First Words II

Added on 20 October 2009

Orwell opened Animal Farm with: Mr Jones, of the Manor Farm, had locked the hen-houses for the night, but was too drunk to remember to shut the pop-holes; Ishiguro opens The Remains of the Day with the words: It seems increasingly likely that I really will undertake the expedition that has been preo...

First Words I

Added on 16 October 2009

Dickens opened A Tale Of Two Cities with It was the best of times, it was the worst of times...; Marquez opens One Hundred Years of Solitude with the words: Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to di...

Great On Hot Toast

Added on 12 October 2009

Our local supermarket is the one where Simon Pegg had his big shoot-out in Hot Fuzz. It’s like living on the set of the movie. Yesterday I was in the shop; I’d walked in through the door that Simon Pegg had crashed in through, and in almost as dramatic a turn of events as Pegg has in Ho...

Friday 9th October 2009

Added on 09 October 2009

An exciting day, marked by going on-line to buy a TV aerial cable. Couldn't get one long enough in the local hardware shop. You can probably shop around for TV aerial cables, there are probably TV aerial specific websites; but working on the basis that Amazon sells more or less everything, I went th...

Getting Away With Murder

Added on 08 October 2009

Splendid mention for The Final Cut from Mike Ripley in this month's Getting Away With Murder column in the on-line Shots magazine. He uses the line: Sadly, this could well be the last in Douglas’ hysterical experiment in the extended barbershop death junky novel and the end of Barney Thomson.....