Necropolis: London and Its Dead by Catharine Arnold - initally you might think 'Ugh' about the subject matter but this is truly fascinating - chronicles how London dealt with its dead throughout the ages and how sanitation and the burial of the dead brought about huge changes in the health and wellbeing of the living. Its not ghoulish, there are no nasty or scary pics, its well written and I recommend this highly.
Horse People: Scenes from the Riding Life by Michael Korda; this book is supposed to be light and entertaining and I enjoyed it up to a point - the nutsy people and plain strange happenings which occur daily in the horsey life all appear in this book though I put it down without finishing it because I found the writer had based it so much round himself that I became bored.
Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel; hyped up to the max, I had huge expectations of this book. Basically, its OK and sure it has lots of relevant historical detail, but it rambles on and on and that is about as much as I can say about it. Its no-where near as good as the CJ Sansom 'Shardlake' books and I felt the ending was weak. OK as a beach read.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher: or the Murder at Road Hill House by Kate Summerscale - this is a fab book which no-one should miss - it begins with the sad tale of the death of a child, the cover-up by the family and the investigation by a Mr. Whicher, detective. The culprit is a surprise and the book reaches a well researched and thought out logical reasonable conclusion; its somewhat sad due to its being a true story but it does take the reader way back into a past when things were done differently. Highly recommended.
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