Pre Kindle

When the earth splits in surrender to the burning sun and the tiles round the pool are so hot as to burn the soles of your feet, there is little else to do but retire to the shade and immerse yourself in a book, in my case any book, for I will read everything from a cereal packet to a bus time table.

I am like an alcoholic with a bottle stuffed down the side of the chair and another one in the sideboard, and an emergency one in the downstairs press in case I run out, so it is with me and books I need my spare and my next one and preferably three or four more unread to get me through the day without worry.

The current delights are Hilary Mantel and her "Bring up the Bodies", continuing where Wolf Hall left off and another Booker nominee, this chronicles the King's gradual disillusionment with Anne Boleyn and his growing infatuation with Jane Seymour. Rich with detail, leavened with all sorts of social niceties (did you know before, that Anne's dwarf had a Brazilian? Do you want to know it now?) it is such a good read, one of those books that you almost want to start again as you finish it. Anne's intemperate behaviour and her rumoured incest, with the brother that she was separated from as a child, lead inexorably to the scaffold, but another detail, she was beheaded with a sword by a specially imported executioner from Calais, no block was used. All these Tudor films will need to be re shot.
For all the historical detail and meticulous research this book never falters nor gets dull, it is lively and very readable and so rich in character that figures from history leap out and shout in your ear to be noticed. I loved it.

As I am loving my second choice, "Peat Smoke and Spirit" by Andrew Jefford. A portrait of Islay, its history, its people and its whisky. Another treasure of fascinating facts and some lore, mixed with barley mash and distilled in detail to provide a compelling reason to visit the home of seven of the greatest distilleries in Scotland. If Ardbeg, Bruichladdach, Bowmore, Lagavulin, Bunnahabhain, Caol Ila and Laphroaig , evoke peaty memories of favoured drams then this is a must read. who could resist the cure for a common cold ... wade into the sea fully clothed to your waist, get into bed soaking wet, and cover yourself with bed covers until you sweat away the chill. Sounds like one of my blip remedies or at least it will from now on. The alternative, to fan yourself with the pages of the family bible is just too tame.

PS If you are a Campbell , maybe give it a miss, it will make you even more ashamed than you should already be.

These then will be my companions, but I am going to buy a Kindle very soon, I can then never run out of material.