Not read Harry Potter yet

But it arrived yesterday by post from Amazon. I have cheated and looked at the final page. I shall read it in full but I have other books to read at the moment.

Currently reading 'Miss Mapp' by E F Benson. This is the fifth one of the Mapp and Lucia books that I've read. I've been reading them out of order but it doesn't spoil the delicious social comedy. I recommend these to anyone who loves a comedy of manners or anyone who is trying to write one. They are as fresh as the day they were first published in the 1920s and 1930s. A favourite of Noel Coward.

I did finish 'Season of the Witch' by Natsha Mostert and was thoroughly unnerved by it. An excellent book.

I'm also reading 'Dark Hearts of Chicago' by William Horwood and Helen Rappaport. Very good and absolutely marvellous historically as you might expect. It shows the seamy side of Chicago at the height of the World Fair in 1893 in complete contrast to the glamour of the fair itself. This was a society in the melting pot, with a mixture of races and creeds and the emerging women's movement not to speak of the barbaric treatment of anyone with the faintest hint of mental illness.

I have started writing again after a long break and have written a couple of letters to magazines and a book review. I will report on here if I have any success. So far - fingers crossed - every letter I have sent in has been published. About 20 in all. So I must be doing something right if you put that together with the one short story I've had published and a short story that got to the final judging in a competition.

Off to EBay now where I'm bidding on a couple of Jill Churchills. I haven't read the Tim Pears yet but it's getting near the top of the reading pile.