Hamish Macbeth : The Lochdubh Assassin

This is NOTHING like the books. Hamish is WELL over 6ft tall with flaming red hair and a true Highlander. Y’man who plays him here – name escapes all I can remember is Begbie – is a 5ft6 Glaswegian….SMALLER THAN ME. MC Beaton sold her Hamish stories to the TV company for squillions and regretted […]

Read More

Layers Upon Layers : Back With Iago

OMG. I missed the Tennyson bit? And he is my homie. Bad. Head Hung/Hanged in SHAME :o( From the Guardian Newspaper : We have recently pointed you at a graphic novel about the history of puzzles and at the first novel by Guardian setter Picaroon, each of which remains heavily recommended. Time for a peek at a golden-age […]

Read More

Dumas : The Count of Monte Cristo

OMG. It is so long since I read this. Like decades. All I remember is that I’d stop and re-read certain sentences. I think, though I could be impossibly wrong, that Dumas was 3 quarters black. His father was half black, a bastard and from Haiti. His grandmother full, from Africa. Whatever. If you ever […]

Read More

Fabulously Famous FEB

Death of a Gossip was M.C. Beaton’s F1RST Hamish Macbeth book. FEB is named. “What’s this? Men’s lib?” Daphne slid her arm into his and they left the lounge together. Alice stood stock still, biting her lip. “I told you you were wasting your time.” Lady Jane’s large bulk hove up on Alice’s port side. […]

Read More

The Rev Merrily (what a magnificent name!) Watkins

Via Clerical Detectives. BTW : I too think that this name is a work of genius. Considering her job as THE Diocesan Exorcist…Sorry Deliverance Minister as they are called now. And she is Anglican, not Catholic. And she has baggage. And she has a very turbulent relationship with her teenage daughter. And she gets many […]

Read More

Will the REAL Macbeth Stand Up ?

In May 2019 I was deep into Double, Double, Toil and Trouble land. 29th May 2019 : “Most Sacrilegious Murder…” said by MacDuff 30th May 2019 : “To know my deed, ’twere best not know myself.” 30th May 2019 : “Out, damned spot! out, I say!” 31st May 2019 : “My bosom franchised and allegiance […]

Read More

Squished Inside a Bookshop

My favourite local secondhand bookshop has finally re-opened. Yay! It was small before but now it is even smaller…the owner has given half of the building over to his daughter’s new business. I went in today and we greeted each other with big smiles like old friends. He’s doing the “right” thing. Self-isolating behind a […]

Read More

Toilet Facts : Pee & Poop

My Grandad, Sam, was a tanner by trade. I have dyed wool and cotton using natural materials (tea, coffee, nettles, onion skins, walnuts, ink etc) after researching the history of dyeing right back to the Egyptians of one hundred thousand B.C. (!) Both trades used urine. Poop is dung is manure is compost. Our old […]

Read More

The Dead of Jericho

For once, the TV series led me to the books. I adore John Thaw and Kevin Whately and this whole series. I’ve also read all of Colin Dexter’s books. This is the first book and the first programme. “The Dead of Jericho” is the first instalment of the Inspector Morse TV series starring John Thaw and Kevin Whately (as Detective Sergeant Lewis). Colin Dexter also […]

Read More

Citrine : The Merchant’s Stone

Those born in November are lucky enough to have two stunning gems as their birthstones. One is topaz, which comes in a variety of colours, and the other is sunny citrine. Citrine is the yellow variety of quartz, and its name comes from the Old French word for lemon. Its warm colour is said to […]

Read More

You&Me Against the World

I think y’all know by now that I am NOT a fan of Ian Fleming or Bond (Who Always to me is the TRUE representation of the King of Wands in the Tarot…King Dangalang displaying his wand) For the meelyonth time : I’ve written about Fleming and his close friend Dorothy Dunnett. The both started […]

Read More

Night After Night

From the author Phil Rickman : The publishers wanted a stand-alone ghost story. Which it is. It totally stands alone, just like the earliest novels.  Except they didn’t, quite, did they? Characters from previous novels floated in, although it didn’t really matter if you hadn’t read those previous novels. I became a bit superstitious about […]

Read More