America City by Chris Beckett, set on an environmentally challenged Earth a 100 years hence, is speculative fiction at the highest level and rather uncomfortable reading. To celebrate it's release and that it has been chosen as Simon Mayo's choice for the next Radio 2 Book Club, I am giving away a signed copy. Full details in the post.
Read MoreClare Mulley's latest book, The Women Who Flew For Hitler, is a fascinating look at two remarkable and complicated women, Melitta von Stauffenberg and Hanna Reitch. As test pilots for the Third Reich, they were at the forefront of aviation and tumultuous times. The book is an intimate and honest biography and Clare has kindly taken some time to answer a few of my questions about it.
Read MoreDoes something that you cannot heft in your hands have less value, physically and emotionally, than something that does? This is something I've been juggling with for a while, especially when it comes to books. Books are my addiction. Having a book in my hand elicits a response that fills me with joy. But, is it the actual papery thing tied up with sting or is it the contents of it that are important? As I sit and write these words, I am surrounded by books. Having a quick count on the walls either side of me, there are about 380 books on the shelves. Hardback, paperback, signed first editions, special editions, some more loved than others, all wonderful and utter dust magnets. Looking at them, they pull memories from my life.
Read MoreBrigadier-General Sir Harry Flashman VC KCB KCIE was Victorian Britain's greatest Hero. Despite being expelled from Rugby School for drunkenness, an event that Thomas Hughes recounted in Tom Brown's Schooldays, Sir Harry turned his life around. Commissioned into the 11th Light Dragoons in 1840, Sir Harry served with distinction from the retreat from Kabul in 1842, charged with both the Light and Heavy Brigades at the Battle of Balaclava, won his VC for his actions in the Indian Mutiny, fought on both sides of the American Civil War and on battlefields from China to South Africa.
Read MoreIt is rare that entertainment news makes me happy. Thankfully, last week, the BBC did just that, announcing that they were adapting The Last Kingdom. The Beeb is in an interesting place at the moment, they have huge global hits with the likes of Sherlock and Doctor Who, win Emmy’s for fun with Neil Cross and Idris Elba’s Luther and mange to keep us thrilled by the exploits of three ageing men who make poor jokes and ass about in cars on Top Gear. But in a TV world that is being rewritten using the rules the BBC used to commission by (1985’s Edge of Darkness, 1984’s incredible Threads, 1979’s Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy and comedy like Partridge and The Royal Family to name but a few), Auntie is being left to her knitting.
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