1 November: The Tempest

On this date in 1611, Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest was first presented at Whitehall Palace in London.

1. The play was first performed for James I as part of a season of festivities celebrating the marriage of his daughter Princess Elizabeth to Frederick V, the Elector of the Palatinate of the Rhine.

2. We don’t know for sure exactly when it was written but evidence supports the idea that it was probably composed sometime between late 1610 to mid-1611. It’s thought that Shakespeare was planning to retire at this time and that he intended it to be his last play. He did, however, go on to write two more, Henry VIII and The Two Noble Kinsmen, although these were a collaboration with John Fletcher who worked in The King’s Men acting company with Shakespeare and became the lead playwright after his death. Hence The Tempest is considered the last play written entirely by Shakespeare.

3. The play may have been inspired by a real shipwreck which took place in 1609 and was widely reported at the time. The ship was called the Sea Venture which was en route to Virginia. The ship ship ran aground on the island of Bermuda stranding its crew on the deserted island. The Tempest begins with a storm and a shipwreck which strands Prospero and his infant daughter Miranda on a desert island, and this is the reason for the title of the play.

4. Prospero was a duke who had been usurped by his brother and had escaped by boat. After the wreck, he uses magic to enslave a spirit named Ariel and Caliban, who lives on the island. After twelve years a ship carrying Antonio, the treacherous brother, passes by. Prospero decides to get revenge by creating a storm so that Antonio gets marooned as well along with Alonso, King of Naples, his heir, Ferdinand, and members of the royal court. Prospero decides that Miranda, now 15, should marry Ferdinand. Luckily for Miranda, she meets Ferdinand on the island and falls in love with him. Prospero arranges a wedding masque to celebrate the engagement. Eventually Prospero forgives all those who have wronged him and they all sail away from the island with Ariel making sure the weather remains fine for their journey. After this, Ariel is set free and Miranda marries her prince.

5. Miranda is the only female character in The Tempest, which means it has the fewest female characters of Shakespeare’s plays. Ariel is sometimes interpreted as a female spirit, and there have been numerous productions where Prospero is portrayed as a woman.

6. The Tempest has more music in it than any other Shakespeare play. Full Fathom Five and Where The Bee Sucks There Suck I are two songs which may have been sung in the play, attributed to Robert Johnson, who regularly composed for the King's Men. Hence The Tempest has been produced as an opera at least 46 times. Arthur Sullivan and Jean Sibelius are among the composers who have written incidental music for the play in later productions.

7. Modern interpretations have often set stories based on this play in space, with characters becoming stranded on other planets. For example, 1956 science fiction film Forbidden Planet in which Professor Morbius and his daughter Altaira are the Prospero and Miranda figures and Ariel is represented by Robbie the Robot. An episode of Star Trek in 1969, Requiem for Methuselah, is another example. The planet Holberg 917-G. Is the setting. The Prospero figure is Flint, an immortal man who has isolated himself from humanity and has advanced technology that borders on magic. Flint's young ward Rayna Kapec is Miranda, and Ariel is again represented by a robot, this time called M4.

8. Staying in space for a moment, 24 of the 27 known moons of Uranus are named after characters from Shakespeare, with more named after characters in The Tempest than any other play. The moon called Ariel, however, was named for a character called Ariel from Alexander Pope’s poem The Rape of the Lock.

9. This play gave us the expressions “brave new world”, “into thin air” and “in a pickle”.

10. Sir John Gielgud played Prospero many times, and is, according to Douglas Brode, "universally heralded as ... [the 20th] century's greatest stage Prospero".

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

31 October: Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween! 10 facts about trick or treating for those braving the streets this evening!

1. Trick or treating has its roots in Scotland and Ireland in the Middle Ages, when it was known as "guising". Young people dressed up in costumes and went door-to-door looking for food or money in exchange for performing songs, poems or other "tricks."

2. In England in those times, “souling” was a tradition whereby children went from door to door on All Souls Day, offering prayers for residents’ deceased loved ones in exchange for food.

3. It could go back even further than that, to Ancient Greece. Ancient Greek writer Athenaeus of Naucratis wrote that, in ancient times, the Greek island of Rhodes had a custom in which children would go from door-to-door dressed as Swallows, singing a song, demanding the owners of the house give them food and threatening to cause mischief if the owners of the house refused.

