Professor Branestawm.

Am I stingy towards other writers?
On Goodreads.com I've listed a total of 255 books which I've read, yet I've only given a five star score to 32 of them. The first two of those went to Rudyard Kipling, who died in 1936.

And the third was to the book that made me laugh more than anything I've ever read since. Norman Hunter's "The Incredible Adventures of Professor Branestawm."
With brilliant illustrations by Heath Robinson.

All the Dark Air by Livi Michael - book review

Can't understand why this book has no reviews on Goodreads. It's a very good story, moving if troubling. I picked it up to read on a long train journey, 5 hours and three changes later I arrived somewhat dazed by the emotion of the story.

All characters are strongly drawn and feel very real especially the lonely and uncared for Julie, whose story it is. She loves Michael, or maybe when she began to love him, at school, she was in love with the idea of loving Michael and never managed to shake it off. Whether Michael loves her is another question. She lives with him and his uncle Si and Michael's best mate Darren.

Most of the story takes place during Julie's prolonged pregnancy, which isn't truly prolonged but feels that way to Julie and to the reader. Occasionally the POV seems to slip, but mostly it is Julie's. Her journey ends with a party to celebrate a death that hasn't happened yet, then with her in the hospital for a birth that hasn't happened yet. I understand why the ending comes there, though it seems abrupt.

The author is compassionate to all her characters, even the absurd ones, even the violent ones, whilst being unsentimental describing their flaws. She's non judgemental, just shows the traumas of lives and how people have to manage to get on with things in their own way, alone. It's a sad story, left me wondering how the characters fared afterwards. That's how real it feels.

Garage Sale

7 garages in Fulham, London were sold for £700,000.

In view of that fact, my garage is also for sale.
It can be yours for a mere £100,000.

This period property has brick walls, 
an almost leak free tiled roof, azure
painted double doors and an enormous clematis,
which climbs over the roof and enters under the tiles, 
fills the loft space and encourages 
huge spiders and other sustainable wildlife.
Pith helmet and machete not supplied.

Sale does include:- 
a 37 year old road bike (tyres shot), 
17 loudspeakers of varying vintages, 
11 bits of carpet - random colours, 
3 lino off-cuts - fake tile effect, 
1 rusty wheelbarrow, 
2 tea-chests full of old paperbacks 
which never quite got unpacked when we moved in, 
113 random bits of timber that might be useful, 
2 broken bookcases - hence the books in tea-chests,
370 black plastic flowerpots, various sizes, snails included, 
1 box full of cables and other useful bits of vintage wire - needs unravelling, 
13 cans of nearly finished paint, in 1980's hues,
1 boot-mounted bike rack that fits neither the boot nor the bicycle 
and 
2,174 other equally fascinating and potentially invaluable objects. 

Not to mention a squirrel's nest - the squirrel would prefer to remain anonymous -
so I haven't mentioned him. Shhh!
 
I must add,  you can't drive into the garage 
because a wall has been built at the wrong angle 
blocking one door and a neighbour parks his Mini
far too close to the other door. 
… Also, the garage is not in Fulham.

Psephologist - Word of the Day.

The Greek word psephos means pebble. So maybe I'm a psephologist, I spend time every week on pebbly beaches. But no. The relavent pebbles were used by the world's first democracy as ballots.

So, a Psephologist, in case you don't know (I certainly didn't :D) is someone who specialises in using history and scientific analysis to examine election results. Good luck with making sense of Yesterday's local election!results. Whatever people felt like stuffing into the ballot boxes, it wasn't just pebbles.

Enough pebbles for a landslide...