Authoritarianism
From Draft to Bookshop – A Journey
Almost two years ago this weekend my wife and I, rather nervously, drove into a small Devon village on our way to visit a family that I had only met through Going Postal but who [more…]
Book Review
America
Un-Freedom of the Press
I have listened to Mark Levin via WMAL radio station, 11pm to 2pm every weekday for maybe ten years. Along with people like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Laura Ingraham and Jeanine Pirro they [more…]
Arts
The Odyssey updated
The 20th Century produced two updated versions of Homer’s Odyssey. The first was the James Joyce novel Ulysses, which compressed Odysseus’s decade of wandering down to an arbitrary day, June 16 1904, & a single [more…]
Arts
The Unseen Path – Publication
The first Going Postal serialised novel – The Unseen Path – is now published and available to purchase. It was serialised over the course of about 11 months in 2017/18, and ran to about 180,000 [more…]
Archeology
Inside the Neolithic Mind
This is a rather niche book, but I know there are (at least) a few Puffins keen on archaeology, so I thought it might be of interest. It explores, as the subtitle says, ‘consciousness, cosmos [more…]
20th Century
Book Review: Slipstream: A Memoir by Elizabeth Jane Howard
Elizabeth Jane Howard, known as Jane, was born in 1923. Her name may be familiar to various Puffins because she was briefly married to the famous naturalist and painter Peter Scott (son of Scott of [more…]
Arts
‘Injuries to the neck’ and other euphemisms: Is the BBC Brainwashing Britain?
When I announced to friends my intention to write a book entitled ‘BBC: Brainwashing Britain?’ questions came thick and fast: “Brainwashing Britain? The BBC? Why ever would they want to do such a thing? Aren’t [more…]
Book Review
Book Review: The Socialist Phenomenon by Igor Shafarevich
You don’t believe in God, so you begin to believe that man is a god. You don’t believe in Heaven, so you begin to believe in heaven on earth. In other words you get romanticism [more…]
America
Book Review: The Black Swan by Nassim Nicholas Taleb
Published by The Random House Publishing Group [US] and Allen Lane [UK] (2007); Penguin Books (2008) ISBN 978-0-141-03459-1 Nassim Nicholas Taleb doesn’t shy away from voicing his opinions, even when they lead to controversy. One [more…]