Christmas reading

I made a start this afternoon on this book, a political memoir written by Rory Stewart, a former Conservative MP. (for Penrith and the Border). I read an extract in my Sunday newspaper a few weeks ago, which impressed. Integrity and public service, and self-awareness, are characteristics absent in too many modern politicians.

Rather weirdly, as I was making a start on the first few chapters my phone rang. It was a flood alert for the lower River Irwell (although now retired, I’m still on the ring list it seems). Weird because exactly eight years ago, Boxing Day 2015, having a meal with J and family in a hotel in Highcliffe I started getting WhatsApp messages from a colleague who lived near the Irwell, with photographs of a building which had just collapsed into the rising river. Storm Eva caused huge damage, flooding homes and businesses. And Rory Stewart was the government minister at the time with responsibility for flooding. Unusually hands on - I was surprised to take a phone call from him one day, he was ringing around to check on progress on dealing with the recovery operation.

Even weirder, Storm Gerrit rolls in early tomorrow morning. Let’s hope it’s a tamer beast than Eva.

Extra. The moon early morning. Pre-dawn. I was getting up and noticed moonshine, it was sinking low on the horizon visible through trees fringing the golf course. I grabbed my camera.