4. Guising was first recorded in North America in 1911 when children were recorded as having done this in the province of Ontario, Canada. It was also in Ontario, in 1917 that use of the phrase “trick or treat” was first recorded.

5. Although the roots of trick or treat originated in Britain it wasn’t until the 1980s that it became popular in the UK, possibly thanks to it being featured in the film ET.

6. Not much trick or treating went on during the second world war because of Sugar rationing.

7. The most popular costumes for kids are princesses and superheroes, while adults like dressing up as Witches. In 2019, the most popular costume for dogs was a Pumpkin.

8. In Scandinavia, trick or treating is an Easter activity rather than a Halloween one.

9. Adults who relish the trick or treat tradition would be advised not to move to Bathhurst in Canada. Anyone over the age of 16 caught trick or treating is fined up to $200 and there’s an 8pm curfew for everyone on Halloween.

10. In Mexico the practice is called calaverita (Spanish diminutive for calavera, "Skull"), and instead of "trick or treat", children say, "¿Me da mi calaverita?" ("[Can you] give me my little skull?"), where a calaverita is a small skull made of sugar or Chocolate.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

30 October: Elsa Name Day

Today is the name day for people called Elsa.

Originally Elsa was simply a short form for the biblical name Elisabeth and some of its variants: Elisabet, Elisabetta and Elizabeth. The first records mentioning the name were in Sweden at the 15th century. 10 famous Elsas:

1. Elsa Lanchester: English-American actress, probably best known for playing the Bride of Frankenstein.

2. Elsa of Arendelle: fictional character who appears in Walt Disney Animation Studios' animated fantasy film Frozen.

3. Duchess Elsa of Württemberg: daughter of Duke Eugen of Württemberg and Grand Duchess Vera Constantinovna of Russia. She married Prince Albert of Schaumburg-Lippe.

4. Elsa Einstein: Albert Einstein's second wife.

5. Elsa Borg: Swedish educator and social worker. She is known for being the founder of the Christian Bible Home for women and its combined mission work and social work among the poor in Stockholm.

6. Elsa Lunghini: known as Elsa, French singer and actress. She was a teenage pop-star in the late-1980s. In 1986, she was the youngest singer to reach number one in the French charts, with the single T'en va pas.

7. Elsa the Lioness: subject of the book and film Born Free.

8. Elsa Baroness von Freytag-Loringhoven: German-born avant-garde visual artist and poet, active in Greenwich Village, New York, from 1913 to 1923, where her radical self-displays came to embody a living Dada. She was considered one of the most controversial and radical women artists of her time.

9. Elsa of Brabant: heroine of the Wagnerian opera Lohengrin.

10. Elsa Schiaparelli: Italian fashion designer from an aristocratic background. She created the house of Schiaparelli in Paris in 1927, which she managed from the 1930s to the 1950s. Starting with knitwear, Schiaparelli's designs celebrated Surrealism and eccentric fashions.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

29 October: Minder

This date in 1979 saw the first broadcast of Minder. Used car dealer Arthur Daley and his bodyguard Terry were the principal characters. 10 things you might not know about Minder.

1. Minder is a British comedy-drama about the London criminal underworld, devised by writer Leon Griffiths as a vehicle for Dennis Waterman after his success in The Sweeney.

2. The first seven series starred Dennis Waterman as Terry McCann, a former boxer who has served time in prison and becomes a bodyguard for Arthur Daley, an ageing chancer. This is where the title of the show comes from, as “Minder” is London slang for a bodyguard.

3. It was nearly cancelled after the first series as viewing figures weren’t that great. However, the management director felt positive about it and pressured them to commission one more season and to repeat the first. This time, it was much better received and became a huge hit. It eventually attracted around 17.5 million viewers in the U.K.

4. Episode titles were plays on film titles, e.g. Gunfight at the O.K. Launderette, Monday Night Fever, The Beer Hunter, The Wrong Goodbye, Guess Who's Coming to Pinner? There were 106 regular episodes and two feature length specials Minder On The Orient Express in 1985 and An Officer & A Car Salesman in 1988.

5. The theme tune was I Could Be So Good for You, written in 1979 by Gerard Kenny and Patricia Waterman, sung by Dennis Waterman. It was released as a single in October 1979, credited to 'Dennis Waterman with the Dennis Waterman Band'. There was also a Christmas record in 1983 called What are We Gonna Get 'Er Indoors? By George Cole and Dennis Waterman.

