The malady lingers on when it comes to launching yet another attempt to conquer the north face of a mountain of books. magazines and documents blocking a path to my study desk.

A tinge of guilt and a tingle of excitement surface together as the first minute reveals old friends left to fade and gather dust along with more recent fancies still awaiting proper attention. Least I can do is afford them piles of their own.

So begins latest chapter in an endless scaling of literary ranges in search of knowledge, inspiration and useful companions to help make sense of a world in which real books and joined-up writing are often being reduced to bit-part players.

I bought a rather crumpled edition of The Land of the Vikings by H V Morton several years ago. It was first published in 1928, shortly after his best-selling In Search of England, a volume worthy of establishing him as one of the leading travel writers of the age.

Henry Vollam Morton’s style is too flowery and jingoistic for many tastes, but he did evoke stirring images and values of a time and an environment........

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