just ordered 4 of these novels from a second hand english bookstore .so they better be good its cheaper to buy books online from england and post to oz than it is to buy then over here

I have just finished "Spitalfields Life" by someone known only as The Gentle Author.

It's a hefty 400+ pages but is a series of short easily-digestible chunks, each of which is a pen-portrait or vignette of a person or place in or near Spitalfields.
From the old guy who spends half of every day sitting in the passenger seat of his daughter's car parked on Brick Lane watching the world go by and reminiscing about when he ran the foremost boxing club in the area ... to the man who still runs the family business of selling paper bags to the traders of the area, sometimes tens of thousands but, these days, sometimes only ten ... also shopkeepers, stallholders, waiters, hairdressers and even a jewel thief who nearly had his eyes burned out by the Krays.
It's a fascinating read, you'll learn about the church warden whose great, great, great, great grandfather was a Huguenot silk weaver and who got to go (accompanied by The Gentle Author) to see patterns of silken cloth, now held in the V & A, woven by his ancestor.
You'll find out who Tubby Isaacs really was ... and about Bell-founding and banister spindle-making and the man who sweeps-out the Beigel Bake in return for being allowed to sleep there.

I might just start at the beginning and read it again.

I think it's German .. StruwwelPeter ... but, yes, Shock-headed Peter in English.
I saw a musical version by the Tiger Lilies 10 or 15 years ago ... very weird but great fun for adults, kids would have been scarred for life.

Zodiac by Robert Graysmith.

Clare Baldings book "My Animals and Other Family" arrived today. I really like her. She likes dogs, horses and rugby league(my three favourite things) which I hope the latter gets mentioned in her book.

Currently reading "A Peoples Tragedy" by Orlando Figes about the Russian Revolution.

Its a bit hard going to be honest but I am struggling through.

Its also very, very grim.

Last book i read was "A Terrible Glory" about General Custer and the Little Big Horn. This was a fantastically easy to read even though the subject matter was (in parts) pretty upsetting.

If i ever manage to get through A People Tragedy, i will be having a bit of rest bite by reading the "Game of Thrones" novels. I am not particularly interested in Fantasy, but having just finished the TV series (and LOVING IT with every fibre of my being) I think I will read the books.

PS

Thanks to Bren2k for informing me (on another thread) that series was actually based on the Novels.

Just finished reading the Commissaire Adamsberg series of novels by Fred Vargas.
I can normally take or leave crime fiction, but I've lapped these up one after another due to the combination of a decent plot that moves along fairly quickly, a historical slightly gothic undercurrent, off-beat but likeable characters and great humour.

Currently reading E mails from an asshole, very funny, bit of a no brainer book, but enjoyable