UPON THE HEATH (OR QUITE CLOSE TO IT)

I performed a highly pleasurable duty today when I visited a recently opened bookshop in Belsize Park. England's Lane Bookshop, delightfully but unsurprisingly named for the road in which it sits, is an absolute treat for bibliophiles, where carefully selected and well displayed books, betraying wide knowledge and good taste on the part of the buyers, very politely threaten one's wallet from every corner. The stock includes a very good range of recent books at reduced prices, but there isn't the frenzied rash of discounts one sees in certain chain outlets. The staff are friendly and helpful, and the atmosphere is enhanced by interesting but unintrusive music. All this, combined with the presence of a very good cafe and other businesses of similar quality, on the very same street, will reward the time and effort of anyone journeying there from inside or outside the capital, especially if combined with a jaunt onto Hampstead Heath and a tour of Keats' house.

I'm taking my wife there with my Christmas books list.

David