So the Summer of the trashy page turner continues apace with A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel. I know nada about history - I didn't even do a GCSE in the subject, preferring the wilds of Dudley, Ludlow, and the Long Mynd (sp?) that came with Geography instead. So it's got to be a process of self-education and, since I'm not going to read text books or indeed any non-fiction apart from newspapers and websites this summer, that leaves me only with fictional accounts of history.

Oh, and it's Bloomsday. Yes.

And onwards. To Holes by Louis Sachar.

Astonishing Splashes of Colour by Clare Morrall is the latest read. She's from Birmingham, where this book is set. I remember seeing her on telly at the Booker presentation dinner. She looked like a very nice, ordinary Brummy woman who was a bit astonished to be there. She had no reason to be astonished, however, as the book is staggering - it's not flashy, it's not clever, but that somehow gives it impact that a flashy, clever (Hari Kunzru type) book would never have. Real people have big feelings.