Because I've been laid up, I tried to download a book about a detective in a hospital bed - The Daughter of Time by Josephine Tey. It's something I've known about for many years but never read. Although my phone was misbehaving, I recalled that my mother had a copy, so I searched that out when I went to stay. It's an excellent read, and packed with fascinating references. The research that went into such a slim novel is quite phenomenal, and it cuts clearly through some utter absurdities of received historical 'knowledge'.
While looking for that, I stumbled across The Water Babies, by Charles Kingsley. I'd tried to read it as a kid, but found it a bit dull. Coming back to it as an adult, I am impressed by the lightness of Kingsley's wit, and the way he manages to lampoon moralising, 'improving', tales while writing a clear Christian socialist morality into the novel itself. He is unafraid to use pagan mythology and the emerging science of evolution and geology to develop the story, which I found surprising, given the date. Stodgy in places, but I was laughing out loud in others. It made me reassess my view of Kingsley.
