Blogs

A Traitor’s Heart is the second in a trilogy of books featuring Revol Rossel, a former militia lieutenant in Stalinist Leningrad. His nemesis, Major Nitkin, who literally cut short his career as a prodigiously talented violinist in the Leningrad Conservatory by cutting off two of his fingers and mutilating others, but also has the top-level connections in the Kremlin to protect him. At the beginning of the A Traitor’s Heart , Rossel is so far...

Captive Audience: A Real American Horror Show, BBC iPlayer, directed by Jessica Dimmock, https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rvt0/captive-audience-a-real-american-horror-story-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rvt1/captive-audience-a-real-american-horror-story-series-1-episode-2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002rvt3/captive-audience-a-real-american-horror-story-series-1-episode-3 Wikipedia ‘My father was...

For most people, their level of happiness will depend on the things happening to them. As Christians, we have an inner happiness and peace which is there all the time, independent of our circumstances. Many Christians endured years of suffering in communist prisons. They forgot what bright colours looked like. One of them said Dante's poems and all the medieval paintings about Hell could not compare to the horrors of a communist prison...

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent In the spring of 1944, I was in Los Angeles on an assignment I have mercifully forgotten and found myself, as one does in that city, drinking alone in a restaurant I could not afford. The restaurant was Musso & Frank Grill on Hollywood Boulevard, which was and remains the place where screenwriters go to feel sorry for themselves in a dignified setting. I was at the bar. It was a Tuesday. The...

‘The word paranaza comes from the sea’. Learning the trade. In Neapolitan dialect, paranza originally refers to a small fishing boat. Very young boys as crew, who go out at night with bright lamps to lure fish to the surface and catch them quickly. The small stuff in the bottom of the nets is thrown together and cooked in a local much- loved and cheap dish. Little fisherman become big fisherman by staying close to the shore. They are both...

Scotland were booed off Hampden Park on Saturday night. Japan outplayed us and scored in the last ten minutes to win 1—0. Team captain, Andy Robertson told fans to get a grip. After all, Japan also hammered England 1—0 at Wembley. That kinda cheers us up. One team’s woes are another team’s honey. Italy, after all, went into national mourning, after failing to qualify for the third World Cup on the bounce. The Republic of Ireland and Wales both...

Hey everyone, I'm delighted to share the cover reveal of my upcoming novel 'Family Man'. I think this book is my most accomplished piece of writing. The novel is due to be published next month. Thanks

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent I was sent to Eldon, Missouri, in November 1953, to cover a bonfire. The Parent-Teacher Council of Eldon had voted, by a margin I was told was comfortable, to collect and publicly burn a selection of comic books, paperback novels, and other materials deemed — the word used in the press release was "injurious" — to the moral development of children. This was not unusual. Dozens of towns across the...