Desperate Reader

I've been avoiding doing any sort of round up post of the last decade and am not about to start now in any serious way. It's the dec...

It's been quite a subdued Christmas this year - my mother has really unpleasant back problems, my sisters partner unexpectedly died earl...

It’s Christmas Eve and I’m at my mothers drinking champagne. Specifically Bollinger’s Grand Année  2008*. We have a tradition that we drink ...

Because I like the preparation for Christmas more than the actual event I’m already more or less organised (presents wrapped or distributed,...

I’ve been wary about writing a general guide for wine at Christmas - it’s something that was always a  bit of a bone of contention at work -...

For the first time it felt a bit odd not to be working in retail today - I’ve obviously forgotten the worst part of these next few days, and...

It continues to be really very pleasant not working in retail over Christmas, but it’s made me more sympathetic towards those who do than ev...

I’m specifically mentioning ‘Murder at Christmas’, which is the latest in Profile books now annual series of crime anthologies, but what I r...

Thinking about Raymond Chandler reminded me of another vintage American comfort read - Damon Runyon’s funny, charming, occasionally shocking...

In my ideal world Christmas television would have a lot more black and white films in it, and quite a few of them would be classic Noir (whi...