Holiday reading began in earnest with a re-read of an Elmore Leonard The millionaire who likes killing for fun. A tragi-comic tale in the end. After reading Muriel Spark my eye was caught by the Penguin reprint of an old favourite of mine The Charlie Mordecai novels of Kyril Bonfiglioli. This is what I wrote when I first encountered what was then a trilogy by the already deceased author in 2000. “Oh yes the best and the finest, the funniest and the most fabulous discovery. Ronald Firbank meets Raymond Chandler. Divine writing, hilarious description, gripping action. Everything and more. If there are three better books this year I will eat my wife….” Apart from the ungainly metaphor these books are even funnier on a second rereading:

The First Charlie Mortdecai Novel. It’s the simple polished elegant style of the writer that grabs you right away plus the naughty antics he gets up to with Jock, his bruiser side kick. Charlie Mortdecai, degenerate aristocrat and amoral art dealer is at once a great comic creation and a hilarious character. Just relax and bathe in the fun.

The Second Charlie Mortdecai Novel. The adventures continue in America.

The Third Charlie Mortdecai Novel. And in Jersey with a gruesome series of rapes.

Yes that is the title, complete with the exclamation mark, an “as told to” book of the story of the girl from Monty Python. She gave me an autographed copy, and of course I had contributed an interview about her with the author. Sweet Carol. She doesn’t get me at all, which is hardly her fault, but I do treasure waltzing with her and playing Mr. Bunn at O2. She is an utterly professional comedienne and totally reliable on stage, and never unprepared. She reveals glimpses of her naughty life, but is far too decent to tell tales out of school….

My Struggle: 1. This one came highly recommended but I forget by whom. Sadly I found this memoir of Norwegian adolescence over long and rather easy to put down. Sorry.

An enthralling guide to the mystery, mastery and practice of Ping Pong, which of course led to some fine games with my son.

By way of something completely different I really enjoyed this 1964 life of the Sun King. More sympathetically written than many other biographies of this long reigning monarch who totally changed, and modernised France. His faults he recognised, and in his long life he seems always to have behaved with decency, courtesy and at the end humility. A nice portrait of an important man.