It doesn't matter what age the child or the parent is, there's still a huge gap when a parent goes. My deepest sympathies to you and your daughters for the loss of your mother and their grandmother.

Oh yes please!

Sounds like it's not to be missed - thank you for the review. Brr - there's that window open again!

Congratulations!

Yes! I'm a devoted Amelia Peabody fan and have read all the books in the series. I'm not so fussed on the other detecive fiction she's written as Barbara Michaels.

I'm another grateful recipient of blood products in recent years and I'm so aware of the debt I owe to people whom I'll never meet. Thank you for doing your bit, jane

I have to say I think it's possible to love both. We have five cats (the senior lady is called Molly) and one dog, called Bess, and they live in a (mostly) harmonious state. I wouldn't be without any of them.

Looking forward to it!

What did people think of the epilogue? I wasn't at all convinced....

I enjoyed this book very much but found myself hurrying over the present day story to return to the past. I found that section of the novel much more engaging and compelling - I just felt slightly impatient with Damia and the other modern characters. I enjoyed the description of the building process in the mediaeval story although I must say I found the creation of Salster with its rituals and customs a bit artifical. And, to lower the tone slightly, the term Oxsterbridge made me giggle; an oxter is an armpit in Northern Ireland! I was fascinated by the depiction of the political climate in Simon and Gwyneth's time. All-in-all, although the book has its flaws its virtues outweighed its faults.

I'm looking forward to this as I haven't read any Steinbeck since I was at school. I have just received this morning The Yellow-Lighted Bookshop by Lewis Buzbee and he's enthusing about Steinbeck in the first few pages.

Thanks, DP! I note the blurb says it gets you 'noticed in a good way'. Knocked unconscious by the fumes is how I recall it from the summer of 1980. Classy.

A smell I detest but one that transports me back in time is Brut aftershave. Is it still made, I wonder? When I was a very junior student nurse I always felt nauseated on night duty and this was made worse by the clouds of Brut that permeated the men's bathrooms in the early morning. How I hated the stuff.

The smell of puppies and kittens - nothing like it. Bread baking on a griddle, reminds me of my mother and grandmother. The smell of crushed grass - reminds me of a church fete when I was very young and for the first time was given a few pennies to spend as I liked. (I bought a pottery mallard drake and loved him for years). Nasturtiums and sweet william, reminds me of my grandmother's garden. Bacon, definitely, but it needs to be the old-fashioned cut with a slicer type, not in a plastic packet oozing white goo. I could go on.

Could you repeat the last bit in English for the non-knitters??

The poor swans in the lake at the bottom of the field are frozen in and one has died. People are bringing them food and we went out today and got a few loaves of bread for them. The mutes aren't too bad because they can paddle about in the bit that's clear but the whoopers need a long runway to take off so they're marooned. Meanwhile, up at the bird feeders, a pair of blackbirds are sitting underneath waiting for the smaller birds to drop food down for them.

We love you Rocky!

Oh, I would love to win this. Please enter me. Many thanks.

Roger Deakin (Walnut Tree Farm), Monty Don (The Ivington Diaries) Alan Clark's Diaries, Testament for the CBG, some Barbara Pym. The longer version of this post was lost to the ether when I edited it.

Over Christmas I was reading Alan Clark's Diaries, not in order but as the library reservations came through. He was certainly a flawed character (to put it mildly) but the books make fasinating reading. I also was reading very slowly The Bookman's Tale by Ronald Blythe and was fasinated to learn when I started to read Notes from Walnut Tree Farm that Roger Deakin and Blythe were very good friends. I've just started The Ivington Diaries and want to race through it but also to savour each page and make it last as long as possible. No fiction so far this year but I suppose it's early days!

Please count me in.

Oh yes please, Rocky!

Oh poor Rocky! Hope they're giving you nourishing titbits to speed up the healing process.

I'd love to be added to the draw please.

Please count me in. I loved this book but don't have a copy. Heard 'Frequently Asked Questions' on R4 today, with Hilary Mantel, Susan Hill, et al. Hope you weren't too busy with the day job today.