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On Monday's show we turned our attention to a sure fire winner for the Xmas stocking - audio books. Some of us love them because we enjoy hearing someone tell us a story- AND we can get on with all sorts of other things while we do so. For others, audio books are more of a necessity, if reading is difficult or impossible. There are so many great examples on the market so how do we know what makes a good audio book? Well, it certainly helps if you have the right reader and perhaps there's a bonus if that reader happens to be someone famous, say, (Matthew Crawley of Downton Abbey fame). We featured his audio version of Louisa Young's MY DEAR I WANTED TO TELL YOU recently and it had the desired effect (fan fluttering and swooning) but our expert guest Christina Hardyment admitted that there are books that don't lend themselves to audio translation. She listed some recent examples and then told us why the oldies were often the best, for instance, Dickens- designed to be read in instalments. Christina threw in some other options for the adventurous. How about Goethe? Honestly, FAUST in audio version is magnificent. And if you're on the lookout for one for the kids in the car, how about David Walliams's Gangsta Granny- it's as subversive as it sounds and yes, Walliams himself reads it!

We take our libraries for granted sometimes... but maybe the threatened cuts have upped their profile. It helps if your library is a beautiful Victorian building, situated on a commanding city centre site... in Glasgow has been celebrating one hundred years at it's current North Street location, overlooking the busy M8 motorway. It's a reference library and has remained so yet much has changed over the course of a hundred years. There are many secrets buried in this building that give us clues to it's past. Principle Librarian Trish Grant told us that BELOW the building, you will find a time capsule dating from 1907. She had more revelations too. We found out who the eponymous MITCHELL was a tobacco manufacturer called Stephen Mitchell. Nowadays it's a high tech place with a cool coffee bar where young and old mix happily. The sharp eyed will note that nowadays you can even find men and women sharing the space! That's progress!

We dipped our toes in the murky depths of international relations on Tuesday's Culture Café. The question was, how had the recent Euro zone standoff and David Cameron's use of the veto, affected Britain's CULTURAL relationship with our closest neighbours? Yes, those people across the water, in mainland Europe - up until now they've been on fairly friendly terms with us, especially when it comes to trade. Not now. Newspapers in France and Germany ran with the deteriorating relationship. However, Le Monde sounded more regretful about the fall out. It listed a number of things it admired about Britain - . Elizabethan poetry and apparently the Ö÷²¥´óÐã. Our Anglo French contributor, (journalist and film critic) echoed those sentiments but she drew the line at our "quirky" dress sense; it was she said, at best "eccentric". Parisian women tend to stick to a strict dress code with classic cuts and colours. It's tasteful and chic but there's no danger of frightening the horses. In the Brit corner we had arts writer and critic (a Scot), and director of the theatre company Vanishing Point, (an Englishman who's lived here for fifteen years) . What did they think the euro zone debacle would do to international relations in the artistic fraternity? After much analysis and a fair few laughs, they both concluded that we would probably be alright. And, it helped perhaps , added Agnes down the line from Paris, that we were SCOTS - the Auld Alliance still holds firm!

If the politics of European art and culture was getting too heavy, we were lucky to have a theatrical interlude on the show when we previewed one of the station's festive highlights; a drama for Christmas day called The Quest of Donal Q. The play i s based on Cervantes wonderful farcical tale, Don Quixote , and it' s written by David Ashton. He'd played a blinder getting two of our biggest stars on board, Billy Connolly and Brian Cox. They play two estranged brothers who go on a mission to seek out a childhood sweetheart. We heard a little snippet from the play, listened to a bit of Billy and Brian sparring with each other and then heard from the writer David, who told us how the idea had come together. It had been quite an epic endeavour but on what we've heard it sounds like it's been well worth the effort. Tune in to Ö÷²¥´óÐã Radio Scotland on Christmas day to see what you think.

We have some more festive treats on offer for the next two weeks. Recently, I hooked up with in Portobello Library to hear all about the second instalment of her memoirs, ALL MADE UP. She was doing a reading and was on scorching form despite suffering huge pain and discomfort. (She put her back out in a rather bizarre way - won't go into details! Actually that makes it sound worse than it was. Ok, I think a cat was involved. Gosh, maybe I should stop....) Anyway, for a woman surviving on pain killers she took dozens of questions from me and the audience and read extracts from the book with great wit and verve. As you might expect the follow up to is a terrific read- crammed with nostalgic, poignant and hilarious observations about growing up in Ayrshire in the seventies. Make sure you hear Janice in action if you can.

And in the bleak mid-winter, don't forget, you also have a chance to relive the balmy (?) days of summer as we give you two compilations of the best of our Festival Shows. Ms Forsyth and I were broadcasting from the inside of a Bedouin-esque starry- skied tent this year and despite suffering trench foot for a few days, we ended up loving our temporary home. Our guests were pretty taken with the tent to- far too many good names to mention so check them out in the coming weeks.

Just time to say it's been a busy year in the arts, lots of challenges ahead for us all financially and artistically but we've had many happy and surprising moments on air in 2011. I hope you'll continue to listen in 2012.
Happy Christmas to everyone and, on behalf of the Café teams, thanks for doing what you do... listening.