Although there’s no need to play favourites, in my January reading wrap up I popped this multi-generational family saga in the number one spot and I have to admit it’s still standing strong two months on.

If I were writing in the before times the blog would be chock a block with theatre trips or stand-up comedy nights.

I assume I must have snapped up Anna Wilson’s A Place For Everything on Netgalley as soon as I saw that it was a memoir about her mother’s late-diagnosis of autism but I have no memory of doing so. However, when I came across it one evening recently I was absolutely hooked within the first few lines.

Right. It may have felt like it lasted forever but January is finally over! It has been…okay!

When I was younger I thought I’d one day be a West End musical performer. I’d been told over and over again to anticipate rejection and to grow a thick skin so I was very successful at tuning out my family’s suggestions (both gentle and forthright) that singing and dancing may not be my forte. Y

I have no idea what genre Leave The World Behind is except the ‘excellent novel’ genre that I now hereby award it. I read this for January’s Chapter Chat Book Club but even before that it was already on my list.

Ooooh this book! I’m going to be so careful how I review this because I really loved launching into this novel with a fairly limited idea of what to expect within the pages.

It wasn’t until Stephen King published his non-fiction work On Writing that it occurred to me to read some of his fiction.

Everything I read in 2020!

Since I’m the person who gives friends advice on what book to read next - whether they ask or not - and the suggestions are usually very much enjoyed, I feel perfectly suited to put together a bookish gift guide for you and yours.

We’re creeping ever closer to Christmas and, in this mess of a year, nothing is quite how is usually is.

As someone who just finished a Faber Academy course and is in the process of writing her first novel, I’m both deeply envious and completely in awe of Anna Bailey, the 24 year old author of Tall Bones who finished her novel writing course, the Curtis Brown one, just last year (!) and was quickly published.

2020 has brought a lot of novelty to peoples’ lives, both good and bad. So far I’ve tried writing a novel, starting (and frequently rejecting) new exercise regimes, making short videos of my dog just trying to live her life and have created projects with sub-par results in both embroidery and knitting.

After the delight that was Beach Read earlier this year I’ve been waiting for another feel-good romance with a solid, engaging narrative. And, for the most part, I’ve got to say that The Summer Job absolutely delivered.

Lockdown. Boozing. Clap for the NHS. Netflix. Barely suppressed anxiety. Relax lockdown. Eat Out to Help Out. Rising Cases. Rule of Six. Lockdown. Trying to go alcohol-free. Working out. Netflix. No-one suppressing their anxiety anymore.

Mark Watson is, in my opinion, one of the sharpest, funniest and most articulate artists out there.

I do not know how to feel about this book. There I said it. Even while I was reading it I didn’t know how I felt.

In February 2020 I started a six month writing course with Faber Academy. At 10am on a Tuesday morning I joined another 14 writers - made up of a variety of ages, experience and backgrounds - and we nervously and keenly filed into Bloomsbury house for the first time.

Maus is one of those classic ‘one day I’ll read that’ books. Or two books, depending on which version you have. The downside to having a well-stocked bookshelf and a prolific book buying habit is that I’m constantly reminded of how much I haven’t read.

We’ve not had a Corona Diaries instalment for a while have we? Frankly I just haven’t had the clarity to know what on earth to write.