21st April: The Queen's 90th birthday

Today is the 90th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. So here are ten facts about the Queen.

1. The Queen’s full title in the United Kingdom is: Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, and of her other Realms and Territories Queen, Head of the Commonwealth, Defender of the Faith. She also has the titles the Lord of Man in the Isle of Man, the Duke of Normandy in the Channel Islands, and the Duke of Lancaster in the land of the Duchy of Lancaster.
2. During her Majesty's reign there have been: fourteen Prime Ministers (Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, Alec Douglas-Holme, Harold Wilson, Ted Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown, David Cameron, Theresa May and Boris); 13 US Presidents (Harry Truman, Dwight D Eisenhower, John F Kennedy, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George H. W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W Bush, Barack Obama and Trump); Seven Archbishops of Canterbury (Geoffrey Fisher, Michael Ramsey, Donald Coggan, Robert Runcie, George Carey, Rowan Williams and Justin Welby); and seven Popes (Pius XII, John XXIII, Paul VI, John Paul I, John Paul II, Benedict XVI and Francis).
3. The Queen doesn't own a passport or a driving licence. She can drive - she learned when she was in the Women’s Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) (The Queen is the only living head of state in the world to have served during World War II, in the ATS. Her service number was 230873) British passports are all issued in her name, so she doesn't need one herself. She's also the only person who doesn't need a number plate on her state car.
4. Her Majesty is known for her love of Dogs (especially corgis) and Horses. Her first corgi was given to her for her 18th birthday and was called Susan (she took this dog with her on her honeymoon); her first pony was called Peggy. You might not know that the Queen is interested in breeding both horses and dogs and created a new breed of dog, the "dorgi" when she mated one of her corgis with a dachsund. She has owned eleven dorgis. Now she has two corgis: Holly and Willow and two dorgis - Candy and Vulcan.
5. The Queen first met her husband, Prince Philip, at a wedding when she was eight; they started writing to each other when she was thirteen. They became engaged in 1946 but kept it a secret until the following year. Elizabeth and Philip are second cousins, once removed and third cousins through Queen Victoria. On her wedding day, she had to use clothing coupons like everyone else to get her wedding dress which was designed by Norman Hartnell. She did her own make-up.
6. The Queen has visited 117 countries - two thirds of the countries on Earth. That includes Australia 16 times, Canada 22 times, Jamaica six and New Zealand 10 times. The Queen was the first British Monarch to visit the Middle East and China and was the first to visit Ireland since Irish independence. She hasn't been to the Moon, but her message of congratulations to the Apollo 11 astronauts for the First moon landing was micro-filmed and deposited on the Moon in a metal container. The Queen speaks fluent French and doesn't need an interpreter on state visits to France.
7. The Queen's birthplace is now a Chinese restaurant (albeit a Michelin starred one) called Hakkasan.
8. In the Maori language, the Queen is known by the term ‘Kotuku’, which translates as ‘the white heron’ in English. In Papua New Guinea she is referred to in the pidgin language of Tok Pisin as ‘Missus Kwin’ which translates to ‘Mama belong big family’ in English.
9. The Queen always wears brightly coloured outfits so people can see her in a crowd. Her outfits are usually made from both new fabrics and incorporating fabric from older outfits, including some dating back to before she was Queen.
10. Her Majesty’s Imperial State Crown is made up of 2,868 diamonds. She has nine royal thrones, one at the House of Lords, two at Westminster Abbey and six in the throne room at Buckingham Palace; and a cushion in her private sitting room at Balmoral embroidered with the words "It's good to be Queen."

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My books:

Death and Faxes

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

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

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

Paperback - CreateSpace or Amazon 

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

Glastonbury Swan

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

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

Who is killing all these people and why? 

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

Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon

E-book Amazon Kindle

Jigsaw

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


Paperback CreateSpace or Amazon 

E-book Amazon Kindle

From A Jack To A King

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

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

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

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

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

Available from: Createspace, Amazon, Amazon Kindle

20th April: Roses

Another French Revolutionary Calendar observance today - the rose. A collection of facts about roses.

