Crime is universal; not a corner of the globe is immune from the dastardly deeds of its perpetrators. It may not always be as “brutal” as reporters and headline writers around the world seemingly wish us to believe. In many cases (white collar and cyber crime come quickly to mind), not a drop of blood is spilled, not a cut suffered nor a bone broken, and the victims continue to breathe, albeit somewhat less easily. But whatever the level of harm incurred, there is a crime sure to have been committed (or planned to come) wherever humans tread. “Get Forensics… Continue reading
Words, writers and writing
WITH Covid and staff shortages becoming the default excuse for poor service and faulty products it is sad to see the malaise spreading to the world of publishing. Errors there are so visible and so irritating to readers. For publishers they are so difficult and costly to correct. In specialist… Continue reading
IT is probably tempting fate when less than two months of the twelve have passed to declare “This is my book of the year”. But that’s the way things have been since I turned the final page of Should We Stay or Should We Go and fell into several moments of… Continue reading
WAR has been declared. It has long been simmering with spasmodic outbreaks of invective hurled across the Great Grammatical Divide separating the two sides. But now it is out in the open. Apostrophe or no apostrophe, that is the question (as the greatest source of precise English would likely have… Continue reading
THE joys of reading are many and varied. Too many delights exist to be contained within a strictly defined list. And always they are dependent on time, place, purpose and numerous further variables. It’s a statement clearly not made to broadcast some newly discovered truth. But uttered in the hope… Continue reading
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IT is one of those titles that says it all. Well, almost. The cover picture of menacing clouds hanging low over the French capital leaves little room for doubt about the content within. Everything is explained in five short words: A Long Night in Paris. And not one of gaiety and revelry such as those that have become synonymous with the city’s now largely false image as ‘Gay Paree’. Longer and darker by far. The cover illustration and title combine to imply good things are not about to happen. Questions are immediately implied for readers to ask and discover. Who,… Continue reading