6. ‘Er indoors was one of a number of Arthur Daley’s expressions which passed into everyday language, meaning his wife. Others include "A nice little earner" (a profitable task), "give him a little slap" (beat him up), and Arthur Daley himself entered popular vocabulary to mean an unscrupulous wheeler-dealer.

7. Arthur’s misquotes and use of rhyming slang were features of the show. One example is "the world is your Lobster", which was used by George Cole, who played him, as the title of his autobiography, The World Was My Lobster.

8. Dennis Waterman met his wife, Rula Lenska, on set when she played a model in 1982.

9. The best known car from the series is a white 1976 Mark II Ford Capri 2.0S, reg number SLE 71R, which is driven by Terry in the opening titles. The car is often seen today at various motor enthusiast events in the UK. In July 2005, Terry's Capri was voted the 28th Greatest TV car ever by British Sky satellite TV viewers.

10. In 2009 the show was revived on Channel 5 after a 15 year break. This show focused on Arthur's nephew Archie, played by Shane Richie, and a new minder, Jamie Cartwright, played by Lex Shrapnel.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

28 October: Adam and Eve

According to the biblical calculations of Archbishop James Ussher, it was on this date in 4004BC that Adam and Eve were created. 10 facts about Adam and Eve:

1. Adam’s name is generally taken to mean man, or mankind. It is closely related to a word in Hebrew which means dust, hence he is named after the stuff he was made from.

2. Eve’s name derives from the Hebrew name ‘Chavah’, which means to give life.

3. Chances are you know the story that Eve was tempted by the serpent to eat an Apple, giving her the knowledge of good and evil which she then shared with Adam, disobeying a direct order from God not to eat the fruit. However, in The Bible, there’s no actual mention of the fruit being an apple. Genesis 2:17 only refers to it as the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. So why do we always assume it’s an apple? Well, it’s probably a lost in translation thing. The Latin word for evil is “malum” but the same word also means apple, and at some point the two were blended together.

4. In the Old Testament, after the creation story, Adam and Eve are only mentioned one more time, a genealogical reference in I Chronicles 1:1.

5. Adam lived to the grand old age of 930. Nobody knows how old Eve was when she died.

6. How many children did they have? Accounts vary. The Genesis story only mentions three, Abel, who was killed by Cain, and Seth. Other traditions say there were six, the aforementioned three plus another son and two daughters whose names were Azura, Awan and Luluwa. Islamic tradition states that Eve eventually bore 20 sets of twins, and Adam had 40,000 offspring before he died.

7. Both Adam and Eve are recognised as saints. They share a feast day on 24 December, which has been celebrated since Medieval times. The date was chosen for them because it’s the day before Christmas, the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Adam is the patron saint of gardeners and tailors.

8. Their punishment for eating the fruit was to be banished from the Garden of Eden where their every need was catered for. Adam’s punishment was that he had to toil for his food now, and Eve’s was childbirth and being subservient to Adam.

9. Mark Twain wrote humorous and satirical diaries for Adam and Eve, entitled Eve's Diary and The Private Life of Adam and Eve, which were published posthumously.

10. In science, there’s evidence we all descended from common ancestors. These common ancestors have been called the Y-chromosomal Adam and Mitochondrial Eve.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

27 October Zoe name Day

Today is the name day for people called Zoe.

Zoe, Zoey or Zoë is a female first name of Greek origin, meaning "life".

1. Zoe Porphyrogenita: member of the Macedonian dynasty who briefly reigned as Byzantine empress in 1042, alongside her sister Theodora.

2. Gorilla Zoe: aka Alonzo Keith Mathis Jr.,American rapper who joined the Bad Boy Records hip hop group Boyz n da Hood in 2006.

3. Zoe Ball: British broadcaster and presenter. She was the first female host of the Radio 1 and Radio 2 breakfast shows for the BBC, and presented the 1990s children's show Live & Kicking, alongside Jamie Theakston from 1996–1999.

4. Zoë Pollock: British pop singer and songwriter, who had brief success in 1991 with two hit singles, Sunshine on a Rainy Day, which climbed to number 4 on the UK Singles Chart, and Lightning, which reached number 37.

5. Zoë Heller: English journalist and novelist living in New York City. She has published three novels, Everything You Know (1999), Notes on a Scandal (2003), and The Believers (2008). Notes on a Scandal was shortlisted for the Booker Prize.

