I’ve not really had a huge amount of interest in this in the past, but listened to the audiobook read by Hugh Bonneville and actually it was quite a lot of fun. A very approachable insight into the early (perhaps slightly embellished) childhood of the naturalist and writer when his mother upped sticks and moved to Greece. It made me want to watch some of the TV adaptations of his stories and see how they have been portrayed.

This is one of those short but hardhitting memoirs, that really hits home hard due to the simplicity of the narrative. It’s an incredible read, giving insight into time spent in concentration camps during World War II, and it’s just a reminder of how horrific everything was. Weisel writes with facts and emotion but somehow manages to contain the rage and emotion that it strikes in the reader. A tough but important one.

Having watched Cruella, and previously seen the movies, I figured it was worth having a look at the source material, so read through this one quite quickly. It’s a bit weird, from the dog’s point of view, but once you get into it, it flows well. I quite liked it. Going through many adventures to get there and back, I can see why this book captured a lot of imaginations. What I don’t understand is how the Cruella from the origin story movie becomes this fur-hungry monster, but hey, things evolve!

Not so sure about this one. There were bits of it I really liked, clear Bond elements that you can almost visualise on screen - the car chase ending up in a drive through cinema, the railway escapades, etc. But other bits of it weren’t that interesting. I mean, at one point Bond himself says he’s a bit bored of doing what he’s doing - if he’s not able to be interested in it, why should we care? It did touch upon a lot of elements though - horse racing, casinos, travelling by plane and by sea, some kind of mud bath sauna place, lots of things to visualise.