Dydd Gwyl Dewi Hapus!

March 1st: St. David's Day and - officially - the first day of spring. But not one daffodil out in the garden, lambs shivering in the fields, heavy snow, strong winds and biting cold. It's also World Book Day, and it strikes me that indeed the best way to spend it is curled up with a pile of books and plenty of coffee (or something stronger later) in front of the fire.

The book I'm much enjoying at the moment is Helen Dunmore's "Inside The Wave", the final  collection of poetry she published before her death last year and the well deserved winner of the Costa prize. I've always liked her novels - "The Lie" has been a particular favourite - but I was not so familiar with her poetry. Much of it is intensely moving; the ending of her short piece "My life's stem was cut" (I know that I am dying / But why not keep flowering / As long as I can / From my cut stem?) almost reduced me to tears. It's a book well worth reading if you haven't done so.