World Cup 2010 Predictions

Added on 10 June 2010

As one of the premier crime writers of the epoch, it is naturally incumbent upon me to set down in stone a series of World Cup predictions. History itself will judge whether or not they prove to be accurate. Well, actually, at the moment the future will judge their accuracy, but give it a month and ...

Lost in Space

Added on 08 June 2010

When I log into the bowels of this website, there's a page which reports how visitors come by the site. So when someone puts "Barney books" or some such into Google, and stumbles across me, I know about it. (I don't know who it is, just that on a particular day someone found the site by th...

Blogging Uber-Genius In Blog Comeback

Added on 25 May 2010

I haven't written a blog for a while. Suddenly I'm older than the Prime Minister. That never used to be the case. More than likely, I'll never be younger than the Prime Minister ever again. The PM changing so that suddenly you're older than him (or her), is one of life's defining moments. A rite of ...

The Long, Dark Easter Break

Added on 02 April 2010

In the midst of a long and dark Easter holiday. The kids have three weeks off school. Three weeks. It has been five weeks since their last week off, so obviously they need the protracted break. I received an e-mail from a literary agent this week, to whom I had pitched the idea of A Room With No Nat...

The Lost Art of Ski Pole Walking (Updated)

Added on 25 March 2010

We live in a quiet wee place in the west country, overlooking the town recreation ground. As you can imagine with a town recreation ground, all human life is there. (Except when it's raining a lot.) People walk dogs, play frisbee, sit around and chat, play football, kids get their first cricket less...