Biography
Take Your Daughter to Work Day
Prologue by Roger Ackroyd Recently located in the piles of papers here at Ackroyd Towers was a copy of a report made by Lily Ackroyd on her “Take your daughter to work day” assignment for [more…]
Ralph Spurrier
Fiction
The Butcher Began To Kill The Ox, Ch 3
CHAPTER 3 The light rain that had begun when he got off the train at Bradford on Avon had now turned into a steady drizzle and to judge by the lowering clouds coming in from [more…]
Fiction
The Butcher Began To Kill The Ox, Ch 2
CHAPTER 2 Now, here he was, sitting in an anonymous government office, waiting to be grilled by what he had always described as “faceless farts” of civil servants who wouldn’t do his job for all [more…]
Fiction
The Butcher Began To Kill The Ox, Ch 1
For those new readers who have not yet availed themselves of my first novel, A Coin for the Hangman (available at Amazon as a print or ebook version), I am prefacing this first chapter of [more…]
Literature
Tales from the Book Crypt
As a regular visitor to and buyer at auctions across the South of England I have become used to viewing lots and waiting for hours for the items I am interested in to come under [more…]
Book Review
Tales from the Crypt
The recent screening of Mark Gatiss’ Dracula – an enterprise that started well enough but fell away into nonsense like many of the BBC adaptations – reminded me of an enterprise that I initiated some [more…]
Arts
Roger Ackroyd’s Question Time Review
Question Time 5th December 2019 Panel: Richard Tice: (Tycoon) Ian Blackford (Poltroon) Annelise Dodds (Loon) Ed Davey (Buffoon) James Cleverly (Picayune)* *(of little value or account) Venue: Hull Voted 67% to Leave. One of the [more…]
Arts
Roger Ackroyd’s Question Time Review
Question Time 28th November 2019 Panel: Lionel Shriver (Crazy name, not so crazy lady) Zanny Minton Beddoes (Crazy name. Bilderberger) Caroline Lucas (Just crazy) Andy McDonald (Barking) Brandon Lewis (Carpetbagger) Venue: Swindon 53% Leave. The [more…]
Arts
Roger Ackroyd’s Question Time Review
Question Time 21st November 2019 Panel: Robert Jenrick (Tory) Chukka Umunna (Labour/Change/Independent/Lib Dem) Philippa Whitford (SNP) Richard Burgon (Trotskyist/Marxist/Labour/Petomane) Sherelle Jacobs (Journo) Venue: Bolton Bolton voted 58% leave. The only panellist that is remotely a [more…]