Nomad by Alan Partridge and rediscovering the reading bug

I'm up and running. After a moan in my last blog about struggling to find the time to read, things have picked up on the book front. Luckily, it emerged that my colleagues (Flora and Ellie) were harbouring a similar wish and, as a result, a small work reading club has emerged. Twice-weekly lunchtime reading sessions have helped me pick up the pace and it has encourage me to get away from a screen for a bit (he says, typing at home). I can certainly recommend it to anyone if you're lucky enough to have a decent space and fellow bookworms working with you.

As planned, I kick-started 2017 with Nomad 'by' Alan Partridge, figuring that it'd be best to ease myself in gently with an easy read and a bit of fun.

Luckily it lived up to the billing. Steve Coogan, Neil Gibbons and Rob Gibbons seem to get better and better at writing for Partridge, finding new situations and observations that keep the character fresh, funny and relevant. It probably should be old hat by now, the fact it isn't is a testament to the quality of the writing, whether it's for television, cinema or, here, as a book.

This book plots Alan's not-so-epic journey from Norwich to Dungeness Nuclear Power Station on the Kent coast, a trip his father had once taken for a job interview. The conceit is, in itself, a parody of the walks, road trips, train journeys etc that celebrities regularly perform and gives the whole thing a neat device to thread it all together.

If anything the premise worked better than that of I Partridge, the character's last literary outing. While I enjoyed that one, the autobiographical format meant that large chunks of it had - out of necessity - to retread the steps of old TV episodes with a greatest hits-esque feel. This all felt fresher, with a narrative loose enough to allow us to veer off along the journey and enjoy a few laughs.

The highlight of the book came in one such random aside. A chapter named 'Edmonds' promised much and reading of the apparent feud between the Deal Or No Deal host and Partridge was indeed laugh out loud funny. The word 'wazzock' certainly needs to make a comeback I feel.

The character's views on celebrities in general - from Eamonn Holmes to Ben Fogle and Dan Snow (or 'Snogle' as their said to be known) - offer plenty of enjoyment. You always feel that the authors have had great fun in using Alan to poke fun at certain people.

Nomad veers from the observational - Partridge's take on the mis-named Head & Shoulders was enjoyable - right through to Operation Yewtree. Yes, really. Footnotes are deployed to good comic effect - as is the ongoing quest to 'fill out' the book.

In the end, this was exactly what I needed. A good, fun, quick read to start the ball rolling and an enjoyable way to escape for a while. Next stop Susie Dent...

David Copperfield: A delightful Dickens classic

Has anyone else got a book that has been sitting on the shelf looking at them for a long while? In truth I've got several. But chief on the waiting list was David Copperfield. Until now.

A fair few years ago (7 or 8 I think) now I worked my way through the Pickwick Papers (having previously read Hard Times, Oliver Twist and bits of Great Expectations) and loved it. I know it's not seen as one of Dickens' best but I found it funny and really entertaining. I loved the serialised format and the weird and wonderful tangents it explored. I vowed that David Copperfied would be next and then, as usual, failed to meet my reading ambitions.

After a recent cull of the shelves, Copperfield called louder than ever so - despite being a hefty read - he was packed for my holiday and my promise was finally fulfilled.

I'd prepared for a return to a 'classic' by churning through a quick throwaway page turner but needn't have worried about getting back into the Dickens saddle.

Actually I think anyone daunted by taking on a 'classic' should consider, as I did throughout David Copperfield, that the best novels from the past feel no different to a book from the modern day. The reason such books enjoy their lofty status is because their tales stand the test of time. Dickens' observations are surprisingly and refreshingly modern, meaning that it's very rarely a puzzle to pick through the language.

If the Pickwick Papers was something of a jolly jape and Hard Times a political commentary, this was something different entirely with a different strain of observations on the world.

At face value it's the biography of the titular character but there's more than the face value narrative to enjoy here. In fact, for me, the real joy of the story comes from the cast of colourful personalities - the people he encounters throughout his life. From the dependable Traddles, ever-wise Agnes, crazy Aunt, malevolent Murdstones, sycophantic Heep and amusingly verbose Micawbers to the loveable Peggottys, everyone seems well sketched out and provides a pleasure. Dickens deploys a searing sarcastic wit to help to establish each of his characters, making for a merry band of memorable friends and foes along the journey. The backdrop - be it Suffolk, Yarmouth, London or Kent - is also brought to life in a vivid way.

Copperfield himself is, at times, a frustrating character. He latches himself onto the wrong friend in Steerforth and, arguably, the wrong woman in Dora - both times eventually realising the virtues in Traddles and Agnes in their place. He's also a fairly tragic figure - losing his dad, mum and wife along the way in the book's most emotional passages - and is someone who earned my respect by becoming a shorthand parliamentary reporter.

There's fun to be had in attempting to spot which events are inspired by Dickens' own life, and this personal touch must surely add to the richness of the readers' experience. Still, at its heart, this is a tale of relationships - between parent and child, friends, partners, colleagues, enemies - that rests on the people Copperfield comes across.

It was rewarding to finally tick this off my hitlist and pleasing that it didn't disappoint. The next step is to delve back into a meaty non-fiction text and dust off a history book that has been waiting to be plucked from the shelves. Hopefully that ambition won't take so long...