Unrepentant

Okay, I know, I got the number of Olympic medals wrong. What really hurts is that a politician got it right. But wait, the thrust of my argument was correct. Team GB( Middle Classes) did an amazing job, with a small hiccup from the Equestrians due entirely

Training

What is a train station? Since trains were invented they have stopped and started from railway stations, but now we have train stations. Today I heard it used on Miss Marples, by Miss Marples would you believe. It only goes to show how far the stories

In Our Prime

As we know, our peoples' Government is determined to concrete over Southern England in order to provide affordable homes for teenage single parents, who will then vote for it out of gratitude. But sadly the economy is about to collapse due to ten years

Berlin

We note that the silver tongued Senator Barack Obama in his  presidential speech to the adoring people of Berlin did not fall into the John F. Kennedy trap. As is well known, although not to President Kennedy at the time, a Berliner is a type of

Very Strange.

It is very sad how many town pigeons lack feet. Look around, it is a remarkably high percentage. Last week I saw a pigeon in London bravely coping with no feet at all. I feared that he would soon fall off his perch, if he managed to stay on

Public Interest

I have a lot of time for Banksy. He says more than most modern artists and says it with skill, grace and humour. His gallery is the street (or was until he became a superstar) and good luck to him. However  graffiti artists must work secretly and

Titles

Titles are tricky. I have proved this, if it needed to be proven, by my failure to think of a title for  Plan B. Although maybe, by a strange piece of serendipity, that has now become the title to use. I am not alone. Thomas Hardy lovers among you will

Fun

Listening to that endangered species a song thrush, performing in my garden last night reminded me of the many poems about birds. The Darkling Thrush is a bit gloomy. I reckon An aged thrush, frail gaunt, and small, (Oxford comma) is about to fall off

Progress

Despite my computer having a wobble we soldier on. Amazingly (considering the computer wobble) I have now typed 1500 words of Plan B and still have another 500 in draft ready to type. Some of it has had a first edit which I accepted with my usual

Old Glory

Yesterday I was once again surfing YouTube and came across a clip entitled  Flying The Flag . An American parachutist jumped at an airshow, attached to an enormous flag. This fluttered across the sky while The Star Spangled Banner was played on the

'ere Is The News.

Watching a BBC newsclip from 1980 on YouTube brought home to me how recently we have lost standard English. This used to be the BBC accent but, of course, the neo Marxist BBC ditched that as soon as it decided we had reached the age of the common

Plan B

Plan B, let us call it Alexandria, is going well (probably). I am back to the uber efficient Germanic page a day regime. I have finished a thousand word storyline and am working through one page descriptions of the plot from the point of view of each

That's the Way to Do It

It is amazing how experts are ignored, consider gardening. We are all bombarded with information; everything from tips by dodgy TV gardening Gurus to Be Your Own Edelweiss Expert books. At weekends garden centres are packed with wannabe gardeners and

Busy, Busy, Busy.

I love aphorisms. As you will know my favourites are both by Gordon Gecko, 'Lunch is for whimps,' and 'If you want a friend get a dog.' But I have just found another one to live by. 'Failure is just testing the Market.' How very encouraging. I am busy,

Submissions

I am now submitting to publishers again after my cub reporter period. I find that, particularly with American publishers, exclusive requests are not unusual. This means that a publisher wants to be the only one considering your manuscript at any one time. In his