Living in North Yorkshire for about 20 years I had always heard strange stories about ‘The Fenmen’ from Lincolnshire and none of them were very kind, and usually very derogatory. After reading this intriguing and revealing book from James Boyce the seed of this regional rivalry became very clear. Imperial Mud explores the vast regions …

The Brilliant Abyss
Though my main reading genre at the moment is speculative fiction I really love reading well-written books on science and aspects of the planet, especially nature writing. This is a well-written book, covering one of the most unexplored areas of the planet, The Deep Abyss. In the first part of the book we explore various …

The Swallowed Man
Whilst on Furlough 1.0™ I kept seeing this bandied about Twitter and was fascinated by the concept, but the main draw was the stunning cover I kept seeing flashed up on screen. Imagine my delight when I returned to work for that month holiday from lockdown to find it there in the staff room waiting …

I, for one, welcome our 2021 overlords
That’s been a bit of a year then hasn’t it. Though there have been some ups and downs, personally and at work, thankfully the ‘worst’ that has happened to me has been an extended period of furlough. Though even this ‘worst’ has had a lot of upside. I’ve been able to get on with a …

Vesper Flights
I’ve just returned to work after almost nine months of furlough and decided to use the walk to and from work as an opportunity to listen to audiobooks now that I’m enjoying them. Vesper Flights by Helen Macdonald was the first of my walking books, and I’ve been saving it to be that as I …

October Update
Twenty-one posts published this month, so a really good month for blog content as in my head as long as I write at least one post a week I’m on my schedule and I’m doing well. Twenty-one posts about gaming, cooking, art history, and writing, but not one book review… You know, the main reason …