It's a solace knowing that my propensity for acquiring vast shelves of books isn't an oddball impulse because book hoarding and the cultivation of large private libraries has been around since the first book was created. Vallejo has composed an ambitious and fascinating history of physical books from scrolls initially created using papyrus plants in ancient Egypt to the development of digital books. The story follows not only evolution of books as objects but the way they've been an integral part of building our culture and civilisation over the centuries. It emphasizes how fragile books are as objects being prone to deterioration, loss and purposeful destruction. While the author mourns the loss of certain texts and writing which now only exists in fragments, she also celebrates the miraculous way certain key books have survived over the centuries.

I found it especially fascinating that creating essential reading lists is also a process as ancient as books themselves and such hierarchies created by dedicated readers heavily contributed to why certain books have survived the weather of time over others. She gives fascinating examples of how female authors have been de-prioritised over male authors over the centuries and she makes a compellingly strong case for why original texts shouldn't be revised to remove offensive ideas and terminology. Alongside accounts of intriguing historical figures from literate leaders to scribes to book traders to fearless librarians, Vallejo occasionally interjects the personal role books have played in her own life. I appreciated how this added an emotional undercurrent to this well-researched and knowledgeable history of my favourite object.

It’s getting chillier here in London so I’ve been staying inside more reading Graham Norton’s first novel “Holding”. I was pleased to discover it’s a story about a small town mystery which hit exactly the right engaging tone that made me want to cosy up under a blanket with a cup of tea and keep reading until I found out what happened. The holding is predominantly about the secrets members of small Irish village Duneen withhold for twenty five years, but which are eventually brought into the open when buried human bones are uncovered at a building site. This is a place where nothing much happens: “Time didn’t pass in Duneen; it seeped away.” So a body being discovered is big news and gets all the local gossipmongers gabbing. At the centre of the novel is the village’s only policeman Sergeant PJ Collins – an overweight, oftentimes solitary man who touchingly discovers the value of being held himself over the course of the novel. This is a thrilling novel with a story that grips you and captivating quirky characters.

PJ Collins finds it difficult to lose weight when his elderly housekeeper Mrs Meany cooks him so many hearty meals. Norton sympathetically writes about PJ’s struggle with self image and his awareness of being laughed at by people, but being helpless to change himself because of the emotional comfort food provides him. When he has the chance to experience a real physical connection it’s tinged with a whole series of emotions because his identity is so tied to the extra weight which has been with him his whole life.

Norton explores the emotional complexity of a number of other relationships in the novel. Three aging sisters who live in one of the village’s finest old houses sounds like something out of a gothic tale. The author creates a really fascinating relationship between the three women and shows how their closeness is both a blessing and a burden. I particularly like the complex way Norton shows how different relationships can sometimes deteriorate. When commenting on the sisters’ parents he writes: “Some marriages combust, others die, and some just lie down like a wounded animal, defeated.” Also, there is the character of Brid Riordan who has become known in the village as someone who too often enjoys a tipple. As a wife and mother of two she’s particularly condemned for doing so. Yet, the author shows how her drinking has become an emotional crutch because of an early heartbreak and problems within her existing marriage.

The compelling hook which made me compulsively read this novel were the intriguing secrets which several characters hold close. It’s well paced so that the reader discovers there is not one mystery, but multiple ones going on in the background as Sergeant PJ Collins and the Detective Superintendent down from Cork investigate and question members of the village. It gradually builds to a dramatic conclusion. “Holding” was such a pleasure to read and it’s wonderful to discover that such an engaging TV presenter is also a talented writer.