At Amazon!
Monday, December 30, 2013
Sunday, December 29, 2013
Reviving Long Barrows
A Wiltshire farmer is offering interment in his newly constructed long barrow.
Saturday, November 30, 2013
Exclusive from the Grauniad
Top 10 Film Noir. I would have put Night of the Hunter on this list, though I don't really know if it fits the definition of noir.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
J.P. Donleavy on Desert Island Discs
He likes the Soviet Army Chorus and Drum Corps doing the Civil War ballad Annie Laurie.
Sunday, November 24, 2013
First Para, Chapter 10, One Odd Bird at Paddington, from To Save the Realm
Inside Paddington Station, Isambard Kingdom Brunel's great barrel- vaulted temple dedicated to the worship of steam locomotive transport, the air was cold and wet, and it was laden with diesel exhaust floating in from the taxis queuing up outside on Praed Street. Martial marching music was blaring over the loudspeaker: The World Turned Upside Dowm. Britons hurried through the station, rushing to the Underground or to their trains, heads bowed in silent fortitude, or quiet desperation.
Saturday, November 23, 2013
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Monday, November 11, 2013
Saturday, November 9, 2013
Oh dear...
The Huntsman Spider arrives in Britain from Taiwan. What's next? Mambas in the New Forest?
Saturday, November 2, 2013
Tuesday, October 29, 2013
Saturday, October 26, 2013
Friday, October 18, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
Revising TStR
I'm doing another revision of To Save the Realm. I think the book is a good one, interesting and kind of fun. I'm making it better. I'm convinced it's going to take off one day.
Wednesday, October 9, 2013
The Pogues'
Guitar player, Philip Chevron, has died too young. (I last saw them in NYC in 2011 and they were fantastic.)
Saturday, October 5, 2013
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Wednesday, October 2, 2013
Wednesday, September 25, 2013
Tuesday, September 24, 2013
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Also from The Telegraph,
Which is hitting on all cylinders today. An obituary of Ferguson George Donaldson Smith, who had an amazing time in the RAF during the war, and who was an ace spy catcher after.
From The Telegraph
A long excerpt from Mark Lewisohn's new book on the Beatles, Tune In: The Beatles--All These Years. This piece about John Lennon and his mother, Julia.
Friday, September 20, 2013
To Save the Realm, first 9 lines, Chapter 9, Out on the Street
This was the third pub Brock had passed time in since leaving Sherbourne outside his club in the glorious drizzle on Bloomsbury Square. He'd had one or two pints in each one, too. Full Imperial pints. Glorious pints. The first pub he'd visited was the Headless Fool and the second was the Thanet Arms. He had wandered into them, sat quietly by himself, drank, and pondered his fortune and the events of his strange day.
Wednesday, September 18, 2013
Jackie Lomax is dead..
One of the Original Liverpool rockers. He could never really seem to "make it", but he kept trying.
Sunday, September 15, 2013
ASBOs work?
So says the Independent. In the old days, these sorts of problems would have been handled in a different way.
Wednesday, September 11, 2013
Tuesday, September 10, 2013
Last Night of the Proms
Listened to the last night of the Proms on Sunday. Rousing. Here are William Blake's words to 'Jerusalem'.
Exclusive from the Grauniad
Stonehenge placed to align with a natural landform. Amazing to have just found this out!
Sunday, September 8, 2013
To Save the Realm, first para, Chapter 8: At Sherbourne's Club
At the doorway, after handing his umbrella to Brock, Alfred Sherbourne fumbled with the keys to his club. The rain had come down in buckets as they walked from the museum. Both men, despite the efforts of their meager coats and Sherbourne's umbrella, were quite soaked. Finally, Sherbourne opened the door and they entered one of the Georgian town houses that border Bloomsbury Square. A closed door to the left led down a flight of stairs to the cellar in which the club had its home. On the ground floor of the house were the offices of a travel agency. A small dance studio was on the first floor, which produced a steady flow of leggy young women up and down the stairs.
Friday, September 6, 2013
A small island that no one listens to?
That's what Putin called Britain. And geopolitically, he's right. The PM's rejoinder is sad.
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Tuesday, September 3, 2013
Power Pylons from...
Bridgwater to Avonmouth in North Somerset. Ugh. A continuing story--the destruction of the countryside.
Sunday, September 1, 2013
An Atlas of Hillforts in Britain and Ireland
Hillforts are really cool and mysterious places, my favorite being South Cadbury in Somerset. I loosely base the hillfort in To Save the Realm, Abbott Edge, on South Cadbury and an experience I had there. Now archaeologists are asking for the public's help in mapping and describing the 5,000+ hillforts in Britain and Ireland.
