weigh a few ounces.

I have had to rely on using the Kindle app on my phone to read a book while I'm waiting for something that is taking longer than expected. It's not ideal but it works in a pinch.

>143 pgmcc: True, one advantage of physical books. One con though - adequate light required.

>144 clamairy:
I resorted to reading the book on my phone while on the bus home. The shock and despair associated with the kindle running out of steam on the way in rendered me unable to remember I could do that on the way in.

>145 Karlstar:
Only a major problem if the power has failed.

I really enjoyed Caimh McDonnell's latest book, The Big Steal. It is very funny and has a good, albeit whacky, story. Strongly recommended to those that like his other books.

>146 pgmcc: Or if you need a bright light to read in bed at night and it keeps the other person awake...

>148 Karlstar:
We have individual bedside lamps that do not disturb the other person. :-)

>149 pgmcc: Lucky you! The light from my kindle disturbs the other person in our household, even with screen brightness set at a low value of 8. They are very sensitive to light - unless it is the television. That device seems to induce sleep regardless of light or noise level... <shrug>

>147 pgmcc: Glad you enjoyed it! I'm going to have to look into that series.

>150 ScoLgo: Ouch. You have my sympathies. I have my paperwhite set to 4 or 5 when I'm reading in bed, with the warmth level set very high. I have a bunch of remote controlled LED candles going as well.

>150 ScoLgo:

The Goggle Box has many sins to answer for. :-)

>150 ScoLgo:
You will love those books. They are totally irreverent.

>147 pgmcc: & >151 clamairy: Just reading the first of the MCM Investigations series currently. It's a fun continuation from the Bunny McGarry books.

>153 AHS-Wolfy:
I am glad you are enjoying the MCM book.

Just speaking generally to all, the simplest preventative to finding oneself in the same predicament as >141 pgmcc: is to ensure that one charges one's devices regularly as a routine. With regard to the need for illumination when reading volumes in print is to ensure that reading is prioritized throughout the daylight hours.

Some of us are particularly careful in this regard and you never hear US bemoaning either the lack of a charged device or the lack of daylight.

>155 jillmwo: *makes popcorn and pulls up chair*

As it happens, I was mistaken. My kindle had not run out of charge. When it ceased to work I assumed it was the battery despite my believing it to have had about 50% charge. When I got home I went to charge it but before doing that I hit the start button. It started up, but with the Home page rather than the book I had been reading. Also, it had 46% charge. This is the second time I have had peculiar behaviour from this equipment. I am suspecting the worst sort of fault, one that occurs at random times with no apparent pattern. Gremlins in the machine.

>156 clamairy: Sorry to spoil your evenings entertainment. :-)

>157 pgmcc: My FitBit does the same thing. It's 65-70% when I go to bed some nights and dead in the morning. I try to charge it every other day, but it is supposed to last four days.

Now I'm going to have to find some other thing to occupy my mind besides chortling to myself while reading this thread. :oP~

Today we went to the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre to buy a get well card for a friend recovering from a heart attack. Of course we did more than that. We had lunch, which was nice. Then we headed towards the shop where we were going to buy the card. My wife suggested I brows Dubray's book shop while she looked at clothes. Note the nuance of not going directly to look at cards. We agreed my wife would call me when she had finished and that I would join her at the clothes shop as it is on the way to the card shop.

Well, my wife bought a cake slice and a tea stand. She did not buy the sandals she liked.

I bought a book. Yeh! Remarkably Bright Creatures by Shelby Van Pelt.



Having received the aforementioned call I joined my wife and we went to Eason's to buy a card. It is quite a nice card.

We then headed for Mark's & Spencer's because my wife wanted to look at clothes there. As we were passing Dunnes Stores, the shop where she had not bought the sandals she liked, I was informed that she had not bought the sandals that she had liked.

I, of course, said, "Go in and buy them. You are always saying when you see something you want you should buy it in case it is not there the next time you visit the shop. So, we went in go get the sandals. Before getting the sandals she picked up two tops, two pair of trousers and some tights.

At least we did not forget to get the card while going through that retail therapy session.

Time for a new thread.

I liked Remarkably Bright Creatures quite a bit - it was less twee/saccharine than I thought it might be.

>161 Bookmarque:
That is positive. The bookshop assistant told me it was good when I presented it at the till. Her recommendations have been good in the past.