Author Archives: James - Page 58
7/7 London Bombings Remembered Ten years on
Ten years ago the last successful terrorist spectacular was about to happen in London. 52 people were murdered by suicide bombers in one of the worst terrorist attacks in mainland Britain. Thankfully the repeat attempt a fortnight later didn't work, nor did the attempted car bombing at Glasgow airport. All the other attempts in the UK have been much lower key and, barring the murder of Drummer Rigby, not successful. That said British people have been killed overseas, last week's tragedy in Tunisia being a terrible example of the willingness of extremists to go for soft targets. English: A typical "new-look" London fire engine. The new type of fire appliance used by London Fire Brigade is smaller than it's predecessors to enable it to negotiate heavy London traffic more easily. With "FIRE" in mirror writing ("ERIF"). (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The…
Book Review – The Last Roundhead by Jemahl Evans
Roundhead in the English Civil War (Photo credit: Wikipedia) The Last Roundhead by Jemahl Evans My rating: 5 of 5 stars The Last Roundhead is the best historical fiction I have read in years! This is the tale of Blandford Candy, the last roundhead alive in 1719 when he wrote his memoirs. In the long hot summer of 1642 he is forced to leave home because his sister has discovered that he is having an affair with his eldest brother's wife to be. He rides up to London in search of fame and fortune, just in time to be enlisted in his uncle's Regiment. It is by far the best historical fiction that I have read since I finished reading the Flashman papers. The Last Roundhead Laid out in the style of the Flashman papers, Candy's story is very well…
Author Interview – Jemahl Evans
This week's interview is with Jemahl Evans, author of The Last Roundhead, the edited memoirs of Blandford Candy, the last surviving Roundhead. Laid out like Flashman's memoirs it tells the story of the early days of the First of the Civil Wars in the mid seventeenth century. I've just finished reading the ARC and will write a review next week. How long have you been writing for and what made you start writing? I have always scribbled bits and bobs, ever since I as a child, but I kept it to myself mainly. The opening to The Last Roundhead came to me one afternoon when I was teaching in Hounslow, but then it sat on my laptop untouched. I came back to Wales in 2010, after my father died and Mum was diagnosed with Breast Cancer and COPD, and started to…
Self Driving Cars
I've written over the last couple of weeks about advances in police technology, but one of the other technology changes that has a major societal impact is self driving cars. People have been talking about this for years, and recently both Google and Elon Musk are seriously working on self driving cars. Other companies are too, but not to the same extent. Progress Report on Self Driving Cars Last week Google released a report on where they'd got to with self driving cars. They plan to report monthly from now on. Their self driving cars have clocked up million miles in autonomous mode, and have been involved in 12 accidents. None of those accidents have been the fault of the self driving cars, in fact for 8 of the 12 the vehicle was stationary. If you ignore the five accidents…
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Book Review – Pretty Monsters by Kelly Link
Pretty Monsters: Stories by Kelly Link My rating: 4 of 5 stars A collection of nine short stories with a sort of urban fantasy/horror theme, although low key theme horror rather than scare you into changing your pants horror. What they do is make you think about things. Almost all of the stories could be very normal, with a slightly mentally off kilter protagonist, or there could be something else there that you cannot quite see. A couple are straight fantasy, the Wizards of Perfil, being a good fantasy story about wizards that buy children for a nefarious hidden purpose. All of the stories are well crafted, and they all have a good premise that is well executed. I didn't feel that any of them were there just to make up the numbers. There was a level of variety about them…