Xmas Gifts to Self - and one Unwanted Present

I hope everyone had a good Xmas, if you have been celebrating it.  Several bloggers  have been showing off  their 'hauls' of gifts, and I thought I might join in. I do make a rule of not asking my partner to buy me hobby-related gifts, however -  so any such items are purely 'gifts to self'.  Thanks to the inevitable 'Xmas sale' at the Naval and Military Press, I acquired a couple of interesting books. The first one was definately on the 'wants list', so it was great to see it come up as a special offer at a very good price : 

 

For anyone with an interest in the Seven Years War,  Christopher Duffy's books are a must-have, and this will join an expanding collection.  Prussia's Glory focusses on one month in 1757, during which Frederick of Prussia scored his tremendous victories at Rossbach and Leuthen. Duffy's writing style is eminently readable while also highly authoritative, and the book has a very manageable 190 pages. I am very glad to have it! 

And then I thought, might as well buy something else, as the postage (for UK buyers) is a fixed fee. Had a browse around, and this caught my eye: 

Battles and Battlefields of Ancient Greece by C. Jacob Butera and Matthew A. Sears looks pretty interesting.  Sub-titled A Guide to Their History, Topography and Archaeology , the authors (professors of Classics at US and Canadian universities) introduce it as a book designed for the traveller in Greece, whether the member of a tour group, the independent adventurer, or the curious scholar.  

Twenty battles are covered, ranging from  Marathon in 490BCE to Actium 31BCE, For each battle you get a historical outline section and one describing the battlefield today, diagrammatic map superimposed on satellite image, and suggestions for further reading. It's a truly 'weighty tome',  bieng of about 380 pages which are in heavy gloss paper - maybe not quite so handy when packing luggage! 

Having made a few holiday visits over the years to the Peloponnese, Crete, Pelion and Mani regions, I have liked Greece very much, and hope to get back there now that travel is normalising again. So this looks like it might be a pretty useful book which may influence choice of destinations.. I liked a comment in the introduction : Jenny Denault, Matthew Sears's wife and travelling companion, was with us at the American School, and has visited site after site with us since. Though we frequnetly tested her patience with our enthusiasm for dusty plains, she always kept us grounded and reminded us that beaches and seaside tavernas are a vital part of visiting Greece too,  I couldn't agree more!

Overall, I am very pleased with my 'Xmas gifts to self' -  not so much with an unwanted gift that was passed to me sometime in the past few days... 

After 3 years 9 months of avoiding it, it seems I have finally lost the viral equivalent the 'Whamageddon' game, and the the dreaded lurgi has caught up with me. Oh dear, bang goes our plan to host friends on NYE, among other things. I don't actually feel too bad so far, just like a common cold, runny nose etc but it has stuck around a few days. Hopefully it won't get any worse, and will pass soon enough.  At least I have plenty of interesting books to be getting on with in the meantime. As Jon Freitag  has said,  #IntrovertsDream.. 

Have a very Happy New Year, all,  and keep well, everyone.