Change of Seasons

 As I write this, I'm enjoying the final warm days of summer, but I've noticed that the nights are already drawing in and it's dark by nine o'clock.

Although I love the warm summer months (and we've been more than blessed this year!) there is something enticing about autumn. The first whisper of the cold weather to come, closing curtains as the evening falls and curling up with a good book. There are some advantages to living in a country with so many months of long, dark hours when we can be holed up in our homes making our way through a teetering 'to be read' pile.

And I find that what I read changes with the seasons. During the summer I like to read novels that reflect my life at that time, so holidays, sunshine, village fetes and days out. I absolutely love anything involving a coastal location and a big multi-generational family staying in a vast holiday home. I can feel the tension seeping out from between the pages before I've even opened it! I want to be transported somewhere warm with cocktails and sun-loungers and definitely no work - the summer of my dreams, but never my reality!

So, as we move into autumn and the children are going back to school (collective sigh of relief from parents across the country, including myself) I'm looking at my bookcase and putting away the summer novels to start reading something more suitable for the new season.

Whilst I do absolutely love them, I try and save the Christmas books for reading in December (I must stop myself from diving in too early!), so for my autumn reading I turn to darker, slightly mystical books. The sort of slightly spooky, gothic books usually with a historical element or dual timeline that needs to be read in front of a roaring log fire. Just as sitting in the sun adds to the mood when I'm reading a holiday novel, sitting in the dark with the lamp lit, is perfect for reading something atmospheric.

I've pulled out some of the books that are at the top of my 'tbr' pile and I am ready to dive into; I've just finished reading a review copy of Jenni Keer's 'The Legacy of Halesham Hall' so I don't have a copy of that (yet!) but it was brilliant, everything I love in a book for the turn of the seasons - twists and turns, gothic and deliciously dark!

Roll on the autumn nights, my books and I are ready to embrace them!