Thursday, 7 January 2021

8 January: Carl Rogers

Psychologist and psychotherapist Carl Rogers was born on this date in 1902. He is said to be the second most influential clinical psychologist of the 20th century after Sigmund Freud. Here are 10 facts about him:

  1. He was born in Oak Hill, Illinois and was the fourth of six children. His father was a civil engineer, and his mother was a housewife. He had a strict religious upbringing, and could read before he went to school.
  2. His middle name was Ransom.
  3. He had several changes of mind in regard to his future career. Since his family moved to the country when he was 12, he first thought he wanted to study agriculture, and enrolled at the University of Wisconsin in 1919. Later, he decided he wanted to be a minister of religion and changed his major to history with the intention of studying theology afterwards. During his theological studies, however, he began to question his faith. Having taken a course on psychology, he decided to study that, instead.
  4. After receiving his PhD, Rogers worked in academia, holding positions at Ohio State University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Wisconsin. It was during this time that Rogers developed his approach to therapy.
  5. What were some of his theories, then? Rogers believed that all people possess an inherent need to grow and achieve their potential. This need is one of the primary motives driving behaviour. The formation of a healthy self-concept is an ongoing process shaped by a person's life experiences, beginning in childhood and heavily influenced by the way they are parented. Unconditional love is key – children who feel that they have to “earn” their parents' love can end up feeling unworthy and lacking in self-esteem.
  6. Rogers developed the concept of “person-centred” therapy. A therapist’s client is the centre of their own universe and should be the driving force in their own therapy. Their therapist needs to show “unconditional positive regard” to the client, that is to accept them as they are and not judge or reproach them for expressing negative feelings.
  7. The goal is to become a fully functioning person. According to Rogers, fully functioning people have a number of traits, which include: living a full, rich life that involves the full spectrum of human emotions; being able to make choices and take responsibility for the choices they make; the ability to live in the moment; be open to new experiences and able to be creative and adaptable.
  8. He is said to have influenced the “flower power” movement of the 1960s and 70s, through a collection of essays he wrote, called Freedom to Learn. Supporters of an alternative society often referred to Roger's ideas in their literature.
  9. Rogers was nominate for a Nobel Peace Prize for some of his later work with the Carl Rogers Peace Project. He and his colleagues conducted experiments in cross cultural communication and peacemaking; he helped unite Catholics and Protestants in Ireland and fought to end apartheid in South Africa. When he was 85, he went to the Soviet Union, where he lectured and facilitated workshops fostering communication and creativity. He was astonished at the numbers of people there who knew about his work.
  10. He died in February 1987 at the age of 85.


See also Carl Rogers quotes.


New Year New Reading Challenge?

I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:

A title with three words

A title with six words

A book with a number in the title

A book with a colour in the title

Short story collections/A book with a green cover

A book published in the last year/during lockdown

A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages

A book featuring characters from a deck of cards

A Book set during Christmas

A book with a place in the title

A Debut novel


A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings

A book with a female villain or criminal

Includes space travel

Features Royalty

Books featuring skiing or snowboarding

A book with the Olympic games in it

A book with a bird in the title

A book featuring a secret society

A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:

Books featuring superheroes

Books featuring ghosts

From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!

More details can be found here
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Wednesday, 6 January 2021

7 January: The Avengers TV Series

The first broadcast of the TV series The Avengers, starring Patrick MacNee as John Steed took place 60 years ago today, in 1961. Some things you might not know about the show:

