On today's show
There is a lot in the phrase "truth is stranger than fiction". In the latest history of British monarchy, looking at the period of the three King Georges (1714-1830), Lucy Worsley has uncovered scandal, intrigue, bizarre and undignified demands on servants, and a classic dysfunctional family. Courtiers is a story told with wit and humour, as Lyn Baines says 'it's a hoot', but it also makes you aware that nothing invented in fiction is any more extraordinary than 'real' life.
At home by Bill Bryson is a look at what we call 'everyday' life, in fact the history of the domestic life of homes. Yet it is related with Bryson's gentle quirkiness and humour, which illuminates the ordinary and shows it as fascinating. He begins with his own home, an English vicarage built around 1850, and moves through the different rooms, examining the changes in how people have lived over the century and a half. He challenges us to think about why we have the things we do.
Last but not least is the latest in Alexander McCall Smith's '44 Scotland Street' series, The importance of being seven. If you don't have the 'Scotsman' newspaper delivered, you have to wait until the serialised stories are gathered at years end into a novel. There are many characters to love and hate in this series, but universally admired, 6 year old Bertie is about to turn 7, and we wonder if he can realise his ambition to join the boy scouts, rather than become the child genius his mother is pushing him to be.
---- Lesley
