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I’m completely worn out this morning, and probably good for nothing all day. I slept really badly last night because south Manchester was aswarm with police helicopters all night. I don’t know who they were after, or what was going on, but they seemed to be swooping and diving all over our little bit of town. It was like Blade Runner with cobbles round here in the early hours of the morning – and I was awake for a while, expecting all kinds of drama. Just when I dozed off there was a huge crash from somewhere in the house. Bravely I steeled myself to get up and look around – and found nothing untoward.

Until I went to the bathroom and saw that the giant aloe vera on the shelf about the basin had committed messy green suicide everywhere. It had flung itself down and ruptured all of its fat, fleshy spikes. It looked like a Triffid had broken into our house and done something unspeakable.

So. Today I’m going to be very tired since after that I had to sit reading for ages before nodding off again.

But it least I slept in the end. And it was only things such as hornetlike helicopters and crazy cacti keeping me awake…

The picture above is of the books I’ve chosen to dive into for the start of this autumn. They’ll be interspersed of course with Green Carnation re-reading, as we move towards the shortlisting (announced November 1st.) But these are the books I want to mop up the days with in this surprise Indian Summer we’re getting.

The sun here is wondefrul, golden and green. I had a late afternoon with Mary Stewart yesterday – reading another of her delightful 1950s thrillers on Canal Street in the sun and then home in the garden with Fester sitting by me.

This particular TBR pile is almost perfect, I think. There’s a bit of everything, nearly – a children’s classic trilogy I’ve never quite finished (Jenny Nimmo); a Saint, a Poirot, a vintage Margery Sharp I found via Ebay; a Little House, a Nancy Drew, the second Gail Carriger ‘Parasol Protectorate’ steampunky adventure (thanks, Orbit!), and a new Berkeley Prime Crime novel, kicking off a spooky crime series by E.J Copperman – and a Dorothy L Sayers-edited anthology of supernatural tales. Maybe this heap of books is on the lighter side, with the stress absolutely on enjoyment… but that fits my needs perfectly just now. I find that with stressful things impending (as they are – and I think the aloe vera knew it…) – my reading shapes and moulds itself to my moods and needs. I swing into cosy – like no one’s business.

What a week! Friday already. So many high points and classic moments. One of my favourite moments was after we’d finished recording episode five of Demon Quest in those wonderfully cool studios in Soho on Wednesday afternoon. Tom Baker leaving the building in a long coat and clutching a shopping bag – a bit like Eric Morecambe at the very edge of the stage at the end of a show. He turned back and said, ‘Well, I suppose it’s time to go back to reality, isn’t it?’

And maybe it was. But it’s never for long, before the next adventure starts.

And for everyone else – Doctor Who – Demon Quest has just begun. Episode one was released this very week, just as the last part was being recorded. (The first hour-long episode is costing only three quid on iTunes and Audible at the moment, btw!) The very first online, quickie review went up on Gallifeybase last night: ‘It is wonderful and amazing fun. A joy!’

Which says it all, really.

Wednesday morning I sat outside my favourite Soho cafe in the sun with a cappuccino. I had my favourite-ever-albums playlist blasting on my headphones. Geoff Love launched into that brilliant orchestral, cinematic, 1978 version of the Doctor Who theme and I realised that I was waiting there at 9 am for Doctor Who to actually arrive…!