This week we consider the sacrosanct activity of reading for pleasure, something we hope will be possible for all our readers over the festive season. This is A Quiet Half-Hour (1876, National Trust Hilton Ampner) by Lionel Charles Henley (b1843). Although the reader's dress is heavy and tightly fitted, she has managed to achieve a high degree of comfort with tea, cushions, a footstool, and is clearly not to be disturbed. She could, perhaps, be reading The New Magdalen (1873), one of our Victoriana titles.