My Steam launcher for Skyrim says 51 hours played,but my save game is only at 39 hours.I've only played the one character and save often so has anybody else got this or is it a possible bug?

I haven't tested it, but maybe the save-game time only counts the time you actually play the game, without the time spent with the pause/grid menu open. Steam only looks at how long the game has been running, even when it's minimized or paused.

The only thing i can think of is that your skyrim saves are not perfectly up-to-date

This is correct.

Cheers for replies chaps.Had no idea I'd spent so long in the menus.I read all the books I pick up so these must soon add up I suppose.