The most delightful and original book I have read in years. A beautiful book, a very fine book and a new classic. In a perfect edition from Grove Press. It’s the sort of book you want to sit down and instantly re-read. Natural history, which is about both nature and history. A valedictory for her father. To cope with her grief she adopts a goshawk and patiently and with great courage learns to teach it the ancient arts of hawking. She herself is an odd bird, but she writes heavenly prose. I loved this book.

Continuing the fabulous new Penguin edition binge into the work of this modern master. It seems like effortless writing. They are just so great I can’t wait for more.

Very short. Obviously written for the Pulp Mags, which he writes about. It’s not his best. But it’s still Chandler. From his intro: “When in doubt have a man come through a door with a gun in his hand.” “Everything a writer learns about the art or craft of fiction takes just a little away from his need or desire to write at all. In the end he knows all the tricks, and has nothing to say.” Plus three short stories: Finger Man, Goldfish and Bad Wind. About Philip Marlowe. I just realized that Chandler was at school in Dulwich not far from where Christopher Marlowe was murdered.  (There’s a thesis for you.)

The Rise and Fall of the Mob in Las Vegas. Wonderfully readable. Led to a Scorcese film. Given to me by Jeremy Clarke, who couldn’t believe I have met Nick and enjoyed his company.

The delightful Jeremy came to dinner, leaving me a signed copy of his latest collection, and I sat happily in front of the Test Match reading it and giggling.

I get the feeling I tried this before. It starts off so well and bogs down. I haven’t abandoned it, just been flirting with other books. Actually now I have abandoned it. I don’t like it.

One of my favourites. I think he writes best of the foggy coastlines of Northern France and the small villages, where people have private agendas and nobody talks.

A portrait of a family. Well a portrait of a house really. An interesting book, a large and complex family are portrayed through reminiscences and multiple viewpoints in time and character. It makes the story slow, but because she writes so well it works. We get their viewpoints on everyone else.

Low life mystery in the Place des Vosges.

A lovely novel I had somehow managed to miss. She is a brilliant writer. I loved her book about her nightmare mother last year Why Be Happy When You Can be Normal, which made me howl out loud with laughter, to the surprise of my wife. How can you find such a monster mother funny, she asked? This was her debut novel and won a lot of prizes for very good reasons.

A most wonderful, eloquent, elegant, beautiful, exquisitely written book, which I see quite rightly won the Booker Prize in 1987. A delightful discovery, a happen chance in Harrods, hiding in the shelves of their classics. It is immediately gripping. Her prose so finely constructed, so that you do not notice the effort that is here. And the tale unrolls with breath-taking control. How could I not know about this? Sometimes it feels like a blessing and a benediction to discover such beauty, and yet there must be hundreds of such undiscovered delights, hiding on shelves all round the world. Literature at its finest, about who we are and how we are and how we got to be here. I was gratefully and intensely joyful for the few unputdownable hours I spent in the company of her gracious wonderful mind. Past Times remembered. The base of both literature and history.