Books and Beyond

Restaurant reviews too tough to digest

DINERS everywhere are champing at the bit. No more heavy dependence on takeaways and ready meals. No more huddling outdoors beneath heaters and umbrellas to “enjoy” a meal with family and friends. We can venture inside our favourite restaurants to escape the British summer’s Atlantic gales; seated at table, a menu to peruse, staff to bring our food and drink. Just like “normal” times. Well, not…

Sad times for pedants and purists

SAD times for the pedants among us. To start with, the man who waged a lifelong war against misuse of the apostrophe has met his own full stop. Then, as if to add insult to injury, that weird Californian couple who once were royal have continued  their verbose mangling of the English language. The first of these events occurred on 30 March 2021 with the death at the age of 97  of John Richards,…

Definitely not ‘appy, Jan

Wow, what an app. (Aziz Acharki, Unsplash) EXCUSE the aspirated headline. My apparent descent into Cockney lingo has its reasons. As does the punning use of this Australian phrase that was rapidly popularised after being given birth by a Telstra television ad in 2002. As explained by the Urban Dictionary, it is now used when someone “is pissed off” at another person, who doesn’t necessarily need…

The lights are on but no one’s home

Now where was I?Picture: Rad Cyrus, Unsplash SOMETHING’S not right. I already had my suspicions but chose to ignore them. Now I fear that is no longer possible; recent events have convinced me so. Time to face the fact: incidents of going into another room and not remembering why you did so are commonplace in one’s more senior years. At first, they are mostly dismissed with a chuckle. Silly old…

Since when did running come such a costly activity?

  The joy of the open road. Courtesy Jenny Hill (Unsplash) RUNNING is an uncomplicated process of placing one foot ahead of the other; similar to walking but at a faster pace. No argument with that? Good. For most people running  is a simple and easy-to-manage forward movement. One that has existed since humankind emerged from our amoebic slime and stood upright. All agreed? Excellent. In…

A vividly evocative tug at the heart-strings

RARELY do I find a book having such a deep and personal impact as this moving and tender story. Its effect lingered long after the final word had been read; reviving cherished memories, plucking at the heartstrings. Poignant moments from earlier days were relived, reflected upon with a mixture of sadness and joy. The details are mostly well distanced from my own experiences, yet the timeline and…

Murder and mayhem in hilarious crime fiction debut

NAH, it can’t be that good. Surely not. Must be because it’s got a celebrity’s name taking top billing as the author across the cover. Doubtless another sample of vanity publishing, selling by popularity rather than content. Probably ghost written too. Isn’t that how it goes; win the public’s heart through the telly or sport then cash in with a quick book or two? Lurking behind such doubts is the…

Pot holes and regrets; a road map to dubious freedom

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #10 Crowded joy (courtesy Fabio Traina, Unsplash) REMEMBER those bruising, knuckle-skinning, foot-tripping days of yore; every man and woman (and all in between)  for themselves; no holds barred as the doors slid open and the mass hurtled forward at the opening of the Boxing Day sales? Or the elbow-shoving, back-pushing skirmishes as  thousands…

Whingers galore and hardship hell, isolated in the Oxfordshire wilds

Not an option for Lady Clementine. (Denisse Leon, Unsplash) Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #9 NO doubt the nation’s heart has gone out to another victim of the pandemic. Fortunately it is Random Acts of Kindness Week (yes, really) and help may soon be on its way to this poor soul. There are likely numerous others in much the same situation. However, they will get overlooked for…

Marmite Markle strikes a blow for letter-writers

AS a person of interest, Meaghan Markle usually rates way down the list of those spotlighted celebrities who engage my attention. Almost off the scale; at the lowest end. As I feel she is considered by most people apart from those sad sacks to whom all gossip is more precious than oxygen; the mainstay of their existence. The Duchess of Excess Sussex is my Marmite. Take it or leave it. In my case,…

Criminals from all over lurk in lockdown bedside library

  Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #8 Feb 2021: Bedside reading can get out of control. (Courtesy Carles Ramada, Unsplash) THE Pisa-like bedside tower of books looked like toppling before I got around to recording some of its content. It was only thanks to some extended sessions of lockdown reading that it has been whittled down to a less perilous height. Sadly it might remain…

Good news on books, jabs and theatre fight the BBC gloom

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #7 Jan 2021: I HAVE been on a bit of a downer. Today, however, I am showing a degree of positivity by using one of the slightly less pessimistic of the several D-words available to describe the recent state of mind and body. Yesterday the temptation was to scribe a bold placard declaring, We are all DOOMED. Well and truly done for. But today is…

Lifting the gloom with jabs and shanties

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #7 Jan 2021: I HAVE been on a bit of a downer. Today, however, I am showing a degree of positivity by using one of the slightly less pessimistic of the several D-words available to describe the recent state of mind and body. Yesterday the temptation was to use the Sharpie to scribe a bold placard declaring, We are all DOOMED. Well and truly done…

Dealing with the nitty gritty on hoes and dykes

Deemed offensive: Plymouth Hoe (picture from Historic UK) PERHAPS this blog post should come with an advisory caution; like those that precede some of the raunchier dramas screened on post-watershed TV. A warning about bad language or offensive dialogue. Displaying an awareness of some readers’ fragile sensibilities.  Guarding against young minds being led down sinful paths; the elderly shocked…

Happy fat makes deadly fat and an easy Covid target

  Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid #6 Jan 2021: Wild horses won’t change the smug and complacent. (Courtesy: Upsplash) THE stable door is now shut tight. Bolted and barred. Triple locked and with no sign of a key or code. And unoccupied. The horse it once contained, an unruly beast at the best of time, seized its pre-lockdown moment and is now a mere galloping speck in the…

Deniers living in a world of fiction and horror movies

Living, coping and observing in the age of Covid Jan 2021: Fighting Covid [Courtesy Unsplash]WHAT is it that they don’t understand? Are the almost 100,000 deaths so beyond comprehension that they believe them to be a total fiction? Do the BBC’s recent series of excruciating hospital scenes unnerve them so much that they dismiss them as some horror drama rescheduled to replace the nightly…

New writer’s thriller reveals Canada’s divisive dark side

ONE of the many pleasures gained from reading crime fiction is being plunged deep into places never previously visited. Or, if having been there only superficially as a mere transient, now getting down and dirty with the locals. No longer passing through but going well and truly off piste. The crime novel as a Baedecker. So much so that often the main character is not the sleuth but the location,…