1 February: 32

Today is the 32^nd day of the year, so here are 10 facts about the number 32.

1. 32 is the freezing point of Water at standard atmospheric pressure in degrees Fahrenheit.

2. An adult human has 32 teeth, including wisdom teeth.

3. Ireland has 32 counties.

4. Ludwig van Beethoven wrote 32 completed, numbered piano sonatas.

5. In the Kabbalah, there are 32 Kabbalistic Paths of Wisdom.

6. The Chamber of 32 Doors, is a song by Genesis, from their 1974 concept album The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway.

7. In Chess, there are 32 black squares on the board, 32 white squares, and 32 pieces (Black and White) at the beginning of the game.

8. +32 is the code for international direct dial phone calls to Belgium.

9. Germanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ge and atomic number 32. It is lustrous, hard-brittle, greyish-white and similar in appearance to Silicon.

10. The ball used in association Football is most often made with 32 panels of leather or synthetic material.

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 January: The Feast of Great Typos

Today is the Feast of Great Typos. Here are 10 great typos:

1. Strikebound holidaymakers were kept waiting six hours for the jerry. Then it was filled to capacity. Southern Echo

2. The strike leaders had called a meeting that was to have been held in a bra near the factory, but it was found to be too small to hold them all. South London Press

3. A public enquiry will be held in Colchester on October 23 in a bed to resolve the issue. Essex County Standard

4. Her dark hair is attractively set, and she has fair skin which, she admits ruefully, comes out in "a mass of freckles" at the first hint of sin. Essex County Standard

5. Hold the bottle firmly and remove the cook as gently as possible. Women's Own

6. Queen Victoria herself graciously pissed over the magnificent edifice. The Times on the opening of the Forth Bridge

7. The storm was described as one of the worst spring onslaughts in memory to plague Massachusetts, triggering traffic accidents including a 50 cat pile up south of Boston.

8. You can dramatically reduce your chances if a heart attack, stroke or kidney disease by eating live cavemen, says a noted professor. Burton Advertiser

9. Michael Green of Crimond, Main Road, Danbury was fined £3 for causing an obstruction with his ear in Maldon High Street.

10. The annual Christmas party at the Ashley Street school was hell yesterday afternoon.

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 January: Martina Name Day

In Hungary, today is the name day for people called Martina.

Martina is a female given name, the female form of Martin and Martino. 10 famous Martinas:

1. Martina: empress of the Byzantine Empire (pictured), second wife of her uncle the emperor Heraclius, and regent in 641 with her son.

2. Martina Hingis: Swiss tennis player, the first Swiss player, male or female, to win a major title and to attain a world No. 1 ranking.

3. Martina Gedeck: German actress. She achieved wider international acclaim due to her roles in films such as Mostly Martha (2001), The Lives of Others (2006), and The Baader Meinhof Complex (2008).

4. Martina Navratilova: Czech-American tennis player. Widely considered among the greatest tennis players of all time

5. Martina McBride: American country music singer-songwriter known for her soprano singing range and her country pop material.

6. Martina of Rome: a patron saint of Rome, was martyred in 226. Her feast day is 30 January.

7. Martina Gillian Topley-Bird: English singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist, the featured female vocalist on trip hop pioneer Tricky's debut album, Maxinquaye (1995).

8. Martina Crespi: from the anime/manga Strike Witches.

9. Martina Crowe: from Trenton Lee Stewart's children's book series The Mysterious Benedict Society.

10. Martina Arroyo: American operatic soprano who had a major international opera career from the 1960s through the 1980s.

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 January: National Puzzle Day

Today being National Puzzle Day, here are ten famous riddles.

1. The world’s oldest riddle originated in Sumeria. “There is a house. One enters it blind and comes out seeing. What is it?” The answer is a school, since the Sumerians put a great value on education.

2. As I was going to St Ives,

I met a man with seven wives,

Each wife had seven sacks,

Each sack had seven cats,

Each cat had seven kits:

Kits, cats, sacks, and wives,

How many were there going to St Ives?

The traditional understanding of this rhyme is that the narrator met all these others as they were going the other way, that is, leaving St Ives, so the answer is just one. However, it’s not entirely clear and it is possible to meet people going the same way. If everyone mentioned in the riddle were bound for St Ives, then the answer is 2,802: the narrator, the man and his seven wives, 49 sacks, 343 cats, and 2,401 kits.

