Books 2023

 Frank McDonough The Hitler Years, Volume 2: Disaster 1940-1945.  12/1

Jo Nesbo The Leopard (Harry Hole 8) 28/1

Norman Mailer Harlot’s Ghost 18/3

Isabel Allende A Long Petal of the Sea 28/3

Rory Stewart The Places In Between 03/4

Jo Nesbo Phantom (Harry Hole 9) 11/4

David Long Lost Britain: An A-Z of forgotten landmarks and lost traditions 20/4

Jo Nesbo The Thirst (Harry Hole 11) 13/5

SJ Parris The Dead of Winter 27/5

Sarah Winman Still Life 10/6

Niall Williams This is Happiness 14/7

Richard Flanagan Wanting 8/8

Patricia Wiltshire Traces 23/8

Patricia Cornwell Flesh and Blood 25/8

Francoise Sagan Bonjour Tristesse/A Certain Smile 28/8

Luke Harding A Very Expensive Poison 29/8

Robert Harris Conclave 30/8

Henning Mandell Faceless Killers (Wallander 1) 10/9

Jasper Fforde: The Constant Rabbit 20/9

Nathalie Haynes: Pandora’s Jar - Women in Greek Myths 9/10

John le Carré: A Legacy of Spies 30/10

Robert Harris: Enigma 9/11

Orlando Figes: A People’s Tragedy 22/12

Jonas Jonasson: The Prophet and the Idiot 28/12

Books 2022

 Max Adams Aelfred’s Britain: War and Peace in the Viking Age

Karin Slaughter Pieces of Her

Jonathan Bate Radical Wordsworth

Charles Cumming Typhoon

Robert Galbraith Troubled Blood 15/4

Frank McDonough The Hitler Years, Volume 1: Triumph 1931-1939. 23/4

Anne Holt A Grave for Two 09/5

Bernard Cornwall Azincourt 16/5 

Mary Hollingsworth Princes of the Renaissance 6/6

Dominique Barbéris A Sunday in Ville d’Avray 15/6

Roy Jacobsen The Unseen 1/7

Karin Slaughter False Witness 16/7

Rebecca Stott In The Days of Rain 18/7

Alex Park The Last Lie 18/7

Adele Parks Both of You 20/7

Amanda Jennings The Cliff House 24/7

Marcus du Sautoy The Number Mysteries 27/7

Richard Osman The Man Who Died Twice 29/7

Anne Youngson Meet Me At The Museum 18/8

Hilary Mantel An Experiment in Love 2/9

Peter Geoghegan Democracy for Sale 19/9

Lucy Clarke The Castaways 3/10

Andrey Kurkov Grey Bees 16/10

Cat Jarman River Kings 30/10

Alice Roberts Ancestors 16/11

Jo Nesbo Police (Harry Hole 10) 27/11

Charles Spencer The White Ship 4/12

Jo Nesbo The Redeemer (Harry Hole 6) 11/12

Jo Nesbo The Snowman (Harry Hole 7) 25/12

Richard Osman The Bullet That Missed 31/12

Books 2021

 Robert Galbraith Lethal White

John le Carré Agent Running in the Field

Various authors Lockdown Number One

Richard Osman The Thursday Murder Club

Margaret Atwood Hag-Seed

Bernard Cornwell The Flame Bearer

Tim Marshall Prisoners of Geography

Tracy Chevalier Remarkable Creatures

Andrew Marr Head of State

Ian Rankin Knots & Crosses

Ian Rankin Hide and Seek

Ian Rankin Tooth and Nail

Ece Temelkuran How to Lose a Country

Jonas Jonasson Sweet Sweet Revenge Ltd. 

Christina Dalcher Vox

Bridget Collins The Binding

Nancy Mitford The Pursuit of Love

Rosalind  Stopps The Stranger She Knew

Charles Spencer To Catch a King

B A Paris The Breakdown

Jeffery Deaver The Never Game

Lee Child First Thrills

Kate Atkinson Case Histories

Kate Atkinson Behind the Scenes at the Museum

Elizabeth Day The Party

Charles Cumming The Man Between 

SJ Parris Heresy

Joshua Levine Operation Fortitude 

Craig Brown Ma’am Darling

David Mitchell Back Story

Andreas Kollender The Honest Spy 

Neil Gaiman Death

Lucy Clarke You Let Me In

Max Ayres The First Kingdom

Patrick O’Brian Master and Commander

Rosemary Sullivan Stalin’s Daughter

Val McDermid The Mermaids’ Singing

Azeem Azhar Exponential 

Bernard Cornwell War Wolf

Books 2020

 Lee Child Hero

Adam Kay This Is Going To Hurt

David Klepek Cold Storage

Sarah Perry The Essex Serpent

Howard of Warwick The Heretics of De’Ath

Robert Harris Munich

Robert Galbraith The Cuckoo’s Calling

James Felton 52 Times Britain Was A Bell End

Frederick Forsyth The Kill List

Graham Greene Brighton Rock

Matt Ridley The Evolution of Everything

Dava Sobel Galileo’s Daughter

Robert Galbraith The Silkworm

Margaret Atwood The Handmaid’s Tale

Ian Mortimer The Perfect King

Robert Galbraith Career of Evil 

Bill Bryson At Home

NHS Tracing app

The new NHS tracing apps, based on technology from Google and Apple, were made available to the wider public on 24th September after testing in the Isle of Wight and Newham. There’s been some criticism of the Apple version because it only works on newer iPhones. These are the ones that will run iOS 13.5 or later. The iOS extension that allows exchange of keys with other users of the app, the Exposure Notification API, was released in that version of the operating system.  

The issue isn’t with the app creators but with the Apple approach of denying operating system upgrades to fairly recent and fully functional equipment. This affects both iOS and MacOS users, forcing upgrades of good quality devices that should otherwise have years of useful life in them.  I don’t know whether this happens with Android devices too. 

Surely, in the COVID epidemic, it would be possible for both Apple and Google to release versions of their older mobile phone operating systems with their respective extension added, so that as many people as possible are brought into the tracing net.