31st March: Bunsen Burner Day

10 facts about Bunsen Burners and their inventor:

1. Invented by Robert Bunsen and his lab assistant, Peter Desaga, in 1854 for use in his new laboratory at the University of Heidelberg.
2. Robert Bunsen's speciality was analysing the colours of elements when they were heated, which is why he needed a safe, controllable burner.
3. Robert Bunsen discovered the elements Caesium and Rubidium using flame spectroscopy.
4. He also discovered an antidote to arsenic poisoning.
5. The gas burned in Bunsen burners is methane, propane or butane, or a mixture of them.
6. The amount of heat given off is controlled by varying the amount of air mixed with the gas stream. The more air, the hotter the flame.
7. The hottest flames are blue in colour; the coolest ones are Yellow.
8. The flames can reach temperatures of around 1000 degrees C.
9. There is a Muppet character named after this piece of scientific kit - Dr Bunsen Honeydew, who demonstrates his wacky inventions on the show, aided by his hapless assistant, Beaker. The pair were voted Britain's favourite film scientists in 2004, beating even Mr Spock into second place.
10. Bunsen Burner Day is celebrated on this date because it is the birthday of Robert Bunsen, born in 1811.

30th March: Birthday of Vincent van Gogh

Vincent van Gogh,the artist, was born on this date in 1853. Here are 10 facts about him:

Starry Night

1. In his lifetime, van Gogh created 2,000 pieces of art of which 900 were paintings, but he only sold one painting in his lifetime, which was called The Red Vineyard.
2. He painted 37 portraits of himself - possibly because he could not afford to pay models to sit for him.
3. He didn't cut off his ear - only a part of his ear lobe, after an argument with his friend Paul Gauguin. Van Gogh is said to have left the part of his ear at a brothel he is thought to have frequented with Gauguin, either as a gift for one of the women, or to be passed on to Gauguin.
4. Van Gogh's first career choice was to become a pastor, but he failed two courses. He became a missionary, living an austere life in a Belgian coal mining village, However, the church felt he was "undermining the dignity of the priesthood." and eventually his family persuaded him to give it up.
5. The happiest year of his life was spent working for an art dealer and living in Brixton, London.
6. Van Gogh was not lucky in love. He proposed marriage to two women - a fellow lodger in Brixton, and his widowed cousin. They both refused him. He lived with a prostitute for a time, much to the horror of his family; he eventually left her and she drowned herself. In Nuenen, he proposed to a neighbour's daughter. She accepted, but the two families disapproved and they were never married.
7. He used to pay boys to bring him birds' nests so that he could paint them. (The nests, not the boys!)
8. Most of what we know about the artist comes from the many letters he wrote to his brother, Theo, an art dealer. It was Theo who suggested to him that his paintings were too dark to be fashionable and that perhaps he should consider using brighter colours.
9. Jeanne Louise Calment, famous for being the longest lived woman ever, remembered serving van Gogh with canvas and pencils in her uncles shop when she was 13. She said that he was "dirty, badly dressed and disagreeable, very ugly, ungracious, impolite, sick."
10. Van Gogh was just 37 when he died. It is believed that he died as a result of a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, although no-one saw it happen and the gun was never found. The shot itself didn't kill him - he died over a day later from an infection. His brother Theo was with him, and reported that his brother's last words were “La tristesse durera toujours” meaning “the sadness will last forever.”