  1. For anyone who isn’t familiar with the show at all, it was a British espionage drama which ran from 1961 to 1969. The central character was an agent called John Steed, who wore a suit and a Bowler hat and carried an Umbrella (which was a sword in disguise). He worked with a succession of assistants, mostly female.
  2. The first episode was called Hot Snow. In this, John Steed wasn’t the main character. The central character in Hot Snow was a doctor called David Keel who was investigating his girlfriend’s murder. As it happened, a drug ring was responsible, and John Steed was investigating them and asked Keel to partner with him, as needed, to solve crimes. In the first series, there were some episodes in which Steed didn’t appear at all. Steed became the central character when the actor playing Keel left the show at the end of season 1.
  3. John Steed (Patrick Macnee) had six partners in the course of the show: Dr. David Keel (Ian Hendry), Dr. Martin King (Jon Rollason), Venus Smith (Julie Stevens), Mrs. Cathy Gale (Honor Blackman), Mrs. Emma Peel (Dame Diana Rigg), and Tara King (Linda Thorson).
  4. Steed’s full name is John Wickham Gascoyne Beresford Steed; he was born sometime between 1922 and 1925 and attended Eton, where he got into a fight with the school bully, one James Bond, and got expelled. He joined the Coldstream Guards and served in WWII. He reached the rank of major before moving into the intelligence services.
  5. He had three different London addresses: 5 Westminster Mews, 4 Queen Anne's Court and 3 Stable Mews.
  6. He was a lover of wine, especially Champagne, but being the epitome of a British gentleman, he also liked his Tea. As Emma Peel informs her replacement, Tara King, he likes it stirred anti-clockwise.
  7. Arguably his most famous female partner was Emma Peel, played by Diana Rigg. She joined the cast in 1965. While developing the character, the writers decided they wanted her to have “man appeal”, and from there decided they would name her accordingly. She was originally going to be called Samantha Peel, with her first name shortened to “Mantha” but the name which stuck derived from a verbal shorthand for “man appeal” – “M Appeal”.
  8. She was born Emma Knight, and married Peter Peel, a pilot whose plane went missing over the Amazon rain forest, and was presumed dead. She has genius level intelligence and is an expert in fencing and Kung Fu. (she was, in fact, the first person to do Kung Fu on screen, even though the producers wanted her to stick to judo. Diana Rigg learned Kung Fu in secret and used it anyway.) When Diana Rigg was leaving the show to take up a role in the Bond film On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, the writers had her husband re-appear, so Emma Peel leaves her job to go back to him.
  9. Diana Rigg wasn’t the only actor in The Avengers to also appear in a Bond movie. Honor Blackman was Pussy Galore in Goldfinger and Patrick Macnee played Sir Godfrey Tibbett in A View to a Kill. In The Avengers episode called Too Many Christmas Trees, Steed gets a Christmas card from Cathy Gale postmarked "Fort Knox", a reference to Honor Blackman's appearance as Pussy Galore.
  10. It was the first British TV show to be sold to an American network. Thanks to its popularity across the Pond, Diana Rigg was able to make an early bid for wage equality. She discovered the cameraman was being paid more than she was, and demanded a pay rise, or she’d walk out. Because the show was popular in the US, they wanted to hang on to her so they granted her request.


New Year New Reading Challenge?

I can help. Here are links to books which meet potential criteria:

A title with three words

A title with six words

A book with a number in the title

A book with a colour in the title

Short story collections/A book with a green cover

A book published in the last year/during lockdown

A book you can finish in a day/A book under 200 pages

A book featuring characters from a deck of cards

A Book set during Christmas

A book with a place in the title

A Debut novel


A book with a plant or flower on the cover/A book about siblings

A book with a female villain or criminal

Includes space travel

Features Royalty

Books featuring skiing or snowboarding

A book with the Olympic games in it

A book with a bird in the title

A book featuring a secret society

A book featuring time travel/alternative dimensions
Raiders Trilogy:

Books featuring superheroes

Books featuring ghosts

From an Indie Publisher/Self published/An author you've not read before/A female author/A genre you wouldn't normally read/A book outside your comfort zone/A book by an author with your initials and your initials are JH
All of them!

More details can be found here
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Tuesday, 5 January 2021

6 January: Harold II

The Coronation of Harold II as King of England, succeeding Edward the Confessor, took place on this date in 1066. He reigned for less than a year before meeting his end at the Battle of Hastings. 10 things you might not know about King Harold:

