celticman's blog

Write what you know. Former Met Police commander and bestselling author John Sutherland offered a bonus as a marketing gizmo. The book’s release (at the end of April 2025) was paired with a limited edition Speyside Single Malt whisky named after the novel. Fuck. Wish I’d thought of that for my novel Beastie . I could have released a limited-edition child molester fresh from the police cells. Set in the Scottish Highlands, The Castle follows...

It’s over three years since Putin’s tanks sat on Ukraine’s borders. The world watched and wondered what he would do next. Jen Stout, Night Train to Odesa Covering the Human Cost of Russia’s War is an antidote to the moron’s moron, Trump's blather. The American President after brow-beating President Volodymr Zelensky and promising to end the Ukrainian war in a day has scheduled a meeting with Putin in Siberia. His press conference is cringe...

Winner of the Booktrust Teenage Prize, The Fall was reissued in 2025. I got this book for my favourite girl in the world. But her dad read a bit. And that was that. Said there was a death on the first few pages. It would remain unread. That was my failing. My fall. ‘Is that Mog?’ he said. Nobody had called me Mog since I was at school. ‘Have you heard?’ ‘Heard what?’ I said. ‘Rush.’ ‘Chris Rush?’ ‘Yeah…’ ‘He’s dead.’ Chapter 1 begin with a...

Lynne Tillman (2023) Mothercare On Ambivalence and Obligation. Mothercare is an autobiographical essay by writer Lynne Tillman. I haven’t read any other of her works. My mum had Alzheimer’s. Most conversations with others end with me reminding them, ‘Just shoot me’. The issues Tillman discuss aren’t foreign to me. She’s American with a healthcare system that is both near the best and the worst as it bankrupts many and excludes others in the way...

According to William Kemarck’s 1924 model contagion follows an S-shaped curve. The assumption was that those susceptible would become infected. Infect others, recover or die and go to heaven or hell, as in Christianity. In epidemiology, the reproduction number, or R , indicates how many new cases a single infected individual causes. If R is greater than 1, an outbreak grows. If it falls below 1, stops. Nobody goes to heaven or hell. R > 1: It...

Scandinavian noir. Happy New Year is set in Skane near Malmo. It involves a murder mystery. Seventeen-year-old Jennifer Wiksell goes missing after a New Year’s party—involving teenagers and drink—in the Anderssons’s house to bring in 2019. Jennifer’s parents, Max and Lollo are simultaneously holding a party for adults. Something they traditionally do. The adult Andersonns attend. Both Fredrik and Nina are scared their house will be trashed. They...

In the Sunday Times bestseller, Daniel Finkelstein deals in the mundane and miraculous. He concludes with both. ‘Our family has survived. Love has conquered hate.’ In the battle with Hitler and Stalin, Mum’s victory is over Hitler and the Nazis. Dad’s victory over Stalin and Communism. Surviving, starting a family and thriving, a thumbing of the nose at totalitarianism. Finkelstein’s memoir fits broadly into a type of Holocaust literature which...

Betsy Lerner (2024) Shred Sisters. I read Shred Sisters in about four hours. It follows the rules of novel writing. Betsy Lerner as a writer, editor and agent—she edited and promoted one of my favourite books Autobiography of a Face —knows too well the holes authors fall into. That doesn’t mean she won’t fall into them, because that’s not the way it works. Most of use can’t really see what we write. She knows that too having published a book...

I’ve a copy of Philippa Gregory’s novel, The Other Boleyn Girl . I’ve had it for around five years. Keep meaning to read it. She’s written a stack of books and over 40 novels. These fed into her belief that women are the ghosts of history. She spent ten years researching Normal Women, drawing on archives, letters, and historical records that fed into her ficton. And at around 600 pages she’s re-written history: his-story as her-story. She gives...

The moron’s moron is in Scotland. His mother was born on Harris and was a native Gaelic speaker. Despite his Scottish roots, he’s not popular in Scotland. Ironically, we may have passed peak Trump. His strategy of lying and denying helped make him the man he is and President of the United States. His supporters want release of what is loosely termed the Epstein files. The moron’s moron suggested Joe Biden was implicated. Summary of Quantitative...