31 August: Grape Blessing Day

Today is Grape Blessing Day in Armenia. 10 things you might not know about grapes.

1. In botanical terms, a grape is a berry rather than a fruit.
2. We get the word grape from the French word for a bunch of grapes (une grappe de raisins). Raisin is the French word for a fresh grape, but in English is used to refer to a dried grape. The word currant refers to a particular type of dried grape, a Corinth grape, and a sultana was originally a dried Sultana grape from Turkey.
3. Whether the grapes are grown for making Wine or to eat, they come from the same species of vine - Vitis vinifera. The vines will have been selectively bred for the characteristics of eating or wine-making grapes. Eating grapes tend to be larger with thinner skins and are more likely to be seedless.
4. It is thanks to grape harvests in Norman times that we have the word "vacation". William the Conqueror introduced a custom to the UK whereby people would move to a summer home in order to pick the grapes - "vacating" their usual residence.
5. Grapes are first mentioned in the Bible when Noah grows them on his farm.
6. In Spain, there is a tradition in which people eat a grape for every strike of the bell at midnight on December 31st.
7. If you slice a grape and put it in the Microwave, it might explode into a fireball of super-heated plasma. Something to do with the little flap of skin connecting the two halves drying out and sparking. You can see a demonstration here.
8. There is a grape vine in Slovenia which is over 500 years old. Having survived the Napoleonic wars and two world wars, 100 bottles of wine are still produced from it each year.
9. Never feed grapes to your dog. Grapes, and indeed raisins, are extremely toxic to them. Grapes cause kidney failure in dogs.
10. Seedless grapes are the result of a mutation which prevents the seeds from forming properly. On the subject of the seeds, although they might not taste as nice as the grape, they are edible and actually very good for you. They've been found to contain properties which fight acne, asthma, arthritis, fat and even cancer.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

30 August: Honolulu

On this date in 1850, Honolulu, Hawaii became a city. 10 things you might not know about Honolulu.

1. The name Honolulu means "sheltered port".
2. The city's nicknames include Crossroads of the Pacific and the Big Pineapple.
3. It is the most remote city in the USA, the nearest mainland point to it being a lighthouse in California, 2,045 miles/3,787km away. That said, parts of Mexico and Alaska are slightly nearer.
4. The first European to visit was British captain William Brown, who sailed into the harbour in 1794.
5. Honolulu is the only city in the US to have a royal palace (The Iolani palace, today a government building which is open to the public). The palace had electric lights four years before the White House did.
6. It also has the largest concentration of Buddhist temples than any other Western city - more than 33 of them.
7. Honolulu's symphony orchestra is the second oldest in the US, founded in 1900.
8. Honolulu has the worst traffic congestion in the US, worse even than Los Angeles. Honolulu drivers waste on average 58 hours a year stuck in traffic jams.
9. Honolulu has 29 sister cities, including Bombay, Hiroshima, Tokyo, Manila, Caracas and Mombasa.
10. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Honolulu was 52 degrees F.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

29 August: Lemon Juice Day

Today is Lemon Juice Day. Here are ten things you might not know about lemons.

1. The word "lemon" is said to come from an Asian word for a citrus fruit.
2. Lemons are thought to be native to India, Burma or China, a hybrid between bitter Orange and citron. Lemons were first mentioned in writing as part of a 10th century Arabic treatise on farming.
3. The average lemon contains eight seeds and three tablespoons of juice.
4. Lemon juice is 5% citric acid. Its pH is about 2.2, which is why it tastes sour.
5. Lemons used to be rare and expensive - kings used to give them as gifts and they were highly prized during the California Gold Rush where miners would pay very high prices for them. In Victorian times, wealthy people grew them on their estates as a sign of prestige, and for the fragrance.
6. Lemon juice was used by Renaissance ladies to redden their Lips. Today, lemon juice can be put on your Hair to give it natural highlights.
7. A lemon tree can produce 600 pounds of lemons each year. The trees can grow up to 20 feet tall.
8. Sprinkling lemon juice on other fruits can stop them from turning brown.
9. Common varieties of lemon include Bonnie Brae, Eureka (the one most commonly found in supermarkets), Sorrento and Yen Ben.
10. Other uses for lemon juice include cleaning Copper, and, when mixed with baking Soda, plastic food containers. It is possible to power a small digital watch by attaching electrodes to a lemon. Lemon juice can also be used as invisible ink - apply heat in order to read the message.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

28 August: Worcester Sauce

On this date in 1837 Pharmacists John Lea and William Perrins of Worcester, England began the manufacture of Worcester Sauce. 10 things you might not know about this condiment.

