In my guest rooms I provide a good supply of books, ranging from Mills & Boon to historic Cumbrian Murders, tales of old Kendal and flower arranging.

None of these books are designed to stretch the intellect, they are simply holiday reading.

If you are staying somewhere for a night or a few days all you need is something to send you off to sleep. Or to keep you amused while you soak up the sun. That is if you happen to be somewhere there is some sun – not around the Dales lately!

Now Keith has always got to be a little different and his choice holiday reading is no exception. No Dan Brown or Wilbur Smith for him. No, it‘s Bill Bryson‘s latest book which has had him enthralled over the last week or so.

Of course Bill is well known for his amusing mickey-takes of various cultural idiosyncrasies. However, this latest book is something quite different and it has made Keith even more philosophical than usual.

The book tries to explain the creation of the universe - not the first or the last book on this subject, I suspect.

Apparently the whole thing started off when everything that exists now was all squashed into a space no bigger than a millionth of a pin head.

Bill’s book then goes on to talk about protons, DNA, dinosaurs, chromosomes, the atom, evolution and all stations in between and even has a stab at time itself.

It’s enough to make anyone want to go and have a lay down. So now I have to listen to the questions it has raised in my dear husband’s brain, while we eat our breakfast, dinner and tea, or while cycling along highways or in bed at night.

As I see it, there are no answers, only more questions. Who can possibly unravel these mysteries? Perhaps I’m simplistic but to be truthful I’d rather not try.

So in the words of the wonderfully optimistic, late John Denver, ‘Sweet, sweet, surrender. Live, live without care. Like a fish in the water, like a bird in the air’.

It works for me.