Birthday present I bought myself from the charity shop in Staines today.

This has been on my bookshelf for a long time and seemed a rather daunting book! I was tempted to read it due to a question about it on University Challenge just before Christmas (a sign!) and it seemed to be appropriate to take to the Azores on holiday; I read most of it there and on the journey home and have finished the final few pages tonight before taking it to the Chertsey BC Meet.
The narrator is Charles Arrowby, a famous theatre luvvy, who retires to a strange house by the sea to become a hermit and write his (this) journal. Of course, he is soon plagued by people from his past and a quite gripping story emerges. It's interesting how Iris Murdoch puts herself into this man's shoes. Mostly he is rather unbearable, but occasionally amusing and insightful.
The Introduction should be skipped, and the parts involving his cousin James, the Buddhist mystic, enjoyed.

Apologies for the rather annoying, illegible handwritten notes on some pages, I didn't ntice them when I bought it.

No takers at the Chertsey Meet, so put on Book Mooch and zapped up immediately. On its way to London tomorrow.