I confess that I had a moment of sheer panic when they announced the lock-in.

I had read all my library books and the library had been closed each time I tried to change them. Then along came the shut-down and I knew I was stuck with those books probably for eternity. What the fuck was I going to read?

There is only one time that I read and that is when I am about to go asleep. Frankly I find it difficult to sleep without reading as otherwise I just lie there with my mind spinning off into undesirable thoughts. A book is an essential.

Then I came across a book I read quite a while ago. It was in a back room all covered in dust and cobwebs. “The Pillars of the Earth” by Ken Follett. Glory of glories but it has a thousand pages of small print so that should last a while.

So I started reading it. Due to my dilapidated state of memory I had almost completely forgotten the story line so it was like reading it for the first time. Brilliant.

The days and nights passed and I realised with horror that I was getting dangerously close to the end.

Then I remembered that there was a sequel and what was better, I had that sequel somewhere. So I set to work and went through all the old book cases and boxes of books which clutter the house.

I found it!

“World without End” is even thicker. There are the best part of one thousand three hundred pages of equally small print. That should last a couple more weeks?

But after that I’m fucked.