More reading

Falco : the official companion by Lindsey Davis - one of the best companions to a series of books that I've ever come across. It includes short descriptions of all the books; details of the major series characters; lots of information about life in the Roman Empire in the first century AD; amusing essays about the author's own life and how she came to write the books as well as the difficulties involved in writing a series such as forgetting your main characters have a young child which they have left at home and having to find a baby sitter from the remaining characters!

Just the Job, Lad by Mike Pannett - continues the author's experiences as a policeman in North Yorkshire. I find books about people's jobs fascinating reading and this author brings life in North Yorkshire vividly to life. Crimes are relatively minor in comparison with crimes in cities but all human life is here.

The Doctor Will See You Now by Max Pemberton - the author is back working in hospital in geriatrics and psychiatry. The incident which really stuck in my mind was the case of the schizophrenic with a broken shoulder who no one was prepared to treat BECAUSE of his mental illness!! The way elderly people with mental problems were treated varied from the barbaric to the wonderful as well. I found it a very disturbing book to read - probably because of my age. Why don't we treat older people properly in this country?

Poseidon's Gold by Lindsey Davis - Falco's uneasy truce with his estranged father and trying to unravel his late brother's complicated business affairs without bankrupting the whole family in the process.

An Unhallowed Grave, The Funeral Boat, The Skeleton Room, A Painted Doom, The Bone Garden all by Kate Ellis - more Wesley Peterson crime stories mixing archaeology and modern crime.

Domesday Book - the latest Penguin translation - no I haven't read it cover to cover but it is fascinating to dip into.

A sixty year old look at education - Jane Hope's One Term at Utopia. Life in school is recognisable even though this book was first published in the 1950s. There are disruptive pupils, thick pupils who are unable to write their names or follow simple instructions, trouble with parents when pupils are disciplined, and lazy and incompetent teachers. Major difference is that there was corporal punishment available and teachers were not afraid to use it. Now no one could get away with describing teachers as 'child-beaters' as Jane Hope does. Refreshing reading if only to remind you that political correctness didn't exist until recently.

Currently reading:

The Making of the British Landscape by Francis Pryor - a study of man's effect on the landscape over the last several thousand years. Well written and informative and a joy to read.

Conversations with Mr Prain by Joan Taylor - Stella is New Zealander running a second hand bookstall in Camden Market. Edward - Mr Prain is a customer who invites her to his country house for tea. The book consists of their various conversations about art and writing and descriptions of the various rooms in the house. I've read about half of it and I'm really not sure whether I like it or not. It is somehow compelling but . . .

Where Does it Hurt?

Where Does it Hurt? by Max Pemberton is not quite what might have been expected from his previous book - Trust Me I'm a Junior Doctor. This latest offering is about the time he spent working at an outreach project with the homeless, drug addicts and people generally outside 'normal' society. He meets some real characters - the chap who thinks he's God who takes up residence near the back door of a Tesco supermarket; Molly the 80 year old drug addict and former working girl; Barry the schizophrenic who saves the author's life in a sticky situation; Georgia who goes mad and traps everyone in the outreach project's building; Janice the middle class housewife addicted to over the counter painkillers. Not all homeless people are drug addicts and not all drug addicts are homeless though many of each group have mental health problems.

There are people who want to be helped and others who don't. He is warned at the start he will be lucky if 5% of his patients turn their lives around. He has to go out and find many of his patients rather than them coming to him and he gets to know some of the seedier parts of the city intimately. The main point of this book is that there is no one solution to the problems of society because everyone at the bottom of the heap got there for different reasons.

I found the book moving and uplifting though it is difficult to know what to read after it! I have started Anne Brooke's The Bones of Summer and it looks good - especially seeing Paul from someone else's point of view; Bluestockings by Jane Robinson - strange to think women were first awarded degrees only in 1882 and not until 1920 from Oxford; and Carmen Reid's How Not To Shop - chick lit, which I found just too light and fluffy after Where Does it Hurt?. A pretty diverse selection of reading here!

It's Sunday

I have has a relaxing Sunday reading the Sunday papers - actually on paper for a change. I usually do this when I'm not working during the following week. I'm off now until March 25th, and I've been really looking forward to it. Time to surf the net, read and write, and just relax.

I have currently nearly finished reading 'Trust me I'm a (junior) Doctor' by Max Pemberton. This is the book of The Daily Telegraph column. I'm sure if we really knew what went on in any profession we would never trust them again. I find it interesting reading these descriptions of every day working life. I've read several by various members of the medical profession and found them all compulsive reading. How doctors see patients is always illuminating and should make us behave differently. I'm not sure it does but then who is any good at recognising their own abominable behaviour? I recommend 'trust me' as an insight into the workings of any NHS hospital. Perhaps I'll put another list on Amazon of books about jobs.

I was reading today about a supposedly senior civil servant who has written a blog about the failings of ministers and her own colleagues. I've just tried to read it from the link on the Times web site - needless to state I couldn't get on it. Either because the powers that be have banished it to outer darkness or it's simply so busy it's crashed. Blogging about one's employer tends to end in the sack - ridicule can be painful. I'm too close to my pension to risk all by letting off steam in public, but good luck to anyone who does try.

One day I'll master putting in links but I don't think my brain is working properly today!