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‘What! You’ve never had Ethiopian food before? This is great!’ Our waiter grinned with delight ‘You are going to love this’. And he was right. Four people; a mixture of meat eaters and not-so meat eaters, we ended up sharing a meal based on a sponge-like bread called injera topped with small piles of spiced chicken, lentils and lamb. No knives and forks were needed, only a good appetite and a willingness to try something different. We spent little over £12 per head including wine. We will be back for more. Nearest tube: Tufnell Park

Despite its brevity (182 pages in the edition I have) and despite several attempts at finishing this widely praised novel I eventually gave up in exasperation around page 127 and put the darn thing down for good. The story of a middle aged prize-winning poet whose husband has just left her. I can understand why; he must have been bored to death.

Nairn’s brilliantly witty and astute observations on London’s built heritage from Uxbridge to Dagenham or, as he put it, a list of his ‘subjective maunderings’. First published in 1966 Nairn was spot on when he said that ‘what London needs is a new Nash’ who can see beyond tawdry speculation. We didn’t get one though. Just go down to Canary Wharf and weep at the lost opportunities to inject some humanity into the place. This book may be nearly 50 years old but it’s still on the money.

Pitching up at Paddington Station the little Peruvian bear (no less adorable for being CGI) takes refuge with the Brown family and proceeds to wreck havoc on their house whilst working his magic on the uptight father and sulky teenage daughter. The fabulous real life cast includes Hugh Bonneville (Dad), Sally Hawkins (Mum) and a magnificently malevolent taxidermist played by Nicole Kidman. Paints a scrumptious, good hearted portrait of multi-culti London. I don’t suppose Mr Farage will enjoy it then.

A luxurious ten hours of politics, rivalry, death, mayhem and philosophy courtesy of Radio 4’s adaption of War and Peace. If you were too hung over for the new year’s day mammoth all day performance then find a space in your diary, refuse all engagements and binge on this fabulous realisation of Tolstoy’s most ambitious work about Russia’s awakening in the early 1800’s.