- Dishonesty Is The Second-Best Policy and Other Rules to Live By” by David Mitchell
- “Michael Palin In Venezuela” by Michael Palin
- “Happiness: Lessons From A New Science” by Richard Layard
- “The People on Platform 5” by Clare Pooley
- “Encyclopaedia of Narrow Gauge Railways of Great Britain and Ireland” by Thomas Middlemiss
- “Moscow Coup: The Death of the Soviet System” by Martin Sixsmith
- “The Secret Diary of Adrian Mole Aged Thirteen and Three-Quarters” by Sue Townsend
- “The Growing Pains of Adrian Mole” by Sue Townsend
- “Adrian Mole: The Collected Poems” by Sue Townsend
- “How To Live Like A Stoic” by Tom Hodgkinson
- “The Sacred Diary of Adrian Plass aged 37 3/4” by Adrian Plass
- “This Present Darkness” by Frank Peretti
- “Don’t Sleep, There Are Snakes” by Daniel Everett
- “Brutal Scotland” by Simon Phipps
- “Idler XXX: Thirty Years of The Idler, A Visual History” by Tom Hodgkinson
- “We” by Yevgeny Zamyatin
- “British Railways Mark 1 Coaches” by Keith Parkin
- “Meditations” by Marcus Aurelius
- “The Story of Railways” by Richard Bowood, illustrated by Robert Ayton (Ladybird)
- “Riders” by Jilly Cooper
- “The Dark Half” by Stephen King
Date started: 28th July 2026
Date finished: 27th August 2026
4/5 stars
I love Stephen King, and as he’s been such a prolific writer for so long, I’m nowhere near through reading his books. I found this one in a charity shop recently, and thought it looked good – it certainly was.
Writer Thad Beaumont has a pen name for some violent thrillers he writes – George Stark. He decides, after a few books, to retire the pen name and go back to his own identity as an author, after his real identity is leaked. However, George Stark takes on a malevolent life of his own and isn’t going down quietly.
We only gradually find out who Stark is and what he does, but it’s an excellent build-up – he’s a fantastic villain, and King keeps us guessing as to what his true nature is. There’s a great action-packed conclusion too.
I wouldn’t say it’s one of his greatest works, but it’s pretty good stuff, and I found it quite a page-turner. It’s nowhere near as long as some of his books as well, it felt like just the right sort of length. Excellent adrenaline-filled entertainment.