Book time

Sometimes on holiday you don't have to keep going places, especially if you're already staying in one of the loveliest places you know. Sometimes it's OK just to read. One of my holiday reading books was The Morville Hours by Katherine Swift, which is the most lyrical book ever. She weaves together the making of a garden, the medieval Books of Hours, the pattern of the year, the stories of her village, her family stories, and so much more, and it's seamless.

On a very hot day when we needed shade we found it in a little second hand bookshop in Kent. Then we somehow found ourselves in a charity shop in Abingdon (check out Helen and Douglas House, a children's hospice). We came out with so many books the bag was splitting by the time we got back to the car.

I also have a lot of recommendations (thank you!) from blog readers, which I want to follow up. I now need another holiday to read them all. Then anything I don't want to keep can go to another charity shop. And who knows what I might find there?