  1. His exact date of birth isn’t known, but is estimated as being around 1020.
  2. He was the son of a powerful earl – Godwin, the Earl of Wessex. His mother was Gytha Thorkelsdóttir. Harold had five brothers and three sisters, and was the second eldest son. One of his sisters, Edith, married Edward the Confessor.
  3. When his father died in 1053, Harold inherited the title of Earl of Wessex, since his older brother Sweyn had been exiled. This alone made him a powerful man, arguably second to the King of England.
  4. He was already Earl of East Anglia, having been made so in 1045, and in 1058 became Earl of Hereford as well.
  5. As Edward the Confessor lay dying, having had no children, he is said to have regained consciousness briefly and asked Harold to protect his widow and the kingdom. A group of nobles and clergymen called the Witenagemot, and presumably Harold himself, interpreted this as Edward choosing Harold as the next king, despite any claim to the throne by William, Duke of Normandy. Edward died on 5 January 1066 and Harold was crowned the following day in Westminster Abbey. Some might say the whole thing was pretty rushed, to make sure William didn’t get a chance to challenge it. However, another reason might have been that it was the Feast of Epiphany, which meant all the nobles were in Westminster for the feast anyway, so it would save them a journey later on.
  6. Harold had a common law wife called Edith Swannesha, although it’s possible they were actually married, by means of a Danish hand-fasting ceremony, not recognised by the church, which viewed her as his mistress. She was also known as Edith the Fair, Edyth the Gentle Swan or Edith Swanneck. They had six children together and it was she who, according to legend, identified his body after the Battle of Hastings, from marks “known only to her”, which may have been love bites. He also had a wife he’d married in church, a few months before the battle. She was called Ealdgyth and was the widow of the Welsh ruler Gruffydd ap Llywelyn. This was a marriage of political convenience, giving Harold claims to even more lands and titles. There were no known children from this union. He may also have been betrothed to William the Conqueror’s daughter Adeliza, although nothing came of it.
  7. Harold may have lost the Battle of Hastings, but he wasn’t always the loser. He was victorious at the Battle of Stamford Bridge against a large army of Vikings. He’d also beaten Gruffydd ap Llewelyn in 1063 – Gruffydd was killed after being cornered in Snowdonia.
  8. What sort of person was he? According to chronicler Orderic Vitalis, Harold was “distinguished by his great size and strength of body, his polished manners, his firmness of mind and command of words, by a ready wit and a variety of excellent qualities. But what availed so many valuable gifts, when good faith, the foundation of all virtues, was wanting?"
  9. In 1064, Harold was shipwrecked in Normandy. What happened while he was there isn’t known, but William, Duke of Normandy, insisted Harold had sworn an oath on holy relics that he’d support William’s claim to the throne on the death of Edward the Confessor. Whether the fact he didn’t was evidence of the lack of “good faith” or propaganda by William to support his own claim is not known.
  10. Harold was killed at the Battle of Hastings by an arrow through the eye. Or was he? The idea that the cause of his death was an arrow in the eye comes from the Bayeux Tapestry, in which the words "Hic Harold Rex Interfectus Est" ("Here King Harold is killed") appear above the figure of a man with an arrow in his eye. There’s another figure nearby being trampled by a knight on a Horse – perhaps that was meant to be Harold. His burial place isn’t known, although in 1954 an Anglo-Saxon coffin was found in a church at Bosham, which contained the remains of a man aged up to 60 with his head and part of a leg missing. Could that have been Harold? Harold is said to have had strong connections with the town, and to have been buried by the sea. The church is within sight of the English Channel. The Diocese refused to allow a full examination of the remains since the chances of identifying the body as Harold was too slim to justify disturbing the grave. There are even legends which say he didn’t die at Hastings at all but escaped and lived out the rest of his days as a hermit in Chester or Canterbury.

NEW!

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.


His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.


A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?


Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?


Available on Amazon:



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Monday, 4 January 2021

5 January: Twelfth Night Observances

It's Twelfth Night – so here are ten ways people observe Twelfth Night around the world.

  1. In Russia girls drop the yolk of an Egg into a glass of Water. The shapes that appear are images of their future husbands. (So you may often hear in Russia today cries of, “Oh, no, I'm going to marry a shapeless yellow blob!”)
  2. Spanish children leave a pair of Shoes at the window so the Three Kings know there are children in the house.
  3. In Italy, the Nativity is enacted with the newest baby in town taking the part of Jesus. Bonfires are lit to light the way for the Three Kings. Boys run through the fields carrying burning brands, jump over fires, and roll burning wheels down hills, and announce their engagements by shouting out the names of their girlfriends. The ashes from the fires are used to fertilise the earth and assure a good harvest. The way the smoke blows foretells the prospects for the coming year: smoke blowing east predicts a year of abundance; smoke blowing west is a bad omen for the crops.
  4. In some places, a straw effigy of Befana is burned to banish the old year. Chestnuts may be thrown on the fire and roasted, as a symbol of fertility. La Befana is a good Witch who brings gifts to children. Christ’s miracle of turning water into Wine is associated with this date.
  5. Also in Italy, Epiphany Eve fair of toys, sweets and presents among the Bernini Fountains in Rome.
  6. Early Christians celebrated 6 January, and the evening of the 5th, as the birthday of Jesus.
  7. Twelfth Night and Wassail Eve marks the end of Christmas in England. According to an old superstition, it's bad luck to leave Christmas decorations up after Twelfth Day.
  8. Wassailing comes from the Saxon Wass Hael, meaning “to your health”. Customs include Twelfth cake, a cake baked with a bean and Pea inside and the people who get these in their helping of cake are declared King and Queen of the Revel. Poor families would take an empty bowl from house to house asking for food and drink. Children would go from door to door with Dolls dressed as Mary and Jesus, which they would show for a penny.
  9. In Hertfordshire, the ceremony of Kicking Judas. People go to a Wheat field at night, and light twelve small fires and a large one, representing Christ and his apostles. The people a circle around the large Fire and made toasts with Cider. One small fire, representing Judas, was kicked out. Then they all went home and ate a cake with a hole in the middle.
  10. In Herefordshire, men went to the oxen barn, and toasted their animals with ale. A large cake with a hole in the middle was put over the horns of the first ox toasted, then the animal was tickled until it tossed its head. If it threw the cake behind it, the mistress of the farm got to keep it, if in front, in what was called the boosy, the bailiff got it. Returning to the main house, they were denied entrance unless they sang songs.