29th March: Royal Albert Hall opened

On this date in 1871 Queen Victoria opened the Royal Albert Hall. 10 things you may not know about the Royal Albert Hall:

1. Originally designed to hold up to 9,000 people, health and safety these days limit the number of people it can accommodate to 5,544.
2. The Royal Albert Hall is a registered charity.
3. It was originally to have been called The Central Hall of Arts and Sciences, but Queen Victoria changed the name to Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences when laying the foundation stone. This wasn't just down to her devotion to Albert - the concept of a facility for the arts on the site was originally his idea, and the site had been nicknamed "Albertopolis".
4. When the dome, which is 135ft (41m) high, was built, there were fears it might collapse when put in place. There was a trial run of erecting it, in Manchester, which was successful. The dome was taken apart and carried back to London by horse and cart. When it was finally in place and the supporting structures were removed, volunteers waited with baited breath in case the whole thing came tumbling down. It did drop five sixteenths of an inch, but I guess they could live with that.
5. The first concert was Arthur Sullivan's cantata, On Shore and Sea performed on 1 May 1871.
6. The Hall suffered only minor damage in World War II, because the German pilots used it as a landmark.
7. The Queen's Hall, the original venue for the Proms, was not so lucky. It was destroyed, and that is when the Albert Hall's most famous event was moved there.
8. The organ is the second largest pipe organ in the British Isles with 9,999 pipes in 147 stops. (The largest is the Grand Organ in Liverpool Cathedral which has 10,268 pipes.)
9. In 1956, Alfred Hitchcock filmed the climax of The Man Who Knew Too Much at the Hall.
10. From the start, the Hall was plagued by acoustic problems. There was a pronounced echo, and it used to be said that the Albert Hall was "the only place where a British composer could be sure of hearing his work twice". Engineers tried to solve the problem with canvas awnings and aluminium panels, but it wasn't until 1969 when they came up with a workable solution - large fibreglass discs suspended from the ceiling.

28th March: Black Forest Gateau Day

10 things you may not know about Black Forest Gateau:

1. It's Black Forest Gateau in England. The Americans call it Black Forest cake. In its country of origin, Germany, it is called Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte, which translates as "Black Forest cherry-torte".
2. Black Forest gateau is made from several layers of chocolate cake, with whipped cream and cherries between each layer. Then the cake is decorated with whipped cream, Cherries, and Chocolate shavings.
3. Originally, the combination of cherries and cream and Kirschwasser was a dessert rather than a cake. A confectioner named Josef Keller claims to have invented the dessert in its current form in 1915.
4. The first reference to it in writing was in the 1930s, when another cook, Erwin Hildenbrand, claimed to have invented it, and, presumably, wrote down the recipe.
5. Traditionally, Kirschwasser (a clear liquor distilled from tart cherries) is added to the recipe. In Germany, a cake cannot be described as Schwarzwälder Kirschtorte unless it has Kirschwasser in it. In 2013, this was written into statute when Brussels granted the cake protected status.
6. There is a Swedish version called Schwarzwaldtårta which consists of layers of meringue with whipped cream in between. The whole cake is covered with whipped cream and decorated with chocolate.
7. The cake is named after the liquor, which comes from the Black Forest region, rather than the forest itself.
8. There are around 200 calories in a slice of Black Forest gateau.
9. The largest black forest gateau ever measured 80 square metres (10m in diameter) and weighed 3,000kg. It was made in Germany in 2006 using 700 litres of cream, 5,600 eggs, 800kg of cherries 40kg of chocolate and 120 litres of Kirschwasser.
10. Every two years in Todtnauberg, there is a Black Forest gateau festival with prizes awarded for the best and most attractive gateaux.

27th March: Happy Birthday to You!

Today is the birthday of Patty Smith Hill, Kindergarten teacher and composer, born in 1868.You may not have heard of her, but you will certainly have heard, and sung, a song she composed with her sister, Mildred: Happy Birthday To You.

Here are 10 things you may not know about the song.

