Books
New Year Books and Art
New Year Books I had more time than usual for reading over Christmas and New Year, mainly because I abandonned social media. Fortunately, Santa had provided me with lots of interesting things to read, and it being a time for relaxation I picked the lighter options first. If you have read my writing style page,
December News
December News You might have been expecting something a bit more festive from me than a post about December news. Don’t worry, I promised two blog posts in December, and the second one will be seasonal and celebratory. Today I’ll be bringing you up to date with recent developments in my author, artist and publisher
The Myths of Classic Crime Fiction
‘ “Detective stories contain a dream of justice. they project a vision of a world in which wrongs are righted, and villains are betrayed by clues that they did not know they were leaving. A world in which murderers are caught and hanged, and innocent victims are avenged, and future murder is deterred.” “But it
Food, Culture and Identity
A story of food, culture and identity Possibly my favourite cookbook, and certainly my most used, is Madhur Jaffrey’s World Vegetarian. I can’t recommend it highly enough, even if you’re not vegetarian (I’m not). I might have mentioned before that I mainly cook because I like eating, and so I’m naturally drawn to the work
Don’t Mention the War: Memories of World War II
“With all the care and compassion at our command, let us tend the flower of life, for it is for that our brothers and sisters died and we were spared.” J B Priestley, Journey into Daylight, broadcast on the BBC, May 11th, 1945, in Priestley’s Postcripts, BBC Sounds. Memories of World War II I hope
Fred Astaire and Singer Sargent: Inspiration and Entertainment
By the Skin of My Teeth April’s blog post is finally here with some new artwork of Fred Astaire, just in time! It’s been an eventful month that has flown by packed with stress, achievement and family commitments. The stress was mostly due to the new Castle Sefton Press online store, which proved to be
An Inspector Calls, Integrity and Imaginary Cooking Friends
An Inspector Calls Regular readers of this blog will know that I am an admirer of the work of English author J. B. Priestley, now best known for his play An Inspector Calls. My enthusiasm for his writing was, as far as I remember, first ignited by the 1981 BBC adaptation of that very play.
The Fawlty Towers Spanish Omelette
Seasonal Considerations Valentine’s Day is fast approaching, but having written about love at some length in my last post, I thought about food. Festivals and special days like Valentine’s Day are celebrated the world over by feasts of special dishes, and archaeology suggests that has been a feature human societies for a long time. In
Epiphany
Packing Christmas away Epiphany: time to take the decorations down and go back to work. (Actually, we take ours down before Epiphany these days, as no one visits after New Year’s Day and there is a lot more celebrating in the run up to Christmas than there was in the time of the twelve days’
Merry Christmas
Busy I’m tired. What with the launch of Castle Sefton Press‘ first book – Ghost Train – and preparations for Christmas, I think that’s only natural. And it’s good to be tired from doing productive things. At the last minute too, CSP also had to deal with some new EU legislation, the new General Product
