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That really is all go, Roger. Hope Lil recovers swiftly - and the same for your son's partner when the time comes. Christmas babies are an interesting thing. My youngest was born on the 20th of December (he'll be ten this year). We hosted the family for Christmas dinner five days after his birth, so that my wife could escape to her bed without us having to physically leave somewhere and travel first. Turned out that in pity, everybody left early, Ruth went to bed five minutes after they departed and I spent the rest of Christmas evening doing dishes.

I read the first Slow Horses book years ago and returned to the second one which I found on my kindle library. I must have snaffled it on some kind of deal that I don't remember.
I am also halfway through Philip Kerr's Bernie Gunther novels. They are fantastic. If you've never read them, I can highly recommend. I believe they are being adapted for TV and Jack Lowden will be starring.

I've also found myself listening to a fair bit of comedy on BBC Sounds (some of it turns out not to be overly comedic). Cabin Pressure would be a highlight. John Finnemore's writing is really tight and laugh out loud funny.

What are you reading Diane?

I hope you are given the book early. Bad choice for Christmas day when you are supposed to be visiting with people and helping with the cooking etc - when all you will want to do is sneak off and read a chapter or two lol

I tried to get all my family to read this series, can't even get them to watch the TV series. Nice to know that you are a fan :-)

First off, poor Diamond Lil – that must have hurt a lot – please send her my get well soon wishes.

Second, congrats on the new grandbaby!

Tarqs – have you tried an audio book when you are doing other things such as dish washing or playing games on your phone?

Good news for you Roger “Clown Town” is book #9 – there are also I think 5 short stories – I absolutely love the humour in them, some of it can’t be translated to the screen as it is often thoughts.  I also read the 4 earlier books, the Zoë Boehm series that is now also a TV series.

Tarqs – could you link to the game – maybe we could all have another go?

Delighted to hear you have another grandchild on the way, Roger. Congratulations to all!

Very sorry to hear about Diamond Lil though. I've actually been putting off calling you to enquire about her for the past few days, simply because she and I are the only two left playing the Beau Peep Quiz regularly in recent years, and whereas I do occasionally forget to play, Lil very rarely misses a day. So, I was beginning to worry that all may not be well, but hoping the reason was more down to her taking a few weeks' vacation in some bandwidth-poor location, hence my delaying the phone call. Please pass on my best wishes and hopes for a speedy recovery. I really miss the competition and look forward to crossing swords again soon.

As for books, I can't read them. Okay, that's a ridiculous statement, but it is also true. I used to be an avid reader in my childhood up until my mid teens, when I found so many other more interesting things to do with my spare time and hormones. By the time I got around to picking up another book however, I discovered my attention span for doing so had diminished to that of a gnat's (apologies to any gnats with exceptional focus). I found my thoughts constantly drifting after a page or two, and only able to get back on track by reading the same paragraph half a dozen times or more before it sank in.

My theory is that the fault lies in the fact most books for grown-ups don't have pictures. I tend to keep the untested theory to myself though, because any time I've tried to explain it people laugh. Mostly, because of my occupation, their first thought is that I should be able to draw my own, even if only in my mind. But that is actually the problem - I spend too much time doing just that, and my focus drifts off, as it does when I'm physically drawing anything in autopilot, so it doesn't actually matter then. Holding a story line in my head is a completely different matter.

If the books had pictures, like they did when I was a kid, I wouldn't have to spend time imagining what the characters looked like as I'd have ready-made references for that. So I don't/can't read them. But that's okay. I get by.

What books have you squirreled away to read this winter?