I get a lot of pleasure from refurbishing old things, bringing them back to life and making them usable again. When Gaie told me she was considering throwing away her old white leather boots I wasn’t sure what I could … Continue reading →
Last summer I spent a week with some friends on Mull, a large and beautiful island off the west coast of Scotland. You reach it by ferry from Oban, home of one of my favourite whiskeys. From Mull you can then … Continue reading →
Here’s my latest acquisition – £3.00 from Oxfam, and just about perfect condition. An album I have never previously owned. It’s quite nostalgic to flick through the record stacks again, my finger and thumb haven’t forgotten the technique. I’ve been getting … Continue reading →
Image – James Field, CC BY-SA 3.0 We had a lovely weekend in Cambridge last weekend, staying over with a friend. We’d come up to attend a talk called “Challenging the gender binary through science fiction and fantasy“, given by … Continue reading →
Dear Mr Scully, It’s now well-established that David Cameron deceived the nation as to his intentions with child tax credits before the election. My question to you is this: Where you aware of Mr Cameron’s deceit at the time or … Continue reading →
It struck me recently that there is a word of near comprehensive application and functionality, and that word is ‘Trousers’. It’s a lovely auditory word, the kind that is a pleasure to say under almost all circumstances. It can be … Continue reading →
The universe of self-published fiction has its vast and empty reaches of nothing much at all, and a scatter of planets that can appear less interesting the closer you approach. It also has its stars. This book is one of … Continue reading →
Last Thursday I went to the funeral of fellow-writer Mark McCann. I wasn’t a close friend, I only knew him through our mutual membership of our writing group (London genre group, the T Party). He was intelligent and well-educated man, … Continue reading →
Last week I can back from Archipelacon, the Nordic SF&F convention at Mariehamn, in the Åland Islands of Finland. I had a great time, the convention itself was quite special, and here’s why: It was brilliantly well-organised. It had a … Continue reading →
So here I am back from the excellent Archipelacon where Regina Kanyu Wang gave a video-report on Chinese fandom to a packed room, followed by a Skype chat between us in Finland, and her in Shanghai. Which is kind of … Continue reading →