1. There are about 100-150 different species of rose. They belong to the genus Rosa.
2. Roses are associated with Harpocrates, god of silence, secrets and confidentiality. Roses would be painted or plastered around the ceilings of rooms intended for the receiving of guests, to show that topics discussed within were not to be repeated outside the room. In ancient Rome, a wild rose was placed on the door of a room when secret or confidential matters were being discussed. This is where the phrase sub rosa, or "under the rose", comes from.
3. Roses are also associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis, the Greek Aphrodite and Roman Venus. In Christianity, the five petals of a rose are used to represent the five wounds of Christ. Roses are also associated with the Virgin Mary and red rose petals symbolise the Christian martyrs. In churches, a round window is often called a rose window as they often have five or ten segments (the five petals and five sepals of a rose) or multiples thereof.
4. Napoleon used to give his officers bags of rose petals which they could boil with white wine to cure themselves from lead poison from bullet or shot wounds.
5. A number of places have adopted the rose as their flower. It is the national flower of England and the USA. It is the state flower of four US states: Iowa, North Dakota, Georgia and New York. Portland, Oregon counts "City of Roses" among its nicknames. The rose is the emblem of Islamabad Capital Territory in Pakistan and an unofficial emblem of Catalonia.
6. Roses do not have thorns. Although the sharp things on the stems are usually referred to as thorns, in technical botanical terms, they are prickles. True thorns are modified stems, which always originate at a node, rather than outgrowths of the epidermis on the stem.
7. It takes two thousand rose flowers to make one gram of rose oil.
8. The symbolism of roses in the language of flowers depends on the colour. Red means love, hence red roses are often given on Valentine's Day. Yellow means friendship, white means purity or spirituality, Pink is joy gratitude and admiration, orange is enthusiasm pride, favour and intense desire, lavender is love at first sight.
9. Black roses mean death or the end of a relationship - although black roses don't really exist. There are some which are such a deep shade of red or purple that they appear black, and black Roses can be produced using dyes.
10. A fossil of a rose was found in Colorado, thought to be 35 million years old. The oldest living rose bush grows on the side of Hildesheim Cathedral in Germany. It measures at 69ft high and 30ft wide. It is about 700 years old.

19 April: Amaretto Day

It's National Amaretto Day. Here are some facts about Amaretto:

1. Amaretto is an Italian liqueur made from a base of Apricot pits, Almonds, or both.
2. The name derives from the Italian word amaro, meaning "bitter".
3. It is associated with romance, because amaro is similar to amore, meaning love.
4. It is said to have originated in 1525, when a church in Saronno, Italy, commissioned an artist called Bernardino Luini to paint frescoes in their church. The church was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, so it made sense to paint pictures of her - so he looked for a model. A young widowed innkeeper became his model and in most versions of the tale, his lover. She wanted to give him a gift, but couldn't afford very much. Being an innkeeper, she had a supply of booze, and came up with the idea of steeping apricot kernels in brandy, thus making the first ever amaretto.
5. The two main brands, Disaronno Originale and Lazzaroni, both claim this tale as their own.
6. Despite its almond taste, Disaronno Originale contains no actual nuts. The company claims its "originale" amaretto's "secret formula" is unchanged from 1525, and that it is "an infusion of "apricot kernel oil" with "absolute alcohol, burnt sugar, and the pure essence of seventeen selected herbs and fruits".
7. The popular Italian dessert, tiramisu, usually contains amaretto or amaretto flavouring.
8. A few shots of amaretto can be added to pancake batter for a richer flavour.
9. A 30ml serving of Amaretto contains 110 calories.
10. Cocktails made from Amaretto include: French Connection, Godfather, Godmother, Hurricane Jenny, Cuban Breeze and Lounge Lizard.

18 April: The Natural History Museum

On this date in 1881 in London - the Natural History Museum opened it doors. Here are ten things you probably didn't know:

1. It was officially known as British Museum (Natural History) until 1992, despite legal separation from the British Museum in 1963.
2. The foundation of the collection was that of the Ulster doctor Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753) who was also famous for inventing hot chocolate. His collection, included dried plants, animal and human skeletons. It was initially housed in the British Museum.
3. Sadly, the collection didn't fare well within the auspices of the British Museum in those days. The museum staff didn't care much about natural history - much of the collection was sold to the Royal College of Surgeons, or was burned. In 1833 the Annual Report states that, of the 5,500 insects listed in the Sloane catalogue, none remained. Staff were employed not because they were experts, but because of who they knew. In 1862 a nephew of the mistress of a Trustee was appointed Entomological Assistant despite not knowing the difference between a butterfly and a Moth. Later, the museum acquired a huge collection of shells from the conchologist Hugh Cuming and these weren't well cared for, either. Dr. George Shaw (Keeper of Natural History 1806–13) said he'd tread on any shell not in the 12th edition of Linnaeus' Systema Naturae. Many of the labels blew away when another curator's wife carried an open tray of specimens across the yard in a gale; others were removed by an employee simply because the display had been arranged by a colleague he didn't like! Eventually the Treasury refused to entrust the museum with specimens collected at the government's expense.
4. This changed after the palaeontologist Richard Owen was appointed Superintendent of the natural history departments of the British Museum in 1856. He wanted more space for natural history - and since space was limited in the existing building, that meant a new building. Today, the museum’s collection contains over 70 million botanical items, 55 million exhibits of animals, 9 million relics from archaeological digs, and 500,000 rocks and minerals. In 2013 the Museum became the UK's third most popular visitor attraction. 5.4 million people visited that year.
5. In 1864 a competition was held to design the new museum. The winning entry was submitted by the civil engineer Captain Francis Fowke, who died shortly afterwards. The scheme was taken over by Alfred Waterhouse who substantially revised the plans. There were originally going to be wings on either side of the main building, but these were abandoned for budgetary reasons.
6. The central axis of the museum is aligned with the tower of Imperial College London (formerly the Imperial Institute) and the Royal Albert Hall and Albert Memorial.
7. The most iconic exhibit is the Dinosaur skeleton - a 105-foot (32m) long replica of a Diplodocus carnegii skeleton, in the central hall. Dippy, as the model is affectionately known, was given to the museum by the American industrialist Andrew Carnegie. It is a cast of the original skeleton held in Carnegie's own museum. It cost £2,000 to make and was shipped to London in 36 crates. Mr. Carnegie later had more casts made and shipped to other capital cities around the world, making Dippy the most-seen dinosaur skeleton ever.
8. Also on display is the parallel skeleton and model of a blue whale, weighing 10 tons and 25m long. The whale skeleton has been on display since 1938, over 40 years since the whale was beached in Wexford Bay, Ireland. While the model was being built, there was a trapdoor in the stomach which workmen used for sneaky cigarette breaks. Before the trapdoor was sealed forever, they placed coins and a Telephone directory inside.
9. In the grounds of the museum there is a wildlife garden. In 2007 a new species of insect was discovered there.
10. The museum has featured in numerous films and books, including Disney's One of Our Dinosaurs Is Missing; a dinosaur skeleton is stolen from the museum; a group of nannies hide inside the mouth of the Blue Whale model - except there is a good deal of artistic license - they are seen looking out through whale's teeth, and blue whales don't have teeth. Additionally, the film is set in the 1920s, before the Blue Whale model was built.

17 April: Bat Appreciation Day

10 facts about bats for Bat Appreciation Day.

1. There are more than 1,100 species of bats in the world. They account for about a quarter of all mammal species and are found on every continent except Antarctica. The UK has 16 different types of bat.
2. The world’s largest bat is the "flying fox". It lives on islands in the South Pacific and has a wingspan of up to 6 feet. The smallest is the bumblebee bat or Kitti’s Hog-nosed Bat, which lives in Thailand. It is about the size of a bumblebee, and weighs less than a US one cent coin. It may be the smallest existing mammal.
3. Bats aren't blind. Yes, they use echolocation to find food and avoid obstacles in the dark, but they can see, too, and some species can see ultraviolet light. A bat can emit 10-20 echolocation beeps per second, and can use it to detect objects as thin as a human hair.
4. Bats are the only mammals which can fly. Some bats can fly up to 250 miles (402 km) in a single night. They can fly up to 10,000 feet (3,048 m) high and reach speeds up to 60 miles per hour (97kph). Their wings are long finger bones covered by thin layers of skin. The wing membranes of a bat make up about 95% of its body surface area; so helps the bat regulate body temperature, blood pressure, water balance, and gas exchange.
5. They don't breed anything like as fast as other mammals of a similar size - a female bat will only have one pup a year, and usually, all the female bats in a colony have their babies at the same time. Bat mothers can find their babies among thousands or millions of other bats by their unique voices and scents. They live much longer, too - they can live for over 30 years.
6. They don't suck Blood. Only three species of bat live on blood, and these "vampire" bats don't suck, but bite and then lap up the blood. Some white-winged vampire bats snuggle up to hens and pretend to be chicks. Once in position under the hens, the bats feed on their blood. They sometimes feed other bats by returning to the roost and sharing their meal by vomiting it. Scientists in several countries are trying to copy the enzymes found in vampire bat saliva to treat Heart conditions and strokes in humans.
7. Most bats eat insects or fruit, although a few eat smaller mammals or Frogs. Bats can eat up to 1,200 Mosquitoes in an hour and often consume their body weight in insects every night. Some seeds will not sprout unless they have passed through the digestive tracts of a fruit eating bat. The bats which eat frogs can tell the difference between safe and poisonous frogs by listening to the male frog’s call. There is a bat which lives on nectar, the tube-lipped nectar bat (Anoura fistulata). It has the longest tongue, relative to body length, of any mammal. When it's not eating, the bat retracts its tongue into its rib cage.
8. Bats do spend a lot of time hanging upside down. They rest, sleep, mate and give birth in this position. Most bats roost in caves or buildings although there is a species in Asia which roosts inside Bamboo stalks, and one in Africa which roost in Spiders' webs. The largest bat colony in the world is in Texas. Over 20 million bats live in the Bracken Bat Cave. That's more bats than there are people living in Mumbai, India. Some bats migrate for the winter, while others hibernate. During hibernation their heartbeats slow right down and they live off fat stored in their bodies. The mouse-eared bat has a heartbeat as low as 18 beats a minute during hibernation, compared to 880 when it is active. In their hibernation state, bats have been able to survive freezing temperatures and even being encased in ice.
9. Before they found oil, the biggest export of Texas was bat guano. Bat droppings are rich in nitrates and make excellent fertilizer, and also gunpowder. Bat droppings were used to make gunpowder during the U.S. civil war. This might be why Texas is one of three US states to have a state bat - the Mexican free-tailed bat. Oklahoma also claims this species while Virginia has the Virginia big-eared bat.
10. In Britain it is illegal to kill a bat or disturb the places where they roost.

