Friday 24 December 2010

NO MAN'S WORLD

I know I wasn't going to blog again until 2011 - but this has to be seen to be believed.
I bought a book called 'Black Hand Gang' by Pat Kelleher (you'll have to wait for the full review).
The premise is that the 13th Battalion of The Pennine Fusiliers disappeared from the Somme battlefield on 1st November 1916. The preface to the book sounds very convincing and, of course, a total fiction as it tries to show that the story is based on fact.
To cap it all is a splendid way to advertise the book and perpetuate the myth is the No Man's World blog (http://nomansworldblog.blogspot.com).
Mind you a quick search of the net does throw up someone who believes - well, like they say one born etc.
Personally, I just think that it is an excellent way to publicise a book and pave the way for a sequel.

Tuesday 21 December 2010

NOT ONLY...BUT ALSO

It hasn't been a bad year but the last few months have thrown up some surprises with the result that much that I would have liked to have written about never happened.
Amongst the things that should have made an appearance are reviews of the latest Black Horse Westerns by Charles Whipple, I.J.Parnham, Terry James and Derek Rutherford - all excellent writers.
Beat To A Pulp: Round One, an excellent anthology editted by David Cranmer and Elaine Ash was something else that I missed, especially as it contained a fine selection of short stories by people that I have gotten to know.

Movie wise - try and catch the original Swedish movie 'Let The Right One In' before watching the Hollywood re-make 'Let Me In'. It is quite a beautiful film considering that this is a vampire movie based on the novel by John Ajvide Lindqvist. The book is also excellent.

Discovered the complete tv series of Stephen King's 'The Stand'. I don't recall seeing this before but I watched it as a whole.

Still to watch - but then I was saving these for the Christmas holidays - 'Rawhide' Season 1 consisting 22 episodes of a series that would catapult Clint Eastwood onto the road to stardom.
And the complete tv series 'Colditz'.

Anyway, Broken Trails will take time out until 2011.
Allow time for the dust to settle and life to get back to some form of normality.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all.

Friday 17 December 2010

TAKE THE WAR TO WASHINGTON

I wonder if anyone remembers a British author Peter Van Greenaway.
During the the sixties, seventies and eighties he was quite a popular author both as a novelist and short story writer.
In 1974 he wrote a novel called 'Take The War To Washington'. The novel concerned a group of Vietnam veterens who feeling sidelined and neglected by the country that sent them to war decide to take that very war to Washington.
Well they set the ball rolling by crashing a passenger plane into the Pentagon before setting out to attack the tallest buildings.
A surprising plotline in a forgotten book by a forgotten author about a forgotten army.

Friday 3 December 2010

IT'S NOT WHAT YOU SAY........

So England won't be hosting the 2018 World Cup. In some ways I'm quite happy that World Cup is going to Russia - the games have never been held there.
But...FIFA's excuse for England not winning the bid is down to the British Media and the BBC Panorama programme for their allegations of corruption within FIFA.
Hmm?
Seems to me, now, that something might just be wrong when people say one thing and do another.

Unlike another guilty party, David Chaytor, the MP who said that he had done nothing wrong in the expenses scandal - at least he has now held his hands and pleaded guilty.

If you do wrong then it all catches up with you in the end.


AND to another topic.
Complaints abound about the lack of salt and grit on the roads. Shortages? There is always one way to get to the truth of the matter - put the Transport Minister on the TV to say that 'there are no shortages'. There is 150,000 tons of the stuff on it's way to us. Reassuring words? No, because whenever a Minister speaks the truth is very often the opposite of what he says.


Still with the snow.
Royal Mail has been unable to deliver our post for the past few days. Until last night this was quite acceptable - I mean we are knee deep in snow.
Then we sat down to watch the BBC's 'The One Show' (2/12/2010) and guess what - there was a BBC film crew and presenter up in my neck of the woods. Right there filming from the corner of my road.
So if the BBC can get here why can't the postman?
Health and Safety is the reply.