At the library last week I picked up Pip Vaughan-Hughes' novel The Vault of Bones, just on a whim - I like to read authors I've not read before - and was quite impressed by it. Unfortunately, as often happens to me, it turned out to be the second in a sequence, and it was obvious that the characters' history was quite significant in driving the plot. So, at the library today, I looked up the first in the sequence - Relics - and, after some faffing about (I do wish they could keep the catalogue up to date!) ended up asking the librarian to request a copy for me from an outlying branch.
I then went to catch my bus home. As I rounded the corner, I saw it pulling away from the stop (another thing that often happens to me!), so I decided to kill the quarter-hour until the next one by seeing what was in stock at the nearby charity shop.
Standing in glorious isolation on a bookshelf was - a copy of Relics. Just as though it had been put there to wait for me...
I mentioned this to the woman at the till as I paid for it, and she smiled, and said "You know, I just put that book out for sale about ten minutes ago."
In other news, Hannah (