NEW!

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.


His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.


A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?


Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?


Available on Amazon:


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Sunday, 3 January 2021

4 January: The Peasants Revolt

This date in 1341 saw the birth of Wat Tyler, leader of the peasants revolt which took place in 1381. 10 things you might not know about Tyler and the Peasants’ Revolt.

  1. Nobody knows for sure exactly when or where Wat Tyler was born. 1341 is generally accepted as his year of birth, but there are sources which say he was born in 1320. As to where he came from, various sources claim either Dartford, Deptford, Maidstone or Colchester.
  2. Historians aren’t even sure about his name. His first name was presumably Wat, which may have been short for Walter, but his original surname isn’t known – the name Tyler came from the fact that he was a tiler by occupation.
  3. Why Tyler got involved and became the leader isn’t known, either, but a 16th century source speaks of a man called John Tyler, who was inflamed with rage when a poll tax collector pulled up his daughter’s dress to see if she’d reached puberty or not. This Tyler killed the tax collector and kicked off the riot. Perhaps Wat Tyler’s actual name was John; or perhaps John was his brother. Who knows? But by June 1381, when groups of rebels from across the country began their assault on London, Wat Tyler had emerged as a leader of the Kentish forces.
  4. Why did the rebellion happen? People had been becoming increasingly angry about the system of serfdom, in which workers were under the strict control of feudal lords and had no freedom. They couldn’t move to a different area in search of better pay. In some cases they even had to marry who their lord told them to. There was also a pandemic, in this case the Black Death, which had led to a shortage of workers. Under the laws of supply and demand this should have meant wages would go up, but Parliament passed the Statute of Labourers in 1351, which set a maximum wage and workers could be punished with prison if they demanded any more. A radical priest called John Ball had been preaching that all men should be free and equal. So trouble had been brewing for some time.
  5. The last straw was a poll tax. In May 1381 a new tax was introduced, which demanded that every adult in the land paid a tax of four pence, regardless of how much money they had, to fund a war in France which wasn’t going well. People in Essex refused to pay, so an MP and Justice of the Peace called John Bampton showed up in a village called Fobbing to investigate why the tax hadn’t been paid. The residents claimed they’d already paid and tried to send him away but he and his men got heavy handed and a riot broke out. Some say this incident was the origin of the expression “fobbing off” meaning to attempt to satisfy someone with a lie or inferior quality solution. However, the verb “fob” didn’t come into use until the 16th century.
  6. Unrest spread throughout the country after that, culminating in a march on London from Canterbury, led by Wat Tyler. On 13 June, the rebels reached the capital and crossed London Bridge, attacking and killing people, destroying legal records and setting prisoners free. The king, Richard II, who was just 14 at the time, agreed to meet the rebels and made some promises to them. Some rebels were satisfied with that and went home but others, including Tyler, were still unhappy and continued their attacks. Richard and his government were virtually besieged in the Tower of London, so Richard went out to meet the rebels again and negotiate some more, in Mile End, east London. While Richard was at Mile End, the Tower was taken by the rebels.
  7. The following day, Richard and Tyler met at Smithfield. Their meeting seemed to be going well and Richard seemed perfectly willing to meet as many of Tyler’s demands as he reasonably could. Somewhere along the line, though, the wheels came off and ended with Tyler asking for a flagon of Water, taking a mouthful and spitting it at Richard. The king’s servant, Sir John Newton called Tyler "the greatest thief and robber in all Kent". Tyler attacked Newton, but the Lord Mayor of London, William Walworth, stepped in and arrested Tyler, who attempted to stab the mayor, who was saved by his armour. Walworth responded by slashing Tyler across the neck and head with his sword, and another of the king's servants, possibly Ralph de Standish, also joined in the attack on Tyler. Tyler started to ride away but was badly wounded and fell off his Horse. He was taken to hospital but was tracked down by the mayor, brought back to Smithfield and publicly beheaded. Richard II revoked all the concessions he had made to the rebels and many were hunted down and executed.
  8. It wasn’t just the peasants who were revolting. Poor people in the cities and towns were on board, too. There were members of the aristocracy who agreed with the peasants and took an active part in the uprising. Sir Roger Bacon, a knight from the manor of Baconsthorpe and Thomas Gyssing, son of Sir Thomas, who had served as MP for Norfolk in 1380 were just two of them. For this reason, historians argue that “The Peasants’ Revolt” is actually a misnomer and it should be called ‘The Great Revolt’ or the 'English Rising'.
  9. Some conspiracy theorists believe that Tyler wasn’t the leader of the revolt at all but it was actually organised by a