3. The Riddle of the Sphinx: What goes on four legs in the morning, on two legs at noon, and on three legs in the evening? The answer is a human being, who crawls on all fours as a baby, walks on two feet as an adult, and uses a walking stick in old age.

4. Samson’s riddle: In the Old Testament Book of Judges, Samson poses a riddle to his dinner guests. He tells them that if they answer correctly, he will give them 30 expensive pieces of clothing, but if they guess wrong, they must give him expensive clothing. The guests wouldn’t have had any hope of solving it, however as it was about something only Samson knew. “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” The answer is bees making a honeycomb inside the carcass of a lion. Sometime before the feast, Samson had killed a lion with his bare hands, and returned to find bees building a hive inside the lion’s body.

5. Emma’s riddle by Jane Austen:

My first displays the wealth and pomp of kings,

Lords of the earth! their luxury and ease.

Another view of man, my second brings,

Behold him there, the monarch of the seas!

The answer is Courtship. The first part, represents the “court” and the second part, “the monarch of the seas,” is the “ship.”

6. Lewis Carroll: Alice’s Riddle in Wonderland:

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

This riddle is famous because it doesn’t have an answer. When Alice gives up and asks for the answer, the Hatter says, “I haven’t the slightest idea!”

However, Carroll later published an answer: “because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!” The nineteenth-century puzzle expert Sam Loyd came up with another: “because Poe wrote on both.”

7. The Hobbit: Gollum’s final riddle

This thing all things devours;

Birds, beasts, trees, flowers;

Gnaws iron, bites steel;

Grinds hard stones to meal;

Slays king, ruins town,

And beats mountain down

Answer: Time.

8. What is so delicate that saying its name breaks it?

Answer: Silence

9. What is that which belongs to you but others use it more than you do?

Answer: Your name

10. What can you hold in your right hand, but never in your left hand?

Answer: Your left hand.

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 January: Colette

‘Colette’, the French novelist and dancer was born on this date in 1873. 10 facts about her:

1. Colette was actually her surname. Her full name was Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette.

2. She was born in the village of Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye in the department of Yonne, Burgundy, the daughter of a war hero named Captain Jules-Joseph Colette, who lost a leg at Melegnano in the Second Italian War of Independence. When Colette was born he held the position of the village’s tax collector.

3. Her first husband was Henry Gauthier-Villars, a journalist and editor known by the pen name Willy. Colette wrote her first novels while married to him, but didn’t get any credit for them. Willy took the credit and the royalties while he would sometimes lock her in a room and not let her out until she had written enough pages to satisfy him.

4. She escaped this life in 1906 and continued to write on her own terms, but she had no access to her earnings from her earlier books. During this time, she became a music hall performer in order to make a living. Her experience in music hall inspired her 1910 novel The Vagabond.

5. During this time also, she had lesbian affairs, most notably with fellow actress Mathilde de Morny. Their onstage kiss caused a scandal and after that, the couple had to conduct their affair in secret.

6. She married again, a man named Henry de Jouvenel who was editor of leading newspaper Le Matin, and was able to arrange for Colette to publish her stories until one serial, called Ripening Seed caused more scandal among readers for being too risqué. This caused a rift between them. Colette had her only child with de Jouvenel at the age of 40. The girl was named Colette but was known as Bel-Gazou (“beautiful babbling/chirping”). Colette, by all accounts, was not a good mother.

   At 47 she seduced her stepson, Bertrand de Juvenel, aged 16, which was the final straw leading to divorce.

7. When she was 52, she started an affair with Maurice Goudeket, who was 16 years younger than she was. This relationship blossomed against all odds, and he became her third husband. He was Jewish and was arrested in 1941 by the Gestapo. Although he was soon released, thanks in part to Colette’s intervention, she lived in fear for the rest of the war that he might be arrested again.

8. Her most famous novel is probably Gigi, published in 1944 about a French girl training to be a courtesan who falls in love with a wealthy gentleman. Gigi was made into a stage musical and film; the stage production made a star of Audrey Hepburn, who was personally chosen by Colette for the role. Leslie Caron played the title role in the 1958 film.