1. It is made by dissolving anchovies, bones and all, in vinegar. Other ingredients include Garlic, Onion, molasses and spices (likely to be Cloves, peppers and soy sauce).
2. Dishes it may be used to flavour include Welsh rarebit, beef stews, steaks, Hamburgers, Oysters and devilled Eggs. It's also an ingredient of the Bloody Mary cocktail.
3. A similar sauce called garum was consumed by the Greeks and Romans. Pliny the Elder wrote about it.
4. The recipe is said to have been passed on to Messrs Lea and Perrins by one Lord Marcus Sandys, who discovered it while he was serving as the governor of Bengal in India.
5. Lea and Perrins were both pharmacists whose original business was a chemist's shop.
6. It's said that the first time they had the stuff made according to the Indian recipe, it tasted disgusting and they abandoned it, leaving a barrel in the basement, where, over time, it fermented. When they needed to make room in the cellar, some brave soul decided to sample some of the sauce and discovered that it was now palatable. By 1838, they were selling it to the public.
7. In Spain, they call it "salsa inglesia", which means "English sauce".
8. In 1876, Lea and Perrins attempted to trademark the name Worcestershire sauce, but the court declared that the county name could not be trademarked. Hence other companies can make Worcestershire sauce and use the name.
9. The list of ingredients and some notes by Lea and Perrins was discovered in a skip in 2009. Accountant Brian Keogh rescued the document which is now on display in the Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum.
10. Since it's made from fish, People who are allergic to fish, vegetarians and vegans can't eat it. Orthodox Jews, who cannot eat meat and fish in the same dish, cannot use it to flavour meat. There are some companies, however, which make a fish free version.

NEW!

Obsidian's Ark

Teenage years bring no end of problems. Daniel Moran's include getting hold of computer games his parents don't think he should have; a full blown crush on the beautiful Suki from Zorostan; maintaining his status as a prefect and getting his homework done. He must also keep from his parents and sister the fact that he is a superhero with a sword from another world.

Trish wonders how to get science whizz Tom to notice her; how to persuade him that the best way to stand up to the school bully is to fight back. She doesn't want her friends, especially not Tom, to know she is a genetic variant with superpowers. Little does she know that Tom has secrets of his own.

Suki struggles to make friends at school when she cannot understand everyday cultural references, and they all suspect her of being a terrorist. She, too, has a secret, but is it what her classmates assume?

When Daniel stumbles upon a plot by an alliance of supervillains to plunge the world into war, he tries to alert the established superheroes, but none of them believe him. When the Prime Minister's only daughter, Yasmin Miller, is abducted, Daniel knows the villains' plan is underway. It seems humanity's only hope may be Daniel and the ragtag bunch of teenage superheroes he recruits. Can he pull together, not only his own team, but the older heroes as well, in a bid to save the Earth from a devastating war?

Themes: 

Superheroes; Coming of age; Leadership; Kidnap and rescue; Aliens; Friendship and rivalry; Terrorism; Secrets.

Reasons not to read it

• Even more superheroes.
• These new superheores are teenagers. Superhero-sized teenage angst.
• The villains are joining forces.
• There's a villain who's even kind to people occasionally.
• Yet another book set partly in a school, with teachers, bullies, exams etc

Available from:

Amazon

Amazon Kindle

27 August: Krakatoa

On 27 August 1883 the East Indian island volcano Krakatoa in the Sundra Strait, between Java and Sumatra erupted, one of the deadliest volcanic eruptions in modern history. 10 facts about this event:

1. The volcanic activity actually started in May 1883 when people aboard a passing ship from Germany called the Elizabeth spotted 6 mile (9.6km) high clouds of ash above the volcano. For the next couple of months, it was something of a tourist attraction with sightseeing boats being chartered to view it and people on the islands holding festivals to celebrate the light shows in the sky at night. Little did they know.
2. The first blast of the main eruption took place on 26 August sending a cloud of gas 15 miles (24km) into the sky. It's thought that debris from that eruption blocked the neck of the volcano's cone, causing pressure to build, making the main eruption on the 27th all the more destructive.
3. Krakatoa, also sometimes known as Krakatau, is located in the strait between Java and Sumatra, part of the Indonesian Island Arc. Before the eruption there were three volcanic peaks there, part of an undersea caldera from a previous huge eruption.
4. The explosion caused by the eruption was ten thousand times more explosive than the bomb dropped on Hiroshima. It was rated 6 on the Volcanic Explosion Index. In comparison, the Mount St Helens explosion in 1980 was a 5, ten times less explosive.
5. The explosion was heard in Perth in Australia, 2,800 miles/4,500km away. The shock waves from it circled the planet. picked up by barographs all over the world, at least seven times. The shock waves caused larger than normal waves as far away as the English Channel.
6. More than 36,000 people were killed, not only from the blast itself but also from the tsunami the collapse of the volcano into the sea caused. Small islands nearby were completely overwhelmed by a 120 foot tall wall of water which completely destroyed 165 villages. A steamship called the Berouw was carried a mile inland, killing everyone on board. The Loudon, another ship anchored nearby, was saved thanks to its quick thinking captain who managed to turn the bow of the ship towards the wave and ride over the crest.
7. According to one account, a German quarry manager who was swept from the roof of his office building by the wave, survived by grabbing hold of an enormous Crocodile which was being swept along beside him, climbing onto its back and holding on by digging his thumbs into its eye sockets. 3km later the wave broke and the man let go of the crocodile and ran for his life, living to tell the tale.
8. The effects of the explosion were observed and felt for years afterwards. Average global temperatures dropped by 1.2 degrees for the next five years.
9. It also changed the colour of the sky for about three years afterwards. Sunsets became more spectacular and vivid even in Europe and the United States as sulphur dioxide and other gases filtered the amount of sunlight reaching Earth. It's now believed that the sky in Edvard Munch's painting, The Scream, is of a Krakatoa sunset in Norway. The moon appeared Blue or Green for years as particles in the ash clouds scattered Red light. Lavender suns were also observed.
10. There is still an active volcano in the area. Some years after the eruption, in 1927, a new volcanic cone appeared which was named Anak Krakatoa, or Child of Krakatoa. It erupts from time to time, although so far, only mildly, registering 1 on the VEI scale.

My latest books

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two

              

26 August: Robert Walpole

Robert Walpole, British statesman, generally regarded as the first Prime Minister of Great Britain, was born on this date in 1676. Here are 10 things you might not know about him.

1. Although he's generally regarded as Britain's first Prime Minister, the term Prime Minister for the job(s) Walpole did wasn't used until 1905 - the first Prime Minister to call himself that was Henry Campbell-Bannerman. In any case, Walpole did the job for over 20 years, making him the longest-serving British prime minister in history.
2. Walpole was born in Houghton, Norfolk. His father was also called Robert Walpole, a member of the local gentry, and his mother was Mary, the daughter and heiress of Sir Geoffrey Burwell of Rougham, Suffolk. He was one of nineteen children.
3. He was the third son, and initially, he wanted to become a clergyman. He went to a private school at Massingham, Norfolk, then Eton and then Cambridge. However, he left Cambridge after two years because both his elder brothers had died. His ambition to enter the church had to be put aside as he was now heir to the family estate.
4. His father was a politician too, the Whig MP for Castle Rising. At 24, The young Robert Walpole won that seat himself, in 1701. He left after about a year in order to represent the neighbouring borough of King's Lynn. At the time, King's Lynn was a "pocket borough" which means most of the electorate were tenants of one person. There were no secret ballots back then so tenants risked getting evicted if they didn't vote the way their landlord told them to. So the fact he kept getting re-elected here for years and years might not have been such a great achievement!
5. Robert Walpole was nicknamed "Robin". His administration was sometimes called the "Robinocracy" or as the "Robinarchy". The nursery rhyme, "Who Killed Cock Robin?" is thought to refer to Robert Walpole's eventual downfall.
6. He was married twice, first to Catherine Shorter, who was described as being very beautiful with good manners. She came with a £20,000 dowry that according to Robert's brother Horatio, was used to pay for the wedding, subsequent christenings and jewellery. Catherine died in 1737 but Walpole had, by this time, already moved in with a mistress called Maria Skerrett, a socialite. He married her within a year of the death of his first wife.
7. Ten Downing Street was a gift to Walpole from George II, which Wapole accepted only as an official London residence for the First Lord of the Treasury (a title held by British Prime Ministers to this day). At first, his successors didn't always live there, often preferring their own larger country houses. However, today, it is the official residence of the Prime Minister of Great Britain.
8. Despite the fact that George II gave Robert Walpole a house, they didn't always get on particularly well. When he first inherited the throne, George wanted to fire him, but was persuaded not to by Queen Caroline.
9. Some of the things Walpole did while in office included consolidating the National Debt, introducing excise duty on Wine, tobacco and Gin (not popular with the merchant classes), bringing in regulation of theatres (not popular with the literary classes). He was committed to avoiding war and even managed to influence George II not to get involved in wars in Europe.
10. When his career as prime minister ended in 1842, he was made 1st Earl of Orford. His retirement only lasted about three years, during which time he enjoyed hunting (though not as often as he would have liked because the weather wasn't always in his favour) and collecting art. He died in London at the age of 68.

