I failed to get to grips with the Gospel of Mark in time for my bible studies class the other night, which left me virtually speechless as my classmates made a series of astute remarks.

The tutor clearly realised I hadn't done enough homework, and allowed me to talk briefly instead about my work as a local newspaper man.

My observations, he said, reminded him of the work of Digby Driver, a fictional journalist who has an important part to play in the 1977 novel The Plague Dogs by Richard Adams, who is best known for Watership Down.

Our teacher offered to lend me his copy of Plague Dogs, and I look forward to reading it - after I have had a more detailed look at the book of Mark.

At the moment, I am enjoying A Line in the Sand by Gerald Seymour, the second thriller I have read by this brillliant writer, who now lives in the Wallingford area.

And Howard's End is on the Landing by Susan Hill is also proving entertaining. She is visiting Mostly Books in Abingdon next month and I quite fancy going along to hear her speak.

The author came up with the brilliant idea of reading all the books in her house that she has failed to read so far, instead of buying new ones, and her musings are very entertaining.

I enjoyed having a chat this morning with local children's book illustrator Mini Grey, who has based her new picture book on the Hilaire Belloc poem Jim, and our conversation is recorded in The Guide in Friday's Oxford Mail.

In Belloc's poem, Jim runs away at the zoo and gets eaten by a lion, and I was rather terrified by this scenario when I was a young lad.

I discovered the poem in a compendium of children's verse called The Golden Staircase, which belonged to my mum. I bought my own copy a couple of years ago for a few quid in the Age Concern shop in St Clement's.

So far, I've read about 70 pages of Ken Follett's The Pillars of the Earth, and I'm enjoying the historical saga, but I better crack on because it's a library copy, and there are probably about 700 pages to go.