To Save the Realm, first 10 lines, Chapter 7: A Vision at the British Museum
Brock was sitting on a bench in the British Museum. He had been on the bench in this relatively small, dimly lit room for half an hour. The only other people there with him were two very serious-looking German tourists who were focusing their attention on the swords and shields that were hanging on a wall across the room. The fact is, Brock was transfixed. For the past thirty minutes he'd been gazing at what, for him, seemed a wondrous thing, a warrior's helmet made by a Celtic craftsman in the fifth century.
Saturday, August 31, 2013
Foggy London
Lovely black-and-white photos of London in the fog. Lovely, but deadly. (Sometimes I love the Daily Mail...)
Friday, August 30, 2013
Free Promotion for To Save the Realm
Free promotion on the Kindle edition of To Save the Realm at Amazon today and tomorrow. Download to your heart's content!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
One of my least favorite things...
I'm in Old City Java coffee shop at the moment (where I wrote most of To Save the Realm). A guy is pacing around behind me practically shouting into his phone. I really consider this to be disgusting behavior, a type of narcissism peculiar to the postmodern world. I don't really care to hear someone arguing with his wife or girlfriend or doing real-estate deals or loudly uttering banalities in a public place.
People You May Never Have Heard Of...Gil Taylor
From the Isle of Wight County Press:
Gil Taylor who just passed away at the age of 99 on the Isle of Wight, began working as a cameraman in the 1930's. He worked on an amazing list of films: Brighton Rock (1947), Ice Cold in Alex (1958), The Avengers TV series (1961), Dr. Strangelove (1964), A Hard Day's Night (1964), and Star Wars (1977). He was in the RAF in WWII, filming bomb damage from a Lancaster bomber. This article is from 2006 (just now available online).
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Monday, August 26, 2013
Sunday, August 25, 2013
To Save the Realm, First Two Paras, Chapter 6: A Bookshop on Bury Place
Brock stood unsteadily on the cobblestones of Bury Place, a narrow byway near the British Museum. He was still in his cups from his meeting in the pub with Bertie. How many drinks had they had? He looked up and down the street. No cars were moving in either direction. A green Spitfire was nestled close to the curb up toward Great Russell Street. It was getting on to five o'clock.
There were no popular boutiques or trendy restaurants on Bury Place. It was not a destination of the young and fabulous. It was peopled, instead, almost wholly with second-hand bookshops. Some of these were dusty, cluttered emporia of remaindered books and tattered paperbacks. Others specialized in rare antiquarian tomes with gorgeous rough-edged paper and beautifully tooled leather bindings. The street's only concession to the overt enjoyment of life was a patisserie with a couple of small round tables on the sidewalk.
Saturday, August 24, 2013
And Speaking of the Battle of Britain
Command bunker of No. 11 Fighter Group restored and open to the public.
From the Salisbury Journal
The only pilot to have won the Victoria Cross in the Battle of Britain. The standards must have been very high...
Friday, August 23, 2013
Dyatlov Pass Incident
From the Daily Mail. This is a real mystery and I've become somewhat obsessed with it. It happened in the same year that my book is set in, 1959.
A better and more detailed description of the incident can be found at Ermak Travel.
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Tuesday, August 20, 2013
Monday, August 19, 2013
To Save the Realm, First 10 Lines, Chapter 5, A Pub on Goodge Street
When Brock returned to his hotel, the clerk handed him a message in a tattered, ink-smudged envelope. Brock thanked him and trudged up the narrow five flights of stairs to his room. The hotel looked perhaps a little more down-at-the-heel to him now than when he had left it that morning. the paint was peeling in a couple of places on the ceiling, and the runners on the stairs were somewhat threadbare. It had sure seemed nice enough to him when he'd checked in. This money of Marcy's may truly end up being a curse.
Sunday, August 18, 2013
Canned Concerts
Next time you shell out $100+ to see your fave band, you should be aware that you just might be listening to a file on a laptop... And maybe it doesn't matter?
Saturday, August 17, 2013
To Save the Realm Free Promotion
I'm offering free Kindle copies of To Save the Realm from 8/19 thru 8/21!
From the BBC: Snakes in Bins
Keeping exotic animals (especially snakes) as pets is enormously ignorant, and should be highly illegal. One can see a future where cobras and kraits become native species of North America. Snakes are even loose in Ireland where people have been blessedly free of the things for all of their history.
