My busy week

I've had a very busy week preparing for a monster book sale for my library which was held today. My muscles feel as though I've personally moved every one of the 300+ boxes of books we had stored for the sale but luckily I work with a wonderful team of people & we all moved boxes, erected trestle tables, took money, brought each other coffee & cold drinks, laughed, grumbled & had a very satisfying day. I can say that now that I've had a bath, drank a pot of tea, read for an hour or so & have just had dinner.

I've had an exciting week of reading as well but I haven't had time to write about it. I've just about finished Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel which I'm sure needs no introduction. Winner of last year's Man Booker prize & it's fantastic. I have less than 100pp to go so I'll finish it tonight & post a review tomorrow. I also read Chocolate Wishes by Trisha Ashley, a lovely romantic read with chocolate. What more could I ask for? I'll review that tomorrow as well. My lunchtime book this last week has been Nella Last's Peace, the postwar diary of the woman who wrote a diary for Mass Observation for over 30 years. Her wartime diary has already been published as Nella Last's War, & it was made into a telemovie, Housewife, 49, a few years ago. I loved Nella's wartime diary & I fell straight back into her life, her family & her neighbours in just a few pages. I can't wait to get back to post-war Britain once I leave Tudor England.

I'll leave you with a picture of some of my bookshelves. You can probably work out that these are the Ds. The profile of Sherlock Holmes is a bit of a giveaway. You'll also spy lots of Dickens & John Donne. The photo is my Great-Aunt Beattie in her calisthenics uniform probably taken in the 1910s. I never knew her. My grandfather emigrated from England after WWI but we have lots of photos of his family & I love this one. Also, a photo of Abby in front of the jonquils so this was obviously taken last September. Abby still hasn't taken any paraffin oil but she did bring up a hairball so I have to be pleased about that. The jonquils will also be seasonally spring-like for anyone visiting the blog from the northern hemisphere.