A foreword by Jim Al-Khali inform the reader this is the third book in which leading scientist and engineers are interviewed and their responses recorded for Radio 4. Few of us are going to shout at the radio (or its contemporary equivalent) about the origins of our universe but when it comes to viruses and Covid-19, in particular, conspiracy theorist think they know better than the experts here. I always go with whatever Father Ted thinks...

Some very strange things had been going out outside my neighbour's. All sorts of unfamliar vehicles were pulling up in his designated parking space where the big number 6 was painted on the ground. Last week there had been a really old looking Ford Zodiac. Now something even stranger. This little white vintage car with an open top, bright red leather seats and a tiny little engine at the front that might have been a hundred years old. A really...

Michael Murpurgo wrote this collection of five short-stories over forty years ago. He requested the reader read them in the order presented. A story within a story, which is quite a neat trick. Murpurgo is most famous for War Horse . Book, stage-play (with an animated cloth horse) and film. I haven’t read it but did watch the film that elevated him into the elite group (less than five percent) of writers that can make a comfortable living from...

WHEN I GO TO SLEEP THE STATICS BURN ME THAT IS WHY I TAKE OFF THE JERSEY/S AND LEAVE THE HEATER ON IF YOU WANT THE TOILET EARLY MORNING FIRST MAKE A LITTLE NOISE IF I WAKE UP AND RUN JUST WAIT A LITTLE BIT OTHERWISE = IF I DONT WAKE FROM BLADDER IT SHOULD BE SAFE DENTURES = PLAY THE GAME I WOULD LOVE A CLEAN WINTER DUVET J. SCARES ME WHEN HE GETS ANGRY I JUST LOVE THE LUX GOODIES JELLY CURLS YOGHURT ANY THING AND EVERY LITTLE PRESENT EVERY...

sad sack

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002f2ry/saint-omer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Omer_(film) Saint Omer is about infanticide. Not a promising premise for a film. But it won a stack of awards. Writer and director Alice Diop comes from a documentary background. Saint Omer, the film’s title is also a place name. Based on the real-life trial of Fabienne Kabou, who was convicted in 2016 of drowning her 15-month-old daughter in the...

I remember seeing the car sticker in the 1970s, 'Jesus Saves.' I hadn't the faintest idea what it meant or what Jesus saved people from. All the time Christians talk about being saved. What does it mean? Saved from what? We are saved from sin. In order to fully understand the meaning of this we need to appreciate how sinful we are and why it really matters. Nobody's perfect. We have all broken God's laws. Our sin has taken away the close...

September in Reflection Crystalline memories ripple cognitive waves. Fracture, long-term whispering thoughts colliding with A short-term fragment. Another cycle completes midnight, departure; to trace distant harmonies, twilight tones unfurling like smoke on a still lake. Amid lifeless noise, we seek our mind-vessels, Always returning to the broken pieces of ourselves. How can one escape this echo of misery? In the texture of the unknown, the...

When The Sun Went Down A lake of mirrors reflects an alchemical nature of silent ink. Always watching, with the eyes of the scorpion, the zodiac’s watchers. Nearby, the medicine wheel turns the snake dance, coiling wisdom, With a Marco Polo mind that seeks the unknown path. The Ayahuasca Elders, stone warriors of the Buffalo brigade. Now summon the drums, ancient voices in the rhythm of the mirrors Lake. Echoes of those who once danced with...

Just before I got married, 35 years ago, I was at my bride-to-be's house, pre-Christmas, in a rather nice village between Burton upon Trent (my hometown) and Lichfield. Some Christmas Cards were pushed through the door and I went to collect them. A few minutes later, there was an insistent ringing of the doorbell and I found a rather grand lady standing on the doorstep. "Mea culpa!" She said, in a dramatic tone, one hand pressed against her...