Audible

Christmas before last Kris and Michael kindly gave me an Audible year subscription.

On the advice of acquaintance Anna --café owner and author interviewer,  I first listened to Great Expectations by Charles Dickens and greatly enjoyed it .

I also listened to A Christmas carol.

Then I heard Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy--a book I've read and film I've seen before,

Later I heard The Bee Keeper of Aleppo --a tale of refugee escape from Syria,

All our Wordly Goods by Irene Némirovsky --a  brilliant French writer who died in the holocaust. Recommended by a cousin.

The Time Traveller's Guide to Medieval England -fascinating account of life in C12 England

The White Ship - a maritime catastrophe in the reign of Henry 1st that utterly changed the course of  English and French history

The Story of Russia--Orlando Figes--explains why Putin is what he is

GUT -the well known manual on digestion by Guilia Enders

History of England by Simon Jenkins --mainly concerning Kings etc but also history of democracy

The Anglo Saxons-which was one battle after another with Kingdoms, Vikings, Jutes etc etc

Chatter--a fascinating and very useful account of how to deal with damaging 'brain talk'

The periodic Table by Primo Levy --an amazing man who also endured Austchwitz and who I identified with as a chemist

and   couple of other historical ones I can't recall right now.

I have now fulfilled an ambition to understand  how England  developed and unified since Roman times.

Of particular interest was the gradual development of democratic institutions including parliament.

It took 300 years. The despotic Donald Rumsfeldt, before ordering the invasion of Iraq, notoriously said "give 'em a taste of democracy for a couple of weeks and they'll never go back !"

How many civilians killed? It's counted a 'success' today only because you can step into street and probably not get shot at!