9. When she died, she was refused a religious funeral by the Catholic Church because she’d been divorced. However, she was so popular in France that she was given a state funeral. She was the first French woman of letters to be granted the honour, and was interred in Père-Lachaise cemetery.

10. In the 2018 film Colette, the title character is played by Keira Knightley.

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 January: Police Dogs

On this date in 1908 “Patrol Squad 1,” the first modern police Dogs unit, started work in New York City. 10 things you might not know about police dogs.

1. Police dogs are referred to as K9 officers. They are trained to be part of the police force and are considered full-fledged police officers.

2. Their duties can include searching for drugs or explosives, finding missing people or crime scene evidence, protecting officers and other people, and attacking suspects who flee from officers.

3. The breeds most commonly used by law enforcement are the German Shepherd, Belgian Malinois, Bloodhound, Dutch Shepherd, and Labrador Retriever.

4. The first recorded use of police dogs was in the early 14th century in St. Malo, France, where they were used to protect the docks. In Scotland at about the same time, bloodhounds were used to track criminals. These animals were known as "Slough dogs", and this is the origin of the word “sleuth” meaning a detective.

5. An early instance of dogs working with police was in 19^th century London. The then Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police of London, Sir Charles Warren had been criticised by the press for not following Scotland’s example and using bloodhounds to sniff out the elusive Jack the Ripper. He decided it was worth a try and had two bloodhounds trained and tested them out to see if they could track a killer from a murder scene. However, one of the dogs bit him and then they ran away, so it wasn’t a very successful experiment.

6. The German police had more success in the early 20^th century with a more scientific approach. The German police selected the German Shepherd Dog as the ideal breed for police work and opened up the first dog training school in 1920 in Greenheide.

7. Before training a police dog, you first have to train a human being. A potential canine handler must first train as a police officer and then undergo specialist training to ensure they will train the dog to the best of its ability. The dog will begin its training at around 12-18 months of age. Many police dogs are bred for the role, but sometimes dogs from shelters are taken on. The dog must fist pass an obedience course as a police dog must obey the commands of its handler without hesitation.

8. It is a common myth that police dogs are trained to understand commands in a different language so that a suspect cannot command the dog against the officer. This isn’t the case. Dogs trained in Europe are usually given commands in the country's native language.

9. The working life of a police dog is 6–9 years.

10. Police dogs live out their lives after retirement as household pets, often in the home of their human working partner. In some places they even get a pension. In 2013, a pension scheme for police dogs in Nottinghamshire, England was introduced. The police force offered £805 over the span of three years to cover any additional medical costs incurred in caring for the dog.

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 January: Paula Name Day

Today is the name day for people called Paula. Paula is a common female given name (from Latin Paula, petite). 10 famous Paulas:

1. Paula of Rome: an ancient Roman Christian saint, a follower of Saint Jerome.

2. Paula Abdul: American pop singer and television personality. She began her career as a cheerleader for the Los Angeles Lakers at the age of 18 and later became the head choreographer for the Laker Girls, where she was discovered by the Jacksons.

3. Paula Radcliffe: (pictured) English long distance runner and Olympian.

4. Paula Deen: American chef, cookbook author, and TV personality. Deen resides in Savannah, Georgia, where she owns and operates The Lady & Sons restaurant with her sons, Jamie and Bobby Deen. She has published fifteen cookbooks.

5. Paula Hitler: also known as Paula Wolff and Paula Hitler-Wolff, younger sister of Adolf Hitler and the last child of Alois Hitler and his third wife, Klara Pölzl.

6. Paula Tilbrook: English actress who played Betty Eagleton in the ITV soap opera Emmerdale from 1994 to 2015.

7. Paula White-Cain: American televangelist, apostolic leader in the Independent Charismatic movement, and a proponent of prosperity theology.

8. Paula Yates: English television presenter best known for her work on two television programmes, The Tube and The Big Breakfast.

9. Paula Wilcox: English actress. She played Chrissy Plummer in the ITV sitcom Man About The House from 1973 to 1976.

10. Paula Cole: American singer-songwriter.

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 January: Virginia Woolf

Virginia Woolf was born on this date in 1882. 10 facts about her:

1. Her birth name was Adeline Virginia Stephen. She was named after her aunt Adeline, who had recently died so the family tended to use her middle name instead. Both her parents had children from previous relationships, and there were eight children in the household.

