I know we're all obsessing about Brexit at the moment. But here is something completely different. If I asked my readers what they knew about King Richard III, I suspect the answer would be something like this: “He was the last king of England before the...
Welcome back to the tent, writers! Last week, the Great British Write-Off featured Romance in all its forms. Star Writer was, perhaps surprisingly, JK, and we had to say goodbye to Bernard. Today, for the first time, The Great British Write-Off is featuring an SF/Fantasy week. So...
Recently I was reading the section in chapter 22 of Matthew’s gospel where Jesus is asked a question by the Sadducees “who say there is no resurrection.” “Now there were seven brothers among us; the first married and died, and having no children left his wife...
I apologise to all readers for the non-appearance of the blog on the past three Fridays. This was partly caused by holiday, and partly by a technical problem on the site: now thankfully fixed I think by the lovely Studio Renton. Particular apologies to my...
I promised to come back to the theme of servants in literature. (The patchiness of my reading will doubtless be very obvious.) This is my investigation on whether a servant can be a hero. Let’s make a list of types. Traditional servants. These, going back (I believe)...
I’ve recently been reading the book of Job. Everyone loves this book in theory, because it reassures us that it’s Biblical a) to notice that life isn’t fair, and b) for suffering people to resent being told to cheer up or repent; and because some of...
As a dyed-in-the-wool Tolkien fan, I have read the Silmarillion, which covers arguably the whole history of Middle-Earth. It doesn’t just tell us the First Age legend of Beren and Luthien, and the Second Age drama of Numenor’s downfall. It also contains a delightful section...
(Warning: contains serious spoilers for “Ordeal by Innocence”, both the novel by Agatha Christie, and the TV adaptation scripted by Sarah Phelps.) Quite a few people who have nothing better to do than gripe on social media, like myself, have been expressing strong views about a...
My friend and cover-artist Ian Storer has previously written for this blog. He will shortly be publishing “Taken Things”, the first in a series of tales set around the so-called Unnatural History Museum, the workplace of Dr Speedwell and Polly Nightingale. I asked him to...
(I have no intention of explaining how the dialogue which I now offer to the public fell into my hands.) Paperback book: Buy me! Buy me! I am handsome and traditional, and completely distinct from all my brothers and sisters. We are all beautiful individuals. Electronic book:...