16 April: Dolphin Day

It's Dolphin Day. Time for ten things you didn't know about dolphins:

1. There are about 40 different species of dolphin. Killer whales are actually a type of dolphin rather than a type of whale, and are the largest species. They can reach 9.5 metres (31 ft) in length and weigh 10 metric tons. The smallest is Maui's dolphin - 1.7 metres (5.6 ft) long and 50 kilograms (110 lb).
2. The closest living relative of the dolphin is the Hippopotamus.
3. The word "Dolphin" derives from the Greek word for "womb" so the literal translation would be "fish with a womb". An archaic term for a dolphin is mereswine ("sea pig").
4. Dolphins can hear frequencies 10 times the upper limit of adult humans. Their hearing is so good that a dolphin could survive even if it is blind. They also have good eyesight, both in and out of water, and a well-developed sense of touch - but no sense of smell.
5. Bottlenose dolphins have been found to have signature whistles, unique to specific individuals, rather like a human name. These whistles develop during their first year of life and stay with the dolphin for as long as it lives. The signature whistle of a male bottlenose dolphin tends to be similar to that of its mother, while the signature whistle of a female bottlenose dolphin tends to be more unique.
6. As well as whistles they also emit clicking sounds for echolocation, from an organ known as a melon, a mass of adipose tissue found in the forehead of all toothed whales.
7. Dolphins are highly social. They live in groups, known as pods, of around twelve individuals, which may, in areas where there is a lot of food, merge and become "superpods" of over a thousand dolphins. If one dolphin is sick or injured others will help it, bringing it to the surface to breathe. They have also been observed helping other species, such as sperm whales, and humans.
8. Dolphin calves are born tail first.
9. Male dolphins have been known to masturbate by wrapping a live Eel around their penis.
10. Four countries – Chile, Costa Rica, Hungary, and India – have declared dolphins to be "non-human persons" and have banned the capture and import of live dolphins for entertainment.

15 April: That Sucks Day

That sucks day. Supposedly, bad things happen on this day, including it being the day income taxes are due in America. Is it really an unlucky day? Here are ten things which happened on April 15th which sucked big time:

1. In 1865, Abraham Lincoln died, the day after being shot by John Wilkes Booth at Ford's Theatre in Washington.
2. Other people who died on this date include Greta Garbo (1990), Kenneth Williams (Carry On films actor, 1988), comedian Tommy Cooper (1984), Arthur Lowe (the actor who played Captain Mainwaring in Dad's Army, 1982), and the philosopher Jean Paul Sartre (1980).
3. In 1912, the Titanic sank in the early hours after hitting an Iceberg late the previous night. 1,517 people lost their lives in this disaster.
4. In 1947, a French ship, the Grandcamp, loaded 1,400 tons of nitrate fertilizer at Texas City. A fire broke out on board, resulting in not only the destruction of the ship, but explosions in other ships and a nearby power plant. The fires and explosions destroyed most of the town's waterfront and business district and killed 468 people.
5. In 1989, Britain's worst Football disaster happened at Sheffield's Hillsborough ground. 3,000 people were let in to the stadium because of pressure outside, causing even more pressure inside, resulting in 94 deaths and 200 injuries.
6. In 1997, a fire in a tent outside Mecca killed at least 343 pilgrims.
7. In 2002 an Air China Boeing 767 crashed in South Korea, killing 128 people.
8. In 2010, the day after the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull, volcanic ash in the atmosphere disrupted air traffic over North Europe. Air space was closed, stranding people all over the world.
9. In 1861, after the surrender of Fort Sumter, Abraham Lincoln called for 75,000 volunteers - effectively admitting the battle was starting a war.
10. In 2013, two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring 183.

Update: In 2019 on this date a fire broke out in Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, destroying the roof and spire.