Views from the Ridge

Discovering Books – 6

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Mark Fryday is a UK (Cambridgeshire) based author who originally…

Give or take a year…

On 29 March 2017 Stiff Little Fingers arrived in Perth, Western Australia to play their first, stand-alone gig in Australia. On the same evening, I had to fly out to the UK in preparation for the London Book Fair. I was ‘gutted’… I’d been a fan since they’d first formed in Northern Ireland almost forty years earlier and they, more than any other band, had provided the backing track to my life.…

[et_pb_section admin_label=”section”][et_pb_row admin_label=”row”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Text” background_layout=”light” text_orientation=”left” use_border_color=”off” border_color=”#ffffff” border_style=”solid”] Thought I should post a quick update, as I’ve been getting asked quite regularly about it… Fall Guys, the third in the Wright and Tran series of novels, is due…

I never took that much notice

Just a short story I was inclined to write… “You mean back in the day? Oh, that’s a while ago. I mean, I remember. Bits of it all. But I never took that much notice. Well, I did, but most of the early things weren’t near Philly, so it didn’t really concern me. I’m not stupid. I watched the TV news. The one after I came home from work, but you know how it is. I’d come in, kick off my boots, strip…

I have a tendency to discover a new series of books when they are far from new. Clancy was on his third release when I discovered Jack Ryan. Michael Connolly and his famed Harry Bosch were many tombs into their adventures, Lee Child and Jack Reacher were entertaining their ‘Visitor’ before I found out and even good old Harry P was dallying with Prisoners in Azkaban before the rising wave of…

I love history…

The fascination with history is unending for me. I love to study most, if not all, eras from before the Romans and Egyptians through to the events of last year. It is all fascinating. Yet, I am, like a lot, especially fascinated and horrified by the events leading up to the Second World War. I have always been slightly uncomfortable how the German nation managed to do what they did. That…

Give me your guns, your blacks, your browns, your poor white trash Your flotsam and jetsum, on broad shores Turn in your needles, lines, your rocks and dust Stand to my front and claim I am nothing Call my woman’s form weak When I hold your liberty in my hands Assault me, beat me, then tell me It is only words. They do not matter. Their meaning, just for kicks. We all do it.  Just your locker…

Turns out the BBC is releasing a new 3-part Documentary looking at the forging of the Antrim Coast road. Recognised as one of the great tourist drives of the world. To tie in, I thought, have a poem: The Antrim Coast You see a simple stretch of road, from arch to arch in length Yet no journey from the black to red, can tell you of her strength Oh yes you’ll see her beauty, reflecting nature’s…

Special July Holiday Offer

To celebrate the traditional July holidays and to provide some reading for those about to escape to sunnier climes, Face Value, the first of the Wright & Tran series, will be free to download as an E-book from Amazon for the next 5 days. Download it here…