2. While fairly slow at learning to talk, Virginia started writing at a young age. From the age of 10, she and her sister Vanessa wrote an illustrated family newspaper called the Hyde Park Gate News, chronicling life and events within the Stephen family, based on the popular magazine Titbits.

3. The family had a holiday home in St Ives, Cornwall, and until the age of 13, Virginia spent much of the summers there. Its best feature was the view overlooking Porthminster Bay towards the Godrevy Lighthouse. It’s thought that these childhood summers provided the inspiration for her novels Jacob's Room, To the Lighthouse and The Waves. The death of her mother and the fact that a hotel was built in front of the house, blocking the view, meant the end of those holidays.

4. Virginia didn’t go to university herself, but her brother Thoby went to Cambridge and it was through him that she met the men who would play a significant role in her life: Clive Bell, Lytton Strachey, Leonard Woolf and Saxon Sydney-Turner. They first met at the Trinity May Ball in 1900. The men formed a reading group called the Midnight Society, which the Stephen sisters were invited to.

5. Virginia once took part in a prank in which she and five of her male friends pretended to be the ‘Prince of Abyssinia’ and his entourage and were granted a tour of the HMS Dreadnought by Virginia's cousin Commander Fisher, who was not aware of the joke.

6. Virginia had an unusual writing method. She used a standing desk, not unlike an artist’s easel. She liked to take a step back and look at her work, rather like an artist working on a painting might. She experimented with different types of pen, but her favourite was her mother’s pen, filled with Purple ink. She believed that using the perfect pen helped the process of words flowing onto the page.

7. She battled with her mental health for much of her life. Modern scholars have suggested she was bipolar. The deaths of her mother and father triggered serious breakdowns. On one occasion she was prescribed a “rest cure” at "a private nursing home for women with nervous disorder" called Burley House. The cure involved isolation, force feeding, and no reading. Needless to say, she hated the place. After her father’s death, she attempted suicide by throwing herself out of a window. She spent one summer believing that the birds were chirping in Greek and King Edward VII was uttering curses from behind nearby shrubbery. This tendency could have run in the family; her half sister, Laura, was in an asylum for four years and then spent the rest of her life in a care home.

8. Virginia’s hobbies included bookbinding, which came in handy when she and her husband Leonard set up a their own printing house. She liked Opera and classical music, listening to Beethoven’s late quartets while writing The Waves. She would walk for up to eight miles a day, jumping over ditches, climbing up hills, or through Barbed Wire fences in order to get where she wanted to go. It’s also said that she used to go skinny dipping with the poet Rupert Brooke. Her forays into driving and cookery were less successful. She bought a Singer, a luxurious car, and took driving lessons, but gave up after driving it into a hedge. After getting married, she thought she’d better learn some domestic skills, and enrolled in cookery classes. She accidentally baked her Wedding ring in a suet pudding.

9. Her first published work was an essay called “Haworth, November 1904,” which was about the Bronte Sisters and published in the Guardian in 1904. Her first novel was The Voyage Out, originally called Melymbrosia, published in 1915. One of her lesser known novels is Flush, a story told from the perspective of poet Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Dog.

10. On 28 March 1941, Woolf drowned herself by walking into the River Ouse near her home, after placing a large stone in her pocket. She was 59 years old and had fallen into a depression, perhaps a combination of a low brought on by finishing a book, Between the Acts, the onset of the second world war and the cool reception given to her biography of her late friend Roger Fry. Her body was not found until 18 April. She was cremated and her ashes buried under an elm tree in the garden of Monk's House, their home in Rodmell, Sussex.

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

St Francis of Sales Quotes

St Francis of Sales feast day is today so here are 10 quotes from him:

1. Nothing is so strong as gentleness, nothing so gentle as real strength.

2. Half an hour's meditation each day is essential, except when you are busy. Then a full hour is needed.

3. Those who love to be feared fear to be loved.

4. Do not wish to be anything but what you are, and try to be that perfectly.

5. What we need is a cup of understanding, a barrel of love, and an ocean of patience.

6. Great occasions for serving God come seldom, but little ones surround us daily.

7. Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.

8. One rarely does well what one rarely does.

9. Have patience to walk with short steps until you have wings to fly.

10. Have patience with all things, But, first of all with yourself.

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