So we finished Mortal Engines last night. I kept them up far too late, because we all wanted to finish it (and anyway, Mrs Mumble was having a book-club evening downstairs, so there was no chance of sleep anywhere in our house). We knocked off the final 50 pages without stopping, and there was not a dry eye in the room. Tell you what, Philip Reeve doesn't seem to mind too much about killing off major characters.

I finished HMS Surprise last week. Luckily, to celebrate my 15,341st day on this mortal coil, santa brought me the The Aubrey - Maturin Chronicles: v. 1 read by Robert Hardy (whom I will always think of as Siegfried). What tremendous stuff that is. Proper stories about real heroes, read in exactly the right voice. Perfect :). To keep me going on the train, I've turned to Coward on the Beach - I'll let you know how that goes.

Transferred the remainder of my 2008 Delhi trip to here.