My latest books

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two

              

25 August: Frederick Forsyth Quotes

Author Frederick Forsyth was born on this date in 1938. Some quotes from him on writing, flight, secrets and more.

1. The stubbornness of a weak man should never be underestimated. The weak tend to be very stubborn when they've decided on something.
2. The last of the lonely places is the sky, a trackless void where nothing lives or grows, and above it, space itself. Man may have been destined to walk upon ice or sand, or climb the mountains or take craft upon the sea. But surely he was never meant to fly? But he does, and finding out how to do it was his last great adventure.
3. On Foreign Secretary Robin Cook: If a man cannot keep a measly affair secret, what is he doing in charge of the Intelligence Service?
4. There is no collective guilt,...guilt is individual, like salvation.
5. To understand everything is to forgive everything.
6. A journalist should never join the Establishment, no matter how tempting the blandishments. It is our job to hold power to account, not join it.
7. It was not his job to ensure that his soldiers died for their country. It was his job to make sure the other poor bastards died for theirs.
8. There are several ways of making quick money but in the general list, writing a novel rates well below robbing a bank.
9. I'm slightly mercenary. I write for money.
10. The British have always coped without becoming a dictatorship.

My latest books

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two

              

24 August: Kolkata (formerly Calcutta)

On this date in 1690, Kolkata (formerly Calcutta), the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, was founded when Job Charnock, an employee of the English East India Company went to a small fishing village called Kolikata to establish a base for the company. The current city grew from there. It was known as Calcutta until 2001 when the name of the city was changed to Kolkata.

1. The name derives from the land of the goddess Kali. She is considered the patron deity of the city and there is a festival held in her honour during October and November.
2. Nicknames given to the city include City of Joy, "City of Dreadful Light" (from a poem by Rudyard Kipling, who visited as a newspaper correspondent), "City of Furious, Creative Energy", City of Palaces, City of Processions and the Cultural Capital of India.
3. The river Hooghly runs through the middle of the city, which is located in the Ganges River Basin. Between Kolkata and the Bay of Bengal is the Sundarbans National Park, home to man-eating Tigers.
4. It has the oldest golf club in India, the Royal Calcutta Golf Club, founded in 1829. Its polo club is the oldest in the world.
5. Rabindranath Tagore, the first Asian winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, was born there in 1861. Today there is a bridge named after him, the Rabindra Setu.
6. It was the adopted home of the Albanian nun Mother Teresa. She arrived in Calcutta in 1931 and devoted her life to helping the poor and needy there. The Kalighat metro station contains a large mosaic of her.
7. In the Botanical Garden there is the Great Banyan tree, which is over 250 years old and is the largest tree in the world in terms of area covered.
8. One of Kolkata's darkest days in history was the Black Hole of Calcutta. The Black Hole was a dungeon cell in Fort William, which was built by the British to defend their trading interests. It was 18 feet by 14 feet (5.5m x 4m), designed to hold two prisoners. However, on 20 June 1756 when the fort was captured by the Bengali Nawab army, 146 people were thrown into the cell. Only 23 came out alive. Today there is an obelisk in memory of the people who died in the Black Hole.
9. Kolkata's sister cities include Karachi in Pakistan, Naples in Italy and Dallas, Texas.
10. Kolkata has one of the largest book fairs in the world. The second hand book market in College Street is the second largest in the world and it's said you can find any book which has ever existed in there if you look hard enough!

My latest books

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two

              

23 August: Pearls

On 23 August 2016 Philippine officials recovered the biggest natural pearl in the world — weighing 34kg (75 lb). The Pearl of Puerto, or Pearl of Puerto Princesa was found in the Philippines sea by a Filipino fisherman, who kept it under his bed as a good luck charm. The officials discovered it after his house burned down (not so lucky, then!) It measures 2.2 feet (67 cm) long, 1 foot (30 cm) wide and is valued at $100 million. 10 things you might not know about pearls.

