Books will keep me warm

Dan, great-nephew of Radford Sallow, is the latest refugee in my office, seeking a quiet corner in which to complete his PhD on pigeons/urban seagulls, entitled 'Flying Rats: Can Man and Pigeons Co-Exist?'. No, it isn't really, and I'm traducing his fine work.

However, he's here and comes bearing books to take the edge off my fiscal isolation. He's given me Sebastian Haffner's Germany: Jekyll and Hyde, an eye-witness account of the 1930s in that country. I've also received in the post Tim Lebbon's Bar None, a post-apocalyptic novel set in Wales and mostly about beer ('a novel of chilling suspense, apocalyptic beauty, and fine ales' - sounds like a night in Wolverhampton). It's the last book I'll receive for a while. I've already had a stroppy automatic e-mail from Amazon pointing out that they can't take any payment for some fine Vaughan Williams choral works I've ordered. This is horrible. I'm as consumerist as Paris Hilton, just with books. Noooooooooooooooooo!