1. It is the most frequently sung and most recognised song in the English language. For He's a Jolly Good Fellow comes second.
2. The song was originally written as "Good Morning to All", a song which would be easy for small children to sing at the start of each day at kindergarten. The lyrics were: Good morning to you; Good morning to you; Good morning, dear children; Good morning to all.
3. The tune was published in the sisters' book, Stories for the Kindergarten in 1893.
4. Some historians believe the tune and the concept of the lyrics was copied from other popular songs of the day.
5. The first written record of the birthday lyrics being attached to the tune didn't appear until 1912.
6. The song is copyrighted and therefore cannot be used in public performances, film and television without the producers being stung for huge royalties from Warner/Chappell Music who currently own the copyright. In fact, if you're making a film and want to use it, the company would charge $10,000 for its use! Hence you will rarely hear the song in a movie. In filmland, For He's a Jolly Good Fellow, which is in the public domain, is usually sung instead. This will be the case until copyright finally expires in 2030. Copyright doesn't apply to private family parties, though, you'll be pleased to hear. You can use the $10,000 to buy a nicer birthday present!
7. Translating the song into another language, even a made up one, doesn't get you out of paying the fee. The producers of Star Trek: The Next Generation had to cut a Klingon version of the song for copyright reasons and substitute a Klingon version of For He's a Jolly Good Fellow.
8. There have been several attempts by film makers to get around this. In Futurama, they completely change the lyrics: "What day is today? / It's (birthday person)'s birthday / What a day for a birthday / Let's all have some cake." In The Colbert Report, they sing the lyrics to a different tune (the US National Anthem). Other producers have poked fun at the copyright by having characters start to sing it, but being stopped by others "because of the cost" or by starting the party scene at the very end of the song, so all the audience here is the last two words.
9. The copyright status of the song has been disputed in court. Professor Robert Brauneis has claimed that the copyright is probably invalid, and a documentary maker called Jennifer Nelson filed a suit in 2013, based on his research, in an attempt to get back her own royalties and for all other film makers who've used the song since 2009 to get theirs back too.
10. Happy Birthday has been performed on Mars. August 15 last year was the first anniversary of the Curiosity Rover landing on Mars. Geeks at the Goddard Space Flight Center programmed the sample analysis instruments to play "Happy Birthday".

26th March: Joseph Campbell's birthday

Joseph Campbell was born on this date in 1904. In case you haven't heard of him, he studied comparative mythology and wrote the book The Hero With a Thousand Faces. The heroes of myths and legends tend to follow a similar path, which includes a call to adventure which they usually refuse, but later are compelled to take up; meeting a mentor, allies and enemies, facing up to their greatest fear, and returning home with the treasure. George Lucas based the plot of Star Wars on Campbell's ideas.

To celebrate the birth of Joseph Campbell, here are 10 quotations.

The cave you fear to enter...

1. We must let go of the life we have planned, so as to accept the one that is waiting for us.
2. Follow your bliss and the universe will open doors where there were only walls.
3. Love is a friendship set to music.
4. Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy.
5. Computers are like Old Testament gods; lots of rules and no mercy.
6. Your sacred space is where you can find yourself again and again.
7. The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.
8. The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.
9. If you are falling....dive.
10. Find a place inside where there's joy, and the joy will burn out the pain.

25th March: Lady Day

Lady Day, or the Annunciation, or "Our Lady's Day", the day that the Archangel Gabriel told the Virgin Mary she was pregnant. 10 facts about Lady Day:

1. This day was once considered the date of the creation of the World.
2. Once, a country gentleman in England wrote a letter to a noble lady, only addressed To "The 25th of March, Foley place, London" and the post office duly delivered it to Lady Day.
3. It is a Quarter Day, traditionally when the rent became due, and farm worker's contracts began - so there would often be a mass migration of workers and their families moving to new farms.
4. Witches and Wiccans call this day the Return of the Goddess.
5. Until 1751 this was New Year’s Day in Britain. Then the Gregorian Calendar was adopted and the year began on January 1.
6. When Easter Sunday falls on the same date as Lady Day it is said to be an omen of evil for England. Luckily, not the case this year.
7. It is traditionally the day that the Swallows return for the summer.
8. A fine and clear Lady day means a good harvest.
9. Lord Baltimore's first settlers arrived in Maryland on this date in 1634, and so today is also Maryland Day. It is not known for certain whether the state was named for the Virgin Mary because they arrived on Lady Day, or whether it was named after Henrietta Maria, wife of King Charles I.
10. It's nine months till Christmas!

