Holiday Reading

It's that time of year, now that spring is in the air, when those two wet gits - er, let me try that again...

It's the time of year, now that all the politicians are on holiday when the quality papers, slightly desperate for material, fill up space with lists of what novels the great and good are taking on holiday with them. This is an opportunity for celebrities to try to kid on to the public that they will be reading War and Peace or Gibbon's Decline and Fall in Tuscany, and not tucking into Harry Potter/Jilly Cooper/The Bourne Idiocy at all... So here is my list of holiday reading. It's not all that special but at least it's true:

1)Isca: The Fall of Roman Exeter by Derek Gore
This is coming mainly because the book is physically small (a strange size a bit smaller than A format) so it will fit nicely in hand luggage. And it will remind me of home. And it looks a bit easier than Edward Gibbon. I bought it ages ago on a whim when I saw the author sitting ignored next to a big pile of his books in WH Smith. It's signed and everything...

2) Mappa Mundi by Justina Robson
A fairly safe bet. 600-odd pages of SF should keep me going for a bit.

3)Collins Pocket French Dictionary
Good for deciphering menu items.

4)Arthur and George by Julian Barnes
A bit unsatisfactory, this book, as it's a very large paperback, of a sort which generally doesn't travel well. However, I don't think I'll manage to finish before I set off so it might as well come with me.