Sunday, 12 August 2007

A wonderful day in the garden. In the evening we stayed up to see the Perseids. It was cold and my neck ached, but we were rewarded with one spectacular Perseid that zapped half-way across the sky, north to south.

After the deep pleasure of reading Darwin's Voyage of the Beagle, I attempted E=MC2 - a biography by David Bodanis. Not quite so exhilirating, and I think 100 pages of footnotes was a bit excessive. Today I finished Birds of a Feather by Jacqueline Winspear. I could just about accept the female 1930 private eye, rescued from a life in service and set up in some sort of social enterprise by philanthropic aristocrats. With gritted teeth I could even put up with the comic cockney cripple. I think the final straw came when the comic cockney cripple was sent off for pilates exercises to cure his war wound. It would have been easier to digest as a comic novel. I am sure Jacqueline Winspear has a devoted readership, but I wont be joining them. Now I am reading Early English Land Tenure by Eric John. Perhaps it will throw some light on the Community Assets Fund. Ho ho.