6. Zoë Kravitz: American actress who plays Angel Salvadore in the superhero film X-Men: First Class.

7. Zoë Saldaña: American actress. Known primarily for her work in science fiction film franchises, she has starred in four of the highest-grossing films of all time. (Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avengers: Infinity War, and Avengers: Endgame).

8. Zoë Wanamaker: American-British actress who has worked extensively with the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre. Wanamaker was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2001

9. Zoe Slater: character from the soap opera EastEnders

10. Saint Zoe of Rome: noblewoman, married to Nicostratus, a high Roman court official. She died, stifled by smoke, hung over a fire. Her feast day is July 5.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

26 October: Tahiti

On this date in 1788, HMS Bounty landed in Tahiti. Their mission? To take Tahitan breadfruit trees to the Caribbean as cheap food for plantation workers. The crew remained in Tahiti for about five months, the time needed to transplant the seedlings of the trees. Three weeks after they left, the famous mutiny happened. A group of mutineers went back to settle in Tahiti. 10 things you might not know about Tahiti:

1. It’s the largest of the Îles du Vent (Windward Islands) in French Polynesia, situated in the central South Pacific Ocean. Its nearest neighbour is Moorea, 12 miles (20 km) away. The nearest major landmass is Australia, which is 5,700 km (3,078 nautical miles) away.

2. The area is 403 square miles (1,043 square km) and it’s 33 miles (53 km) long. Tahiti consists of two ancient eroded volcanic cones, Tahiti Nui and Tahiti Iti (the Taiarapu Peninsula), connected by the narrow Isthmus of Taravao.

3. The island was part of the Kingdom of Tahiti until it was annexed by France in 1880, and made a colony of France. The inhabitants, therefore, became French citizens. As part of France, the Tahitian village of Teahupo’o was the site of the Surfing competition in the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

4. Papeete, on Tahiti’s northwestern coast, is the capital of French Polynesia.

5. The Tahitian alphabet consists only of 13 letters: the vowels a, e, i, o, u and the consonants f, h, m, n, p, r, t and v.

6. The Tahitan language gave us the word “tattoo”, from the Tahitian word “tatau”. However, there is no word for “please” because traditionally everything was shared.

7. Archery was a sacred sport in ancient times. Only the nobility could participate, and bows and arrows were never used in war. Today, however, Tahiti’s national sport is outrigger Canoe racing.

8. The national symbol is the Tiare flower, which is worn by both men and women on Tahiti. It’s used as a way to tell if a person is in a relationship or not. Worn behind the right ear, it means you’re free, and behind the left means you’re spoken for.

9. The French painter Paul Gauguin lived on Tahiti in the 1890s. Papeari has a small Gauguin museum.

10. As a holiday destination, it’s quite exclusive. Hawaii receives more tourists in a day than Tahiti does in a year.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

25 October: Sunspots

On this date in 1789 Heinrich Schwabe, German astronomer who discovered the 11 year sunspot cycle was born. 10 facts about sunspots:

1. A sunspot is an area of the Sun which appears darker than the surrounding surface of the Sun. A typical spot consists of a dark region called the umbra, surrounded by a lighter region known as the penumbra.

2. They are cooler than the rest of the sun’s surface. The surface of the sun is is about 10,000 degrees F (5,538 degrees C). The umbra is about 6,300 degrees F (3482 degrees C).

3. Scientists don’t know what causes sunspots but generally believe it’s something to do with the sun’s magnetic field. It has been observed that the magnetic fields of sunspots are higher than that of the sun in general. The magnetic field of a sunspot is about 2,500 times stronger than that of the Earth. Sunspots tend to occur in pairs that have magnetic fields pointing in opposite directions.

4. They vary in size. In order to be visible without a Telescope a sunspot would have to be twice the size of Earth. In 1947 the largest group on record, was the size of 141 Earths.

5. They can last anything from a few hours to several months.

6. The earliest known records of sunspots come from China. They get a mention in the I Ching, which dates back to before 800BC. There, they were described as “a dou and mei” in the sun, meaning a small obscuration. In 364 BC an astronomer called Gan De observed them deliberately and by 28 BC, Chinese astronomers were regularly recording sunspot observations in official imperial records.

7. In Europe the earliest recorded observations were by ancient Greek scholar Theophrastus in about 300BC. The earliest known drawings of sunspots were created in 1128 by a monk called John of Worcester. Sunspots were first observed by telescope in 1610 by English astronomer Thomas Harriot.

