It is sprats for dinner tonight. How many years has it been since I heard those words? Far too many, sad to say. Such a simple pleasure, and so damned tasty too. And healthy as well, for we are now frequently told that oily fish should be a regular part of our diet – information…
THE human body is a wonderful thing, but it does have a mind of its own. A mind that overrides opposition, one that will rarely accept deviation from the course it has set itself upon. And thus it was at precisely 2.53 pm today that it made an unheralded announcement: a truce would be called…
A few paces on and he stopped at the entrance where he had seen the skinny youth enter and emerge. The sign was in full view, Skippers Ope. One skipper or many, he mused; something only a relentless pedant would worry about. Daylight was fading. The ope was an unlit passage between neighbouring terraced houses, roofed…
ON a day when Waitrose announced it was following a move at least partially made by other supermarkets, it was intriguing to discover how dear old fuddy-duddy M&S was faring. So, in the interests of research (are there other reasons for favouring this pricey purveyor?), I bought a cucumber from the M&S Food Hall (such…
It has been like waiting for a train when unaware that there has been a derailment further down the line. You wait in hope. At first, quite patiently, unconcerned. It will be coming soon. Gradually other emotions creep in. A slight anxiety, morphing into concern. What’s gone wrong? The train should be here by now….
NO matter which way you look at it, it’s a doggone mess. I refer to the widely welcomed but totally ridiculous decision by Cornwall Council to introduce on-the-spot fines for those who allow their dogs to foul our footpaths, parks and playing fields. This is window dressing of the worst kind. The type of initiative…
Uninvited, but more welcome than a cold shower on a stinking hot day in Melbourne, my muse has reappeared. As usual, she came from nowhere and without a prompt. I was merely taking s stroll (or perhaps I should say ‘we’) to combat inertia, mental as well as physical. And there she was, whispering seductive…
As this next postcard instantly reminds me, they were holding a funeral the day I arrived in Tana Toraja; and the corpse was six months dead. To mark the occasion, two splendid white buffalo were slaughtered (quickly and cleanly), dozens of pigs were butchered (slowly and noisily) and there was hour after hour of singing…
My first tentative venture into crime fiction occurred many years, even decades, ago. As tends to be my way of doing things, I started writing and let the characters lead me. Chief among them was a mild and insignificant denizen of suburban life, Garfield Parks. Why he was called that, I have no idea; that…
Look what the courier brought …. Book Five in the Bromo Perkins series of crime fiction stories has been printed by Ingram Spark and is now being made available through all its distribution outlets – Amazon, Kindle and major book wholesalers and bookshops worldwide. An e-book version is also available for those who have deserted…