I bought this book around the time we watched the film, but then didn’t enjoy the movie version at all so was reluctant to pick this up. Eventually I have managed to get round to it and glad I did because the book is so much better than the film. All the things I disliked about the film (Sherlock being smug and solving it all, the mother turning out to be a terrorist) just aren’t present in the book. Thank goodness, and it was so readable, I’m keen to see how the second one turns out.

I’m not sure why I suddenly want to read the bundle of Twilight books that I’ve had for ages, but having got through the first one relatively easily, I dipped into the second. It really feels like not a lot happens for a good portion of the book, until suddenly Jacob is a werewolf and Edward is in trouble and all the action is in the last couple of chapters. It’s better than I was expecting, and an interesting way to develop the series, but it’s not as good as the first one.

This is a controversial book and film, with much made of the lack of historical accuracy and concerns that it might lead children to think wrongly about the Holocaust. All of that may be true, but I have to admit, as a fable (which it is labelled as), it’s very good - tragic and brutal, the twist at the end makes me want to scream, it’s so awful. I don’t believe Bruno could have been quite so ignorant as he was, particularly not being able to learn the name or purpose of the place despite living there for a year, but the high level twists and turns do pack a punch.

I listened to Peter Kay’s newly released audiobook of this, his autobiography from about ten years ago. It’s a great story, well told, and with all the extra bits thrown in, it really was just like sitting down and having a chat with him. I liked the moments where he ended up reviewing his own work, or adding some notes on what has happened since the book was first published. It always makes me laugh how much real life stuff ends up in the TV shows - all that supermarket stuff, some of the conversations like for like those that he had with Kayleigh in Car Share. Loved it.

I remember watching the TV show that this book is tied-in with when it was on oh-so-long ago, but I’m not sure if I ever read the book. I saw a newer book by Dick Strawbridge that led me back to this one, and I thought it would be interesting to have a quick dive in. It brought back some memories but what was fascinating to see was how much has changed and how much hasn’t. There are areas that the Strawbridges focus on that are still a problem today, but also areas that we have actually managed to make progress on - plastic bags, etc.