11 July 2021

Baffled by Hadrian’s Wall and a mystery postcard

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SURELY mine is not the only brain that has gradually turned to mush thanks to this endless lock-down. I sense previously lively little grey cells have coagulated into something resembling sago pudding.  Thus my head is host to an amorphous  splodge of lifeless nothingness. A once active organ languishes listless and lifeless. Bogged and befuddled,… Continue Reading

11 July 2021

Baffled by Hadrian’s Wall and a mystery postcard

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SURELY mine is not the only brain that has gradually turned to mush thanks to this endless lock-down. I sense previously lively little grey cells have coagulated into something resembling sago pudding.  Thus my head is host to an amorphous  splodge of lifeless nothingness. A once active organ languishes listless and lifeless. Bogged and befuddled,… Continue Reading

9 July 2021

Spy tale irritates more than it thrills

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BOOK lovers are a stubborn and peculiar breed. They will determinedly push on to the very last word despite all the negative vibes they are receiving from their current choice of reading matter. They plough relentlessly forward, deaf to a background noise about plot, characters, writing style, inconsistencies, typos (polite word for spelling errors), plodding… Continue Reading

5 July 2021

Have a cuppa with pride, not prejudice

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NEARLY choked on my afternoon cuppa. Spluttered and dribbled before disaster was eventually averted. Yorkshire’s finest it was, too. You know, the brew that guy with the accent as broad as the Dales is forever chuntering on about. Seems that the much adored novelist and regular tea drinker Jane Austen (pictured) has fallen foul of… Continue Reading

5 July 2021

Yippee, freedom . . . it’s holiday time

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Aah . . . the sheer joy, relief, escape, freedom and get-away-from-it-all happiness of a holiday trip.  These hordes are lockdown escapees from the Australian state of Victoria queuing to “enjoy” the snowfields, as pictured by the Herald Sun. Yet again I am prompted to wonder what is the sense and point of holidays. Why… Continue Reading

4 July 2021

Better to be clever than smart

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ALMOST daily we are urged to place our trust in rapidly advancing new technology. The catch-cry is “Get Smart”.  It is almost biblical in its unwavering insistence. Accept and ye shall be saved. Adapt to everything smart and ye shall enter the Elysian uplands where all the gizmos and contraptions that surround us will cease… Continue Reading

28 June 2021

Get set for National Eternal Optimism Day

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EVERYONE ready? Got your Union flags close to hand for some frantic waving? At least for 45 minutes. The bunting dragged out from storage to drape between houses? And hang there limply for days long after, a sad reminder of what might have been. The fridge cleared to make space for the packs of beer?… Continue Reading

27 June 2021

Taking care needs to work both ways

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THE clue is in the name: care worker. In other words, a person whose job (though they may also be an unpaid volunteer) is to provide care to those less fortunate than themselves. To people who maybe disabled, incapacitated, incontinent, immobile or suffering one or more of the wounding barbs that life has a nasty… Continue Reading

24 June 2021

Disher sets gold standard for Outback crime

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WHEN trawling through the innumerable Facebook pages devoted to crime fiction it seems as if Australia has resumed its status of more than two hundred years ago; a distant, unknown, almost unheard of land in danger of falling off the edge of the world. And this was before Covid-19 persuaded its dithering ensemble of state… Continue Reading

21 June 2021

Royal pictures become a hanging offence

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Minimalist décor the only answer. Forget hanging pictures on your walls. At least one of them, or even a mere detail, is sure to offend someone. And you never know who or when. They will suddenly take offence, plead harm is being done, or demand reparations for some long ago act or words. Hardly a… Continue Reading

20 June 2021

When saying you are ‘fine’ is open to question

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A BOOK obtained by an accidental encounter; a volume I had never considered in the several years since it first appeared in 2017 and won the Costa First Novel Award. Not even as an impulse buy while browsing bookshop shelves. This intriguing, mesmerising and continually delightful tale was plucked from a box of unwanted items… Continue Reading

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