A little bit of housekeeping before we get cracking on this week’s post: I’m taking a break over Christmas, so my next newsletter will arrive in your inbox on 10 January. 

If you find yourself at a loose end over Christmas, why not take a look at some of my fiction or essays over at Word Count ? You can read my short story, The Lacemaker , or my novella The Gates of Balawat , which are both available in full and for free. And my first self-published novella, Argleton , is currently about halfway thr...