Tuesday, August 13, 2013
Sunday, August 11, 2013
A free copy of To Save the Realm
I'm sending a free copy of TStR (signed) to the first person who comments on this thread. Hey, it might be a collector's item one day!
To Save the Realm, First 10 Lines, Chapter 4: Sitting in the Park
Brock walked down the steps of Wyvern's office, stunned, and found the nearest pub, The Red Cap. The pub sign showed a tall red mushroom with white speckles. He sat down and drank a pint. What now? A long walk to anywhere, that will do. He went northward toward the neutral light. What there was of it in the dim sky. Go now among these crowds of people with heads down. Nice buildings. Solid stone, black steel railings. Not too tall, no more than five or six stories. Like the Commerce Bank building at home. Except it's the tallest building in Mycenae. And some of these have chunks torn out by bomb shrapnel.
Something from Nothing
How did it happen? I'm currently reading Before the Beginning, a book on astronomy and cosmology by Martin Rees. Fascinating read!
Sunday, August 4, 2013
Big Wednesday
Spent the afternoon watching the film Big Wednesday, directed by John Milius. It's the story of three surfer friends (Jan-Michael Vincent, William Katt, and Gary Busey), going from 1962 through 1974. Great film!
End of the High Street?
Planning minister says turn boarded-up shops into housing. This would seem to be a bad thing for societal cohesion. People in villages and towns need to have places where they shop, talk, and see their fellow citizens in public. Also, this shows that it is impossible for local small-business people to compete with the big boxes.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Old, But Fascinating, News
In 2007, researchers from MIT, while looking for the Loch Ness monster with an unmanned submersible, observed a common toad (bufo bufo) hopping along the bottom at a depth of 324 feet.
Tuesday, July 30, 2013
Monday, July 29, 2013
Sunday, July 28, 2013
To Save the Realm, First 10 Lines, Chapter 3: Ivor Wyvern, QC
Tucked away at the far side of a quiet garden square in Kensington was what looked like a two-story country cottage. It might have been the cozy home of well-off pensioners, but it was not. Brock skirted the high spikey wrought-iron fence that surrounded the square and came onto the porch of the house. The polished brass plaque set into stone to the right of the door indicated that the house held the law offices of Ivor Wyvern, QC. He stood on the porch for a moment admiring its simple, unadorned Doric columns. then he nonchalantly turned around to survey the square.
(At Amazon.)
Saturday, July 27, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Wednesday, July 17, 2013
To Save the Realm, first 10 lines of Chapter 2
The street outside the St. Albans Hotel was misty gray with rain. Great pots of colorful, raindrop-covered pansies stood on both sides of the hotel's frosted glass doors. A continuous train of black taxis was swooshing through the puddles that flowed out from the curb on Bedford Place. The weather seemed to Brock to be more like December than mid-October. He was wearing a heavy wool sweater, navy blue trousers, and a charcoal grey overcoat. He didn't like to carry an umbrella, so he had on a woolen Irish hat that he'd bought in a shop yesterday to keep the rain off his head.
From To Save the Realm at Amazon.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
And in Mycenae...
Asian carp have invaded Kentucky Lake. This is bad news for the native species--bass, crappie, bream--that evolved in these waters.
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Friday, July 12, 2013
Thursday, July 11, 2013
They Don't Make Them Like This Anymore
Well, maybe they do...I dunno. But these men are fading away every day. Bomber Command lost 56,000 fliers in WWII.
Wednesday, July 10, 2013
Cadbury Castle
One of my favorite places to have visited in Britain. The model for Abbott Edge, the hill fort that plays a central part in To Save the Realm.
Tuesday, July 9, 2013
To Save the Realm, first 10 lines of first chapter (Mycenae, Tennessee)
Brock Coole sat up and wondered for a moment where he was. He swung his stockinged feet over the edge of the bed,reached for his terry-cloth robe, and pulled it over his shoulders. He was not used to this cold and damp. He had been in this room in a small hotel in Bloomsbury since Thursday night. The hotel was one of many tourist hotels in a row of converted Edwardian townhouses on Bedford Place near the British Museum. His room was a quiet one on the fourth floor. In it there was an overstuffed chair, a table with a lamp, and a quite comfortable bed covered by a soft white chenille bedspread.
Save the Roadside Cafes!
They have a lot more character than the megastation cafes, and I would wager better food...
Monday, July 8, 2013
From the Hull Daily Mail
10,000 bees invade the County Hall in Beverley. Glad to see there are so many!
