Were I a younger man, I would wish to use my magical powers to bring me those things my heart desired – sex, power and money notable amongst them. However, as I grow older, I find the most useful spells to be the mundane (Mend, Create Food and Water, Summoning Water and Air Elementals to do the cleaning) or else help to mitigate the daily tribulations of life: Timestop, for example, enables me to have an extra hour or two in bed to catch up with some sleep while the world is paused, Clone means I can do something productive while my double goes to work in my place. Various illusions help me to sound better when I sing and short-term attribute improvements mean I can periodically play the guitar quite well. I have little desire these days to strike down my enemies with Fireballs and Lightning Bolts – apart from one or two that is – or indeed to do anything that would be construed as illegal. Conjuring up the spirits of the dead to learn the secrets of the past is not, for example, strictly speaking illegal, although it is best done confidentially. Inflicting minor curses on troublesome individuals is a minor misdemeanour at best. Sadly, there is nothing which so motivates me these days that I would go forth to seek out a mighty Wish.

My review of Philip Longworth’s Russia’s Empires: Their Rise and Fall has been published now at Bookpleasures (http://www.bookpleasures.com/Lore2/idx/0/2417/article/Russias_Empires_Their_Rise_and_Fall_From_Prehistory_to_Putin.html), as has the review of Keith A Ayers’ Engagement Is Not Enough (http://www.bookpleasures.com/Lore2/idx/0/2416/article/Engagement_Is_Not_Enough.html). Meanwhile, the Asian Review of Books has published my review of Charles Allen’s God’s Terrorists: The Wahhabi Cult and the Hidden Roots of Modern Jihad (http://www.asianreviewofbooks.com/arb/article.php?article=748). A couple more reviews are due at Bookideas and I have just had chance to request half a dozen or so splendid more choices thanks to Norm Goldman’s success in persuading some university presses to offer titles for review.

I was also invited yesterday to submit a paper for a conference to be held in India at the end of January – just when I was thinking that I had done just about enough conferences for a while. Well, I will probably submit in any case – it won’t be until next year anyway.

Back tomorrow.