Coming up on Times Radio Breakfast: is a more unionised country fairer or less likely to grow? Plus, the Obamas rock the DNC (might they overshadow Harris), the latest on The Bayesian, Reform squabbles, stop and search, should teenagers go to music festivals, naked telly etc

Final proofs already in for The Burial Place, out next April. A little hint of the prologue here, if you are interested. It’s a novel about history and murder and the past, with a bit of romance thrown in as well.

Am doing a little series on Instagram in which much-loved authors share their fantasy dinner parties of guests made-up solely of fictional detectives. I start with Mark Billingham. Come along! instagram.com/reel/C_AWVSmAI…

A bit of Tennyson I stumbled across, the end of “Ulysses”. Basically a little inspirational hymn - or that’s how I choose to read it - to feeling old, and recognising with that comes strength and the ability to persist.

The Burial Place, out next year, is set on an archaeological dig (a slight nod to one of my favourite Poirots: Murder in Mesopotamia). One of my murders happens beneath a Norman tower, and I’ve found a good example in Provence, complete with circling rooks for dramatic effect.

I discovered the great Georgette Heyer a few years ago, on a random shelf in a holiday cottage. (It was The Toll-Gate and I was hooked). Now I take one on holiday with me. My only complaint: whose idea was it to make the reissued covers look like mimsy sub-porn? Otherwise, a joy.

My second holiday reading list. I’ve been somewhere hot, so I went old-school and easy. A romance, two crime, a pulp spy, and a fantasy book. All very easy on the mithered brain.

I’ve discovered some of my favourite authors - like Georgette Heyer and Robert Parker - by picking up random books in holiday homes. With that in mind I have been leaving a copy of one of my novels wherever I stay. You never know, someone might read it and like it.

Some people have asked whether you can really find a quiet, isolated place like Little Sky - where my Jake Jackson books are set - in England. Well this is just an hour outside of the capital city. One of the great things about the UK will always be the countryside.

As September looms with all the attendant resumption of real-life responsibilities and demands, here is a beautiful farewell to summer from Emily Dickinson to cheer us all. One of my favourite poems in the world.

Back on the radio on Monday. Summer is over, so the holiday scruffiness has to be replaced by the professional slightly-less-scruffiness.

A generation that can achieve this cannot be that bad.

Coming up on Times Radio Breakfast: Aasmah and I are back after the summer. One-word Ofsted judgements to be scrapped: an outstanding, good or inadequate plan? Plus, protests against Netanyahu, rise of AfD in Germany, blood pressure checks, police on sick, Paralympics etc

Coming up on Times Radio Breakfast: is the UK decision to suspend some arms to Israel a moral act, a pointless gesture, a failure to support an ally? Plus, nationalising the rail, end of summer, financial infidelity, the young using private health, brick phones for pupils etc

I asked John Healy, the Defence Secretary, whether he was confident that Saudi Arabia uses the weapons we supply to them with more regard to humanitarian law than Israel. He was not willing to answer that point.

Coming up on Times Radio Breakfast: how confident are we in the structures that underpin society? On the day of the Grenfell report, we look at the issue of community in Britain. Plus, Jenrick’s view on segregation, channel tragedy, resilience, Spanish pineapple dating etc

I think this is the third or fourth time I’ve read Lincoln by Gore Vidal. It’s my nomination for the greatest historical novel ever, and I know that’s a tough call. If you’ve never read it, I would heartily recommend it. A slow, clever, convincing, beautiful read.

Coming up on Times Radio Breakfast: we are a country of public inquiries, shrugged-off scandals, institutional inertia, powerless poorer people, an endless cycle of disaster, the passage of time and fruitless apology. How do we change that? Are failures really so inevitable?

There have been twelve housing ministers since Grenfell. My unpopular idea on the radio: secretaries of state serve full five-year fixed terms unless they are sacked for impropriety. Make people responsible for the consequences of their policy, make them see it through to an end.