Friday, July 5, 2013
Thursday, July 4, 2013
Exclusive from the Grauniad
A clip from a new documentary about the making of the Beatles film Help!.
Wednesday, July 3, 2013
Tuesday, June 25, 2013
Whitestaunton Manor
A 15th-century house near Chard, Somerset, with walls from a Roman villa built into it. How cool would it be to live there?
Sunday, June 23, 2013
From The Independent
Egyptian statuette spinning on its own accord in Manchester museum. But only in the daytime.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Wednesday, June 19, 2013
To Save the Realm Available
To Save the Realm is available at Amazon now. The used copies are still listed at outrageous prices.
Norman Smith
Wiki site for the man who engineered the recordings for the Beatles until he became a producer in 1965 or 1966. He was almost 40 when he began working with the Beatles; John Lennon called him "Normal". It was a time when recording engineers at EMI were still wearing white shirts and ties and white lab coats.
He was also a glider pilot in WWII.
Tuesday, June 18, 2013
From the Telegraph
Ian Anderson talking about why he gave up guitar and took up flute. Jethro Tull is doing all of Thick as a Brick at the Royal Albert Hall on June 30. I suppose it's sold out.
UFOs Above Bracknell
Lots of good UFO sightings in the skies over Britain. Here's a recent one from Bracknell in Berkshire.
Monday, June 17, 2013
Sunday, June 16, 2013
From the Daily Mail
A great place for a grad student to live for a couple of years.
DM is over the top, but in many ways it's a real newspaper.
Saturday, June 15, 2013
Ngaio Marsh
I've been steadily reading the mysteries of Ngaio Marsh since summer began. Very entertaining they are. A gent CID man and many colorful characters. Her best books are from the late 30s and 40s. I've read 8 or 9. My favorites are Death of a Peer and Final Curtain.
In the book I'm writing now, a sequel to To Save the Realm, I'm thinking of having a Marshian mystery inside it.
Tuesday, June 11, 2013
TStR Unavailable at the Moment
If you are clamoring to buy TStR, it's currently unavailable unless you want to pay $40 or so for it. I'm in the process of fixing the pagination. The book should be ready in a week or so (I have to receive and read the proof copy from CreateSpace).
Friday, June 7, 2013
Ouch...fortasse
I've just noticed today that the pagination for chapter beginnings is off in the table of contents of To Save the Realm. It seems that the pagination differs in the printed edition of the book when compared to the version I sent to CreateSpace. I've corrected for it now, and the change will go into effect soon.
If TStR ever becomes very popular, I suppose people who have already bought the book will have a collector's item on their hands!
Always looking on the bright side...argh.
Thursday, June 6, 2013
Bell Rock Lighthouse
Built off Arbroath, Scotland, from 1807-1811 by Robert Stevenson. Oldest sea-washed lighthouse in the world.
Pictures.
Monday, June 3, 2013
Ursus Etruscus
I'm watching Werner Herzog's documentary about cave art in the Chauvet Cave of southern France, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams. There's a bit about cave bears in the film, so I looked around some and found out about he Etruscan bear. This bear lived from about 5.3 million years ago up to about 11,000 years ago. It was on earth, living in North Africa, Europe, and out into the steppes, for five million years. Then it was gone. And one has to wonder why it died off, but not other large bears.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ursus_etruscus
Perfer! Obdura!
Sent copies of my book out today to Addyman Books in Hay-on-Wye and to Parnassus Books in Nashville.
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Rockall Island
A neat and isolated place. Some Brit is about to spend two months there. Gotta love 'em.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rockall
Saturday, May 18, 2013
From the Daily Mail
Brightest meteor strike to hit the moon.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2326526/Telescope-catches-moment-40kg-rock-hits-moon-creates-giant-ball-light-seen-Earth.html
Thursday, April 18, 2013
The Beatles Play Cambridge
It was fifty years ago... A slide show.
http://www.cambridge-news.co.uk/News/Nostalgia/SLIDESHOW-Remember-when-The-Beatles-played-Cambridge-50-years-ago-20130319132344.htm
Saturday, April 6, 2013
A Bookshop on Bury Place
I've sent a copy of To Save the Realm to the London Review Bookshop, which is located on Bury Place near the British Museum. Wonder what they will make of it.
