Book: Read a book that takes place in December, with ice or snow on the cover.
It's the Winter Solstice today and at 15.30 the sun has already started to drop through the rain to the western horizon, like a festive party-goer sneaking off early from work in a hurry to get home..
I hate these long nights and brief, often grey, days. They make the clock of my own mortality click too loudly.
So...
I've switched on the Christmas tree lights, made a pot of coffee and am about to lose myself for an hour or two in "The Twelve Clues Of Christmas", a piece of whimsical imagining from Rhys Bowen.
Although I've been aware of the "Her Royal Spyness" series for a while, I've never gotten around to it before. In need of festive cheer, I dived in at book six in the series.
So far, not having read the first five books hasn't gotten in the way. The story is light, the humour is well-judged and the world is an easy-to-relax-in fantasy version of 1930s Britain.
I've just reached the point where the first body has been found in the grounds of the country house in darkest Devon that our heroine is ensconced in for Christmas. Her room has a view of the orchard in which the body was found. I'm expecting my first clue to arrive shortly.
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