1. Pearls are the only jewels created by living animals. All other gemstones form in the Earth’s crust as magma cools under high pressure. Pearls are made from a substance called nacre, which is produced by a mollusc in response to damage or injury. Nacre is made mainly of calcium carbonate.
2. Calcium carbonate dissolves in vinegar, and hence so would a pearl. There is a legend which tells of how Cleopatra won a bet with Mark Antony that she could host the most expensive dinner party ever. She took one of her pearl earrings (made from one of the largest pearls in existence at the time) dropped it in strong vinegar and drank the resulting mixture, the most expensive cocktail ever (and possibly the most disgusting tasting one as well!)
3. We tend to associate pearls with Oysters, but other shelled molluscs can produce them, too. The bailer shell Melo, the giant clam Tridacna, various scallop species, Pen shells Pinna, and the Haliotis iris species of abalone all produce gemstone quality pearls. Mussels produce pearls, too, and this is what is said to have prompted Julius Caesar to invade Britain, because pearl forming mussels were found in rivers. They still are, but harvesting the pearls has been banned since 1998 because river mussels are now endangered. Other molluscs produce objects that are technically pearls but have no value except as curiosities.
4. A pearl of sufficient quality to make jewellery is only found in one in every 10,000 wild oysters. Hence pearls have been highly prized and expensive in the past. They were so expensive that Julius Caesar created a law that prohibited anyone below the ruling class to wear them. At one time the economy of Kuwait was heavily dependent on pearl fishing. While a pearl might bring in a substantial sum, pearl diving was a risky business. Divers risked not only contracting the bends but being attacked by Sharks as well. 50% of them died in the attempt to find the pearl that would make them their fortune. It's less risky now there is health and safety! In terms of weight, 10 times more diamonds are produced per year than natural pearls.
5. The word pearl derives from the Latin word for a thigh bone, because that was the shape of the mollusc pearls came from. Pearl is also a name which is often given to girls. It was very popular in the US between 1880 and 1911 but fell out of favour in the 1960s. In 2012 Pearl was the 322nd most popular name given to baby girls in England and Wales. The old Persian word for a pearl also gives us another very popular female name - Margaret, and all its derivatives (Marguerite, Maggie, Peggy, etc).
6. 99% of the pearls on the market today are cultured. The process of cultivating pearls was invented by Kokichi Mikimoto and patented in 1896. Pearls were now in reach of people with more modest incomes. The economy of Kuwait suffered greatly from this (but then oil was discovered there). Mikomoto was quoted saying that his dream was to “adorn the necks of all women around the world with pearls.” The island on which he pioneered the process was called Ojima, but the name was changed to Mikimoto Pearl Island.
7. It takes between 6 and 24 months for a pearl to grow. Pearls grow as layers of nacre form around the irritation. It is the layers which cause the unique lustre of pearls, which varies according to the thickness of the layers. They break up the light falling on the surface; the thinner and more numerous the layers are, the more lustrous the pearl.
8. Pearls have been seen as precious since 2300 B.C. - records mentioning pearls have been found in Mesopotamia dating back that far. The oldest pearl ever found was discovered in a tomb in the United Arab Emirates in 2012 and was dubbed Umm al Quwain after the region it was found in. Scientists used carbon dating to determine that the pearl was over 7,500 years old.
9. Pearls even have a special measure of weight, called the momme, which was originally a weight measure used in Japan. In today's parlance a momme equals 3.75 grams.
10. Pearls are mentioned in one of the parables of Jesus where a merchant finds a "pearl of great price" and sells everything he has in order to buy it. This represents the kingdom of Heaven. It was this parable which inspired Hester Prynne, heroine of Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1850 novel The Scarlet Letter, to name her illegitimate daughter Pearl because she was "of great price, purchased with all she had, her mother's only treasure."

My latest books

Closing the Circle

A stable wormhole has been established between Earth and Infinitus. Power Blaster and his friends can finally go home.

Desi Troyes is still at large on Earth - Power Blaster has vowed to bring him to justice. His wedding to Shanna is under threat as the Desperadoes launch an attempt to rescue their leader. 

Someone from Power Blaster's past plays an unexpected and significant role in capturing Troyes.

The return home brings its own challenges. Not everyone can return to the life they left behind, and for some, there is unfinished business to be dealt with before they can start anew.

Ben Cole in particular cannot resume his old life as a surgeon because technology no longer works around him. He plans a new life in Classica, away from technology. Shanna hears there could be a way to reverse his condition and sets out to find it, putting herself in great danger. She doesn't know she is about to uncover the secret of Power Blaster's mysterious past.

Available from:

Amazon (Paperback)

Amazon Kindle

Completes The Raiders Trilogy. 

Other books in the series:

Book One

Book Two