8. William Herschel came up with a theory that there was a causal link between sunspot activity and the price of Wheat in England. Needless to say, subsequent studies have failed to find any connection between the two at all.

9. The number of sunspots follows a cyclical period of about 11 years, something Heinrich Schwabe first noticed in 1843. This is usually pretty consistent although there was a period between 1645 and 1715 when there were hardly any sunspots at all. This period is known as the 'Maunder Minimum’, after the British astronomer who discovered it from the records in 1890.

10. According to the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR), if you could cut out a standard sunspot from the sun and place it in the night sky, it would appear as bright as a full Moon.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book

24 October: Tripe Day

Today is World Tripe Day. 10 things you probably didn’t know about tripe:

1. Today is World Tripe Day because Samuel Pepys ate some on this date in 1662. He wrote in his diary: “So home and dined there with my wife upon a most excellent dish of tripes of my own directing, covered with mustard."

2. His experience with tripe wasn’t always so great. On April 9, 1664 Pepys again reports eating tripe for dinner but later, “I found myself sick in my stomach and vomited, which I do not use to do.”

3. So what is tripe? It’s the stomach of an animal, usually a ruminant, such as a Cow.

4. Cows have four stomachs but tripe is generally made only from the first three, and each stomach produces a different kind of tripe: “Blanket” tripe comes from the first stomach, “honeycomb” tripe from the second and “book, bible or leaf” tripe from the third.

5. To dress tripe, the stomachs are cleaned and the fat trimmed off. It is then boiled and bleached. Tripe dresser was once a profession in its own right.

6. Dressed tripe was a popular, nutritious and cheap dish for British working class people from Victorian times until the latter half of the 20th century. However, in recent years its popularity has declined, although some celebrity chefs are fuelling a bit of a revival.

7. Tripe is still a popular dish in parts of continental Europe such as Portugal, Spain, France and Italy.

8. In France, a very popular dish is tripes à la mode de Caen. In Spain callos a la madrileña are served as tapas. In Portugal,'tripas à moda do Porto', a tripe stew made with white butter beans, carrots, paprika and chouriço. It is so loved that residents of Porto are called 'Tripeiros'. In Spain and Portugal "tripas" can mean small intestines as well, as in Tacos de tripa — Mexican tacos filled with soft or crunchy fried small intestines.

9. Tripe is low in calories and fat and an excellent source of Zinc, vitamin B-12 and Calcium.

10. The Taming Of The Shrew is the only Shakespeare play that specifically mentions eating tripe. However the word “tripe” as an insult has been around since the 16^th century and Shakespeare also used the word in that context, in Henry IV Part 2, when Doll Tearsheet calls First Beadle a “tripe-visag’d rascal”.

NEW!!

Beta

(Combat Team Series #2)

Steff was abducted by an evil alien race, the Orbs, at fourteen. Used as a weapon for years, he eventually escapes, but his problems are just beginning. How does a man support himself when his only work experience is a paper round and using an Orb bio-integrated gun?

Warlord is an alien soldier who knows little but war. When the centuries-old conflict which ravaged his planet ends, he seeks out another world where his skills are still relevant. There are always wars on Earth, it seems. However, none of Earth's powerful armies want him.

Natalie has always wanted to visit England and sees a chance to do so while using her martial arts skills, but there are sacrifices she must make in order to fulfil her dream. 

Maggie resorted to crime to fund her sister's medical care. She uses her genetic variant abilities to gain access to the rooms of wealthy hotel guests. The Ballards look like rich pickings, but they are not what they seem. When Maggie targets them, little does she know that she is walking into a trap.

Hotel owner Hamilton Lonsdale puts together a combat team to pit against those of other multi-millionaires. He recruits Warlord, Natalie, Maggie and Steff along with a trained gorilla, a probability-altering alien, a stockbroker whose work of art proved to be much more than he'd bargained for, a marketing officer who can create psionic forcefields, a teleporting member of the landed gentry, and a socially awkward fixer. This is Combat Team Beta.

Steff never talks about his time with the Orbs, until he finds a woman who lived through it, too. Steff believes he has finally found happiness, but it is destined to be short-lived. He is left with an unusual legacy which he and Team Beta struggle to comprehend; including why something out there seems determined to destroy it.

Paperback

E book