After spending last week suggesting books to readers who were heading away on trips all around the world, this week I got to have a library holiday. I was still working but not at Castle Bailey. I wouldn’t have to listen to Linda’s complaints for a whole 14 days. Free of questions about where the last of the milk went, why we have to allow children in the library, and how much tidier the entire place would be if nobody every visited or removed books from the shelves.

Imelda had pedalled off on a cycling tour of Austria with her wife Zara leaving Booky McBookFace, the mobile library unit, to the tender mercies of yours truly with chauffeur skills provided by Alex from Inter Library Loan. The July rain had eased and we would visit all the tiny villages and crossroads on Imelda’s route....

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