At night I am about halfway through Patti Smith’s Just Kids. I couldn’t resist her candid take on New York and the motivation behind her career and songs.

On the coffee table, I am two-thirds of the way through Andrew Rawnsley’s The End of the Party. His detailed record of the final years of Blair and Brown’s New Labour is fascinating. It is written as if he knows the minds of the players at the time. It has uncanny overlays with Robert Harris’s fictional account of the former prime minister, The Ghost.

Finally, in my study is Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s Nudge, which I read in one shot. It is a counter-intuitive look at improving public policy and effectiveness without increasing costs.

Not a novel in sight - until the summer break when Aravind Adiga’s Man Booker Prize-winning The White Tiger beckons.

Trevor Averre-Beeson is director of Lilac Sky Schools, an education consultancy.