I have just returned from Oslo, Norway after a long weekend break with my wife.

Oslo is an amazing city. How amazing is it? From the city centre we grabbed some ski’s, hopped on the Metro system, and half an hour later we were cross-country skiing through the countryside to another metro stop. We got back on and were home in time for dinner. It’s that amazing.

I fell over about 15 times and wiped out a three year old child. A Norwegian three year old child already has three years of skiing experience and was doing great until I slammed into them at full pace, completely out of control. The childs Norwegian parents were quite upset until they realised I was British. Then they just kind of rolled their eyes in a patronsing way.

I went to the offices of my Norwegian colleagues to find out how things run in Norway with book sales and marketing and was reassured by the similarities of the UK and NOR systems. They also set me straight on an issue that I had previously maligned Norwegians for:

Actually the biggest tragedy is that reading isn’t big in Norway, despite the fact that it’s dark and cold most of the time. They’d rather watch blu-ray DVDs on big screen TVs instead. Oh - and occasionally they go skiing.

Actually they said that Norwegians read a massive amount of books per/capita and I did see an awful lot of bookstores in the capital. So apologies Norway - you do read - there is no tragedy.

My holiday reading was The Phoenix Files: arrival by Chris Morphew who I spotted commenting on my own insightful posts here. His publishers Egmont Hardie Grant were kind enough to send me a copy.

I have to say that it’s terrible holiday reading. It’s much too interesting, much too fast-paced and much too unputdownable. I finished it on the plane on the way to Oslo leaving me without a book for the rest of the weekend. I’m thinking of writing to complain.

Chris lists one of his interests as Animorphs (Michael Grant take note) and the book is a really engaging story about a creepy corporate-run town that seems to be bent on the destruction of the rest of the world. Luke Hunter, the new (and final) arrival to the community, uncovers the beginings of the truth behind the town. It’s a perfect YA read, great characters, a really engaging story and leaves you desperate to know more at the end. Well done Chris and good luck with the rest of the series. The faster you write them the better!