Holiday Reading

Today I put back on the bookshelf two very contrasting books which were my holiday reading. The History of Our Streets was a television series exploring the social history of streets as experienced by the people who have lived in them, first in London, then in Scotland (Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen). I missed the first series so decided to read the book. I feel I now want to visit the places covered to see them for myself! The second book charted a year in the life of a young Scottish doctor who went to live at the British Research Station - Halley - in Antarctica. He concludes that you need to be industrious, emotionally stable and sociable to survive there - especially in the dark winter when the sun doesn't appear at all for months and when the temperature can reach minus 50 degrees! Brrrr.