The lockdown accounts for the greater number of books read this year.

I read all of Robin Steven’s ‘Murder Most Unladylike’ series, partly to inform my own writing for children and partly because the books gave me the same feeling as I had when I was a child and got lost in a series. I’ve only asterisked the first one but take that as a recommendation for the whole series.

Joan Bodger’s ‘How the Heather Looks’ was a charity shop buy but its a charming account of her family’s tour around the UK in the 1950s, visiting the places that inspired classics of children’s literature.