A new look at colonial Sydney is a lively and valuable corrective to almost two centuries of error.

He has become, at least to outward appearances, a man more ordinary.

Some argue the situation would be very different if voluntary euthanasia became legal, as all social constraints would be removed. They ought to look at Oregon in America, where voluntary euthanasia has been legal for over a decade. That experience has been much studied and refutes this and almost every practical argument against legal voluntary euthanasia.

Like many people I have come to enjoy boxed sets of the more thoughtful American cable television series.

Any year that has new novels by four of the best crime writers around can’t be too bad.