Coming up to your favourite books over the Christmas Holidays. I have chosen The Cambridge Biographical Encyclopedia, and on many an occasion it has kept me glued to the seat dipping into its great collections of names, titles, explanations and above the accuracy of the book pleases everyone, well, dare I say, almost everyone. I flicked upon a page and found: HUDSON GEORGE: (1800-71) who inherited ¤30,000. and with this money he was set up for life, he became an MP : three times Lord Mayor of York, he bought large estates but the railway mania of the period destroyed him ...he was accused of fraud and lost his fortune. Still, he made it to the top by virtue of being in this huge collection of data. This is the only book to combine use of a dictionary with thematic overview .. and offers an unrivalled edition of the world''s most prominent individuals and their history both past and present. Let me turn the page ... 1924: Eamon de Valera - Irish - statesman was leader of Fianna Fail the now Irish Republic. 1933: Bernadette of Lourdes becames St. Bernadette and she was a French visionary. 1945: Harry S. Truman became President of the United States of America. HAPPY HOLIDAYS and keep on reading ... excellent stuff.