24th March: Houdini's birthday

Harry Houdini was born on this date in 1874. Some things you may not know about the escapologist: 

1. His given name was Erik Weisz when he was born in Budapest, although when the family moved to America they changed the spelling to Erich Weiss. Erich was "Ehrie" to his friends, which eventually evolved into "Harry".
2. His father was a rabbi.
3. He started performing aged 9, as a trapeze artist, calling himself "Ehrich, the Prince of the Air".
4. Houdini had a number of other strings to his bow. He was a champion cross country runner in his youth; an author - he published a book in 1908 called The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin, in which he debunked the claims of his former idol Jean Eugène Robert-Houdin; he was almost a film star: he was offered the part of Captain Nemo in a silent version of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, but the film was never made. He was also an aviator: he bought himself a biplane and after a successful flight in Germany, took the plane to Australia with the intent of becoming the first person to fly in the Southern Hemisphere. Some claim that indeed he was, after three successful flights near Melbourne - but others say the accolade really belongs to one Colin Defries, a Londoner, who flew at Victoria Park Racecourse, Sydney a few months earlier.
5. He began performing magic at 17, concentrating on card tricks, calling himself the "King of Cards". However, he wasn't amazingly successful. In around 1899 he started doing escapes from Handcuffs as well, which impressed his future manager, Martin Beck. Beck suggested to Houdini that escape acts were the way to go for him, and before too long he was on national and international tours as as "The Handcuff King."
6. A favourite stunt was to ask the police force of whichever city he was in to handcuff him and lock him in a cell, from which he would escape. His escapes included escaping from Scotland Yard and from a Siberian prison van. In Cologne, a police officer accused him of using bribery to make the escapes. Houdini successfully sued him and used the money to buy his mother a dress that had been made for Queen Victoria. He was nearly beaten once, in a challenge by the Daily Mirror in 1904, to escape from some specially made handcuffs. It took him almost an hour, and it was said that he asked his wife for help. She went onto the stage to give him a kiss, and possibly passed a key to him by mouth during the kiss. Another theory is that she smuggled the key to him in a glass of water. Yet another is that his struggle to escape was all part of the act.
7. He is also famous for escaping from straitjackets and sealed boxes underwater. He would sometimes ask the audience for suggestions as to what he might escape from, which led to him escaping from the belly of a beached whale and a barrel full of beer. He was buried alive three times (the coffin he used in that show was the one he was buried in after he died); and on one occasion he made a fully grown elephant and its trainer vanish from the stage of the Hippodrome Theatre in New York.
8. As President of the Society of American Magicians for a record nine years, he travelled widely, encouraging small, local magic societies to affiliate, creating the largest and longest surviving magic society in the world, which now has over 6,000 members.
9. In his later years, he was a fore-runner of James Randi, offering cash prizes to psychics and mediums if they could prove their powers were real. The prize was never claimed. Houdini felt so strongly that mediums were all frauds that he would go to seances in disguise with a reporter and a police officer for the purpose of exposing them. This cost him friendships - he fell out with Sir Arthur Conan Doyle over this and the two former friends became enemies. He declared to his wife that if there was an afterlife, he would come through to her with an agreed secret message after his death. For ten years, Bess Houdini attended seances to no avail and then gave up, saying, "ten years is long enough to wait for any man." However, magicians around the world still continue a tradition of holding seances for Houdini, a fact that no doubt has him turning in his grave!
10. Houdini died of a ruptured appendix on Halloween in 1926. He had challenged a young man to punch him in the stomach, which noticeably caused him pain. Houdini claimed he wasn't ready for the punch and also that he was disadvantaged by having a broken ankle at the time. He went on to perform that night but was later taken ill, and died six days later at just 52. His last words were "I'm tired of fighting."

