Weekend Reading List

Mrs Tay finally sent her driver to me with two books, one I asked for, Fleur Cowles's She Made Friends And Kept Them (now isn't this a splendid title?), and one I didn't, Not A Muse, an anthology of poetry, which Mrs Tay had read on one of her travels and had thought I'd like. Isn't it something to read poetry as you're jetting busily about the globe? I don't quite know how she does it; I'd certainly be defeated by the stress of it all.
And then at dinner, PH gave me a heavy bag of How To Spend It which he has religiously collected for me (it's the glossy Financial Times supplement); There must be at least 20, neatly folded, never read. He thought I would like Captain Wentworth's Diary, by an Amanda Grange, and gave it to me to read in Bali. This latter is a retelling of Jane Austen's Persuasion, through the pen of Captain Wentworth, from the imagined pages of his diary. Would Captain Wentworth keep a diary? It's very unlikely, but I love Ann Elliot, Austen's most matured heroine, so I'm eager to give it a go.
Now I've got to go (over)pack my bags, which I dread.