During the lockdown a great many current affairs programmes are having to conduct interviews with people directly from their homes, and it has been heartening to see how many interviewees are sitting in front of a full bookcase. When you look at all the interior design pictures on Instagram you might be forgiven for thinking that books are no longer required in a modern household. The walls are all dove grey and white and only interrupted by a line or two of some uplifting quote in copperplate script. Now we see the truth! All sorts of real people still own books, and in many cases, quite a lot of books. My family always had books at home, and although I have seriously culled the quantity since moving to this house, I would never want to be in a house with no books on the shelves. We have bookshelves in five rooms here and a tub of children's books waiting for the Great Grandbaby to be old enough to want to listen to a story. You can tell a lot about a pe...