In my book, Brock Coole visits a book shop on Bury Place. It is actually a used book shop rather than a shiny new one.
http://www.lrbshop.co.uk/
Sunday, March 31, 2013
Dr. Beeching's Axe
1963, when the decision was made to close 2,000 little rail stations and rip up 4,500 miles of line.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2300598/How-Dr-Richard-Beechings-Axe-fell-small-railway-stations-old-England-50-years-ago.html
Wednesday, March 27, 2013
To Dominic Sandbrook
Sent a copy of To Save the Realm to Dominic Sandbrook. I've used two of his books, Never Had It So Good and White Heat, in writing TStR. The books are very comprehensive and fun-to-read histories of the 50s and 60s, respectively, in Britain.
http://www.dominicsandbrook.com/
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Fitzrovia, Goodge Street, London
I sent a copy of To Save the Realm to Fitzrovia, a pub on Goodge Street. Hope someone there reads it. (In my book, my protag, Brock Coole, meets a lively journalist in a pub on Goodge Street and finds out a bit more about the death of his aunt.)
I once spent a wonderful sunny afternoon in a pub on Goodge Street that had large windows. Don't think it was the Fitzrovia, though.
http://www.taylor-walker.co.uk/pub/fitzrovia-bloomsbury/c0695/
From the Western Morning News
A fascinating piece on hedge-laying, apparently a dying art. Hedges are described as mini-nature reserves,home to "600 plant species, 1,500 types of insects,60 species of birds and 20 different mammals."
Like everything that is good Britain, hedgerows are in danger of going away.
http://www.thisisdevon.co.uk/Traditional-country-craft-hedge-laying-enjoying/story-18502518-detail/story.html#axzz2ON0QIXDP
Sunday, March 10, 2013
The Rose and Crown
I've begun to send copies of To Save the Realm to various places around the Isles that are in locales where my protagonist Brock Coole visits. Brock stays in an inn, the Bells, in my make-believe village of Nether Penketh. I've sent my book to an inn, the Rose and Crown, in Nether Stowey, on the edge of the Quantocks. The Rose and Crown looks like a great place to spend an evening or a week!
http://www.roseandcrown-netherstowey.co.uk/
"New" Information on Stonehenge
From the Daily Mail.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2290601/Was-Stonehenge-ancient-burial-ground-Scientists-discover-bone-fragments-63-bodies-historic-monument.html
Saturday, March 9, 2013
From the Bucks Free Press
A new owl rescue home. Got to love the Brits.
http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/10273535.Owl_rescue_home_gets_the_green_light/?ref=ms
In Wales
Replacing conifer plantations with native oak and holly. And using draught horses to drag the timber.
http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/i/30638/
Saturday, March 2, 2013
From The Scotsman
A Swiss millionaire has bought the Scottish island of Sanda and closed it to public use.
http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/heritage/millionaire-closes-sanda-island-to-the-public-1-2818179
Saturday, February 16, 2013
Big News
from the Isle of Wight.
I once saw a campervan one full moon night parked beside the road behind Glastonbury Tor that looked like a Tardis inside.
I once saw a campervan one full moon night parked beside the road behind Glastonbury Tor that looked like a Tardis inside.
A Quiet Night Down the Pub
Not in Bolton town center.
(According to Wiki, The Bolton News reaches about 86,000 readers a week. It was Britain's first community halfpenny evening newspaper.)
(According to Wiki, The Bolton News reaches about 86,000 readers a week. It was Britain's first community halfpenny evening newspaper.)
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Reg Presley of the Troggs...
...Has Died
Wild Thing was maybe the first punk tune. The Troggs also did Love Is All Around, a great song.
Wild Thing was maybe the first punk tune. The Troggs also did Love Is All Around, a great song.
Thursday, January 31, 2013
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Mod Musical Extravaganza in Tidworth
Fifty years after the fact, a Mod festival in Tidworth, Wiltshire. Sponsored by the Kiwi Throttlers Scooter Club. To benefit the Teenage Cancer Trust. Interesting that a particular fashion and style of music can survive on and on this way. My take on it is that it's an attractive way to hide from an increasingly unpleasant world.
Friday, January 18, 2013
The Vicars' Close, Wells, Somerset
Celebrations for the oldest continuously inhabited street in Europe. A graceful and quiet place. My character in To Save the Realm walks up and down this street to calm himself after having a traumatic experience the night before.
From the Wells Journal
Here is a gorgeous picture of the street.
From the Wells Journal
Here is a gorgeous picture of the street.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better
The great Gene Clark singing "I'll Feel a Whole Lot Better" with The Byrds. Roger McGuinn is such a weirdo. So are the dancers!
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