Two more books - More Than You Can Say by Paul Torday (pub Pheonix) which is a cracking good read. The hero is really not a hero yet somehow his voice is engaging, some part of him, a very small part of him is maybe, perhaps, was once a decent boy/youth/man. Not a great thinker even in his own account "The thoughts kept rattling around my head. So I did what I always did when what remained of my conscience gave me trouble: I tried not to think." p 68, his thoughtlessness looks set to be a lifetime's habit whatever good fortune or good intentions he may have. I had a boyfriend like that for quite a few years. He never quite extended beyond himself but could be very charming if he stood to benefit from putting out the charm. Falling out of love with him took me too long. Love is a very strange teacher. And failing in love can leave a bitter taste for a while. Enough of me and sad sap moping, the book is rip-roaring adventure written brilliantly.

The other book is a little fairy tale - Guilt and Gingerbread by Leon Garfield (pub Puffin) which I read just before the Torday. Similarly it has a hero wrestling with his good and bad side but eventually the good wins out and he gets the princess. True love takes strange and deviant pathways but in this story acceptance of each other's not so cute bits allowed them to live happily ever after as whole and imperfect people rather than a dreamed up fantasy. 
The opening lines of this book are "It's a fact that travel broadens the mind; and it's a fact that, if you do it on a horse, it broadens the bottom, too". You know a book is going to be good when it starts out like that. And with illustrations by Fritz Wegner it seemed like it would be a winner when I picked it up at a second hand bookshop a week or so back.