I’m going through a period of re-reading some of my favourite books at the moment. Currently I’m reading the Complete Father Brown Stories by G.K. Chesterton. They are short stories and gentle mysteries. There are no real clues for the reader to follow, we just have to admire Father Brown’s deduction, mostly based on a knowledge of human nature and psychology.

Next I’m going to read Kim by Rudyard Kipling, a story of a young boy in India who is the orphaned son of a British soldier taken in by an Indian woman. He’s completely assimilated in Indian culture and gets caught up in the ‘Great Game’ of spying between Britain and Russia. I’ve read it a few times and I always find it entrancing. When you read this book, you realise that Kipling was no racist. On the contrary, it is obvious the respect he had for Indians and the culture of India.