23rd March: World Meteorological Day

On this date in 1950 the United Nations World Meteorological Organisation was established. World Meteorological Day is celebrated on the anniversary. On this day, 10 examples of weather wit:

1. There's a technical term for a sunny, warm day that follows two rainy days. It's called Monday.
2. In the Bible it rained for 40 days, they called it a disaster. In England we call it summer.
3. Heavy rain and gales are forecast and the Met Office issued a yellow snow alert last night.
4. Il fait Froid: Clement weather.
5. An artificial ski slope at Kidgrove closed yesterday because of snow and ice. Daily Telegraph
6. At the height of the gale, the harbourmaster radioed a coastguard on the spot and asked him to estimate the wind speed. He replied that he was sorry, but he didn't have a gauge. However, if it was any help, the wind had just blown his Land Rover off the cliff. Aberdeen Evening Express
7. During a drought the congregation met to pray for rain. "Brothers and Sisters," said the priest, "How can we ask the Lord for rain if we do not have faith? I see not one of you has brought an umbrella."
8. Looks like we’re in for a bad spell of wether.
9. I love the snow - it's the rain you can throw.
10. Weather. The weather forecast is cancelled today because of the weather. Forecasts are obtained from the airport, and roads there from our office were impassable. Whether we get the weather tomorrow depends on the weather.

22nd March: Future birthday of Captain James T Kirk

Captain James T Kirk, will be born on this date in 2228. Here are some facts you may not know about him.

Photo by Marshall Astor

1. Born in Riverside Iowa, to George and Winona Kirk. The town of Riverside has adopted him as its "future son" and has erected a plaque proclaiming that it is his future birthplace.
2. The "T" stands for Tiberius. He is named for his grandfathers.
3. He had a brother, George Samuel Kirk, who is killed in the final episode of the first series, although Kirk does manage to rescue his sister in law, Aurelan, and his nephew, Peter.
4. Kirk also had an illegitimate son, David Marcus, who was killed by Klingons.
5. At Starfleet Academy, Kirk became the only student to defeat the Kobayashi Maru test, garnering a commendation for original thinking by reprogramming the computer to make the "no-win scenario" winnable.
6. He was known for bucking the system - he has a record of 17 temporal violations, and was also the first captain to go on trial (for the wrongful death of Ben Finney, for which he was exonerated).
7. His first assignment was as an ensign on the USS Republic. Then he served as a lieutenant on the USS Farragut.
8. When he received command of the USS Enterprise, he was Starfleet's youngest captain.
9. He was brought back from the dead (or the Nexus, anyway) by Captain Jean-Luc Picard, and persuaded to help stop a madman from destroying the planet Veridian III. Kirk was killed on that mission, and buried on the planet.
10. A number of actors have portrayed spoof versions of Kirk, including Jim Carrey and James Belushi.

21st March: Spring Equinox

Spring has sprung, officially! 10 Spring Equinox related celebrations:

1. Many celebrations linked to the Spring, Vernal or March equinox are new year celebrations as many calendars begin at this time, including the Persian and Iranian calendars, where the celebration is called Nowruz ("New Day"). It is a Zoroastrian holiday, and a holy day for adherents of the Bahá'í Faith, whose new year begins at sunset the previous day. The Rosicrucians also celebrate their new year, also known as Marduk's saint's day. The Indian National Calendar also starts a new year at around this time.
2. Today is the first day of the astrological year, as it is the first full day of the first zodiac sign, Aries. Hence International Astrology Day is celebrated on this day.
3. There are also a number of pagan celebrations, including: Festival of Trees, Alban Eilir, Ostara, and the Rites of Eostre (from which the word "Easter" is derived). They were mostly fertility rites celebrating the birth of Spring and the reawakening of life from the Earth. Lighting fires at sunrise, ringing bells, and decorating hard-boiled eggs were some of the ways the festival was celebrated The Spring Equinox was Christianised by the Church into the religious holiday of Easter. (No need to wait for Easter Sunday - eat your Easter Eggs today!)
4. In Scandinavia in olden times the Spring Equinox was a Dísablót or a sacrificial holiday when blood sacrifices were made to the female spirits, the disir and the Valkyries.
5. World Storytelling Day is celebrated worldwide on the Spring Equinox (the Autumn Equinox south of the equator). It is to celebrate the art of oral storytelling and the aim is to listen to as many stories as possible, ideally in several different languages.
6. Many Arab countries celebrate Mother's Day today.
7. In Japan, Vernal Equinox Day is a national holiday where families get together for reunions, and visiting the graves of their ancestors.
8. Proposal Day is celebrated on the vernal and autumnal equinoxes in the US. Single people are encouraged to propose marriage on this day, and to help them decide, a list of the ten most eligible singles in the world is released.
9. International Earth Day promotes responsibility to care for the planet. World Citizen Day is a similar idea, promoting worldwide responsibility.
10. In Annapolis, Maryland, boatyards and boat owners have a slightly bizarre tradition of burning their Socks. The idea behind this is that traditionally, the boating community only wear socks in the winter, and at the start of spring, they burn them. Then nobody wears socks again until the Autumn Equinox.

20th March: Buzzard Day

Today is Buzzard Day in Ohio, so here are 10 facts you may not know about Buzzards.

Buzzard on a telegraph pole in Wraxall, Somerset,
by Matt Buck

1. These birds have variable plumage, from brown to almost white.
2. Buzzards can grow over 50cm long with a wingspan of up to 137cm.
3. The buzzard's cry sounds like a cat miaowing.
4. Their favourite food is rabbits and other small mammals, but they sometimes eat worms, frogs and large insects, and don't turn their noses up at carrion if they happen to find it in their territory.
5. Buzzards breed in every European country except Iceland.
6. To attract a mate, the male buzzard performs an aerial "roller coaster" display, rising high in the sky and plummeting downwards, several times.
7. Once they find a mate, it is for life.
8. A pair of buzzards may have as many as 21 nest sites, using a different one every year.
9. Buzzards' eggs are white or bluish-white with blotches of red-brown and pale lilac. Incubation lasts for 33-35 days. There are usually 2 or 3 in a clutch, but clutches of up to 6 have been recorded.
10. When they have built their nests, buzzards decorate them with green leaves and foliage, which they regularly refresh.

19th March: Opening of Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge, (aka "The Coathanger") was officially opened on this date in 1932. 10 things you may not know about Sydney Harbour Bridge.

1. 79% of the steel used to build the bridge was imported from England. Only 21% was sourced in Australia.
2. There was a big celebration when the arches joined in the middle in August 1930. The Australian and British flags were flown from the cranes.
3. At the opening ceremony, before New South Wales Premier John T. Lang could officially open the bridge, a military captain, Francis de Groot, rode up on his horse and slashed the ribbon, declaring "I open this bridge in the name of His Majesty the King and all the decent citizens of New South Wales." He represented a paramilitary group who believed that the English King, George V, not Lang, should have opened the bridge. De Groot was arrested, and the ribbon was tied back together so that Lang could cut it as planned.
4. 30,000 gallons of paint are needed to paint the steelwork. They use special paint which dries so fast that it is dry before it hits the ground, or someone's car.
5. Actor Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) worked as a Sydney Harbour Bridge painter before he was famous.
6. The iconic bridge has always attracted tourists. As well as exhibitions and guided climbs, in the 1940s a big attraction was a rooftop cattery in one of the pylons, where the then owner, Yvonne Rentoul, kept several white cats.
7. The road that runs across the bridge is called the Bradfield Highway, after JJC Bradfield who oversaw the construction of the bridge. It is 2.4km long (1.5 miles) making it one of the shortest highways in Australia.
8. The top of the arch rises and falls about 180 mm due to changes in the temperature.
9. The steelwork of the bridge weighs 52,800 tonnes. This includes 6,000,000 rivets. The height of the bridge is 134m (440ft) making it the tallest steel arch bridge in the world. At 48.8m (160ft) wide, it was also the widest long span bridge in the world, until its record was beaten by the Port Mann Bridge in Vancouver.
10. About 800 homes were demolished to make way for the bridge, and the families who lost their homes were not compensated. Sixteen workers lost their lives during the construction.

18th March: Wilfred Owen's birthday

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen MC was born on this date in 1893. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His best-known works include "Dulce et Decorum Est", "Insensibility", "Anthem for Doomed Youth", "Futility" and "Strange Meeting". Here are 10 things you may not know about Wilfred Owen:

1. When World War I broke out, Owen was teaching in France, and considered joining the French army - but returned to England and joined the British army in 1915.
2. As a young man, Owen worked as lay assistant to the Vicar of Dunsden near Reading.
3. During his first commission as a second lieutenant in the Manchester Regiment, he was not overly impressed with the men he was commanding. He wrote to his mother describing them as "expressionless lumps"!
4. After a close encounter with a trench mortar, he was diagnosed with shell shock and sent home to recover. While in hospital in Edinburgh, he met another poet, Siegfried Sassoon, who became his mentor and lifelong friend.
5. At the same time, Owen's therapist encouraged him to turn his experiences and his nightmares into poetry. He had been writing poetry since the age of 10, but this was no doubt the start of his career as a war poet.
6. When he returned to active service in 1918, Owen did not tell his friend Siegfried Sassoon, as he knew Sassoon was opposed to him doing so, when he could have remained on home duty until the end of the war. In fact, Sassoon had threatened to "stab him in the leg" if he tried to go back to the fighting. Owen felt strongly that he needed to continue to witness the horrors of war and communicate them though his poetry.
7. Owen was shot and killed a week before the end of the war, aged just 25. The news of his death reached his parents on Armistice Day.
8. Owen aspired to win a Military Cross, because he felt it would make him more credible as a war poet. He was awarded the medal after his death.
9. Scholars suggest that Owen may have been gay and his relationship with Sassoon went further than friendship. However, they cannot be sure since Owen's brother, Harold, edited his letters and diaries and removed anything he felt was discreditable.
10. A line from one of his poems is inscribed on Westminster Abbey's memorial to 16 great war poets (of which Owen is one). It reads: "My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity."

17th March: St Patrick's Day

10 things you may not know about St Patrick.

1. He wasn't Irish. Although nobody is really sure where he was born, what information there is suggests he was born in England (possibly Cumbria) or possibly in Scotland or Wales.
2. He was captured by Irish pirates at the age of 16. They took him to Ireland and held him prisoner for six years, during which he had plenty of time to think about spiritual things, and it was while he was held captive that he became a Christian.
3. His birth name was not Patrick. It was Maewyn Succat. When he became a priest, he changed his name to Patricius, from the Latin for "father figure", which eventually evolved into "Patrick".
4. After six years, he ran away and persuaded the captain of a ship to take him back to England, where he stayed for several years, studying Christianity, before eventually returning to Ireland as a missionary. He also spent some time as a prisoner in France.
5. The shamrock was a sacred symbol before St Patrick used it in a sermon to illustrate the Holy Trinity. It represented rebirth and eternal life, and also the three goddesses, Brigid, Eriu and the Morrigan. The word "Shamrock" means "young clover".
6. St Patrick's best known miracle, driving the snakes from Ireland, may not have involved the actual animals at all as there is no biological evidence that there ever were any Snakes in Ireland. The "snakes" he drove out were more likely to have been people - one theory is that they were actually the local Druids, who used to have snake tattoos on their arms.
7. Another legend says that St Patrick used to stick his staff in the ground while he was preaching, and in one place, (Aspatria, meaning Ash of Patrick) his sermon was so long that the staff took root!
8. St Patrick was never formally canonised by a pope - this is because in St Patrick's time, the rules about how people became saints were different. The local church then had the power to declare especially holy people saints and celebrate them.
9. Ireland is not the only place that has claimed St Patrick as patron saint. He is also the patron saint of Nigeria, Montserrat, Boston, Rolla, Missouri (USA), Loíza, Puerto Rico and Murcia (Spain). He is also the patron of engineers and paralegals and is invoked against snakes, sins, and witchcraft.
10. He is the primary patron saint of Ireland, but not the only one. Saints Brigid and Columba are also patron saints of Ireland.

Before you go

Check out what else I write!

Death and Faxes

Several women have been found murdered - it looks like the work of a ruthless serial killer. Psychic medium Maggie Flynn is one of the resources DI Jamie Swan has come to value in such cases - but Maggie is dead, leaving him with only the telephone number of the woman she saw as her successor, her granddaughter, Tabitha Drake.

Tabitha, grief-stricken by Maggie's death and suffering a crisis of confidence in her ability, wants nothing to do with solving murder cases. She wants to hold on to her job and find Mr Right (not necessarily in that order); so when DI Swan first contacts her, she refuses to get involved.

The ghosts of the victims have other ideas. They are anxious for the killer to be caught and for names to be cleared - and they won't leave Tabitha alone. It isn't long before Tabitha is drawn in so deeply that her own life is on the line.

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

Or get the E-book: Amazon Kindle (Where you can use the "Look Inside" function and read the first few pages for free!)

Glastonbury Swan

Every few weeks, there is a mysterious death in Glastonbury. They seem completely unrelated - an apparent suicide, a hit and run, a drug overdose, a magic act which goes horribly wrong - but is that what the killer wants people to think?

The police are certainly convinced - but one of the victims is communicating to medium Tabitha Drake that the deaths are linked.

Who is killing all these people and why? 

This is what Tabitha has to figure out - before it is too late to save someone very dear to her.

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

Jigsaw

Within these covers you will find murder, mayhem, ghosts, romance, dungeons and dragons and alien vampire bunnies.


Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon 

E-book Amazon Kindle

New! From A Jack To A King

A royal palace is burning. The King and Queen are dead. The only hopes for an ancient dynasty flee to England for their lives.

A boy runs from his mother and the people he believes want to mutilate him, and vanishes, seemingly forever.

Gary Winchcombe, the experimental "super-cop" pursues a notorious gang of bank robbers, and starts to discover that his friends and neighbours have secrets he never could have imagined.

Tod Reynard wants to turn his life around. When he meets and falls in love with the beautiful Jade, he knows she might just be the one to help him change his life for the better. He cannot possibly know just how much.

When Jade's twin sister Gloria is kidnapped, old rivalries must be put aside and new associations formed in order to save Gloria's life and restore the rightful order of things.

Available from: Createspace, Amazon, Amazon Kindle

I have plenty more stories to tell, but I don't know yet which will win the race to the end of the pipeline. If you'd like to know:

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Read short stories and book excerpts on My writing blog

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March 16th: Henny Youngman's Birthday

Henny Youngman, comedian and violinist famous for one liners, was born on this day in 1906. Here are 10 of his famous one liners:

"So much for skydiving..."

1. I once wanted to become an atheist, but I gave up - they have no holidays.
2. When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.
3. I told the doctor I broke my leg in two places. He told me to quit going to those places.
4. If at first you don't succeed... so much for skydiving.
5. My grandmother is over eighty and still doesn't need glasses. Drinks right out of the bottle.
6. Take my wife... Please!
7. My wife dresses to kill. She cooks the same way.
8. “A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says "You've been brought here for drinking." The drunk says "Okay, let's get started.”
9. When you battle with your conscience and lose, you win.
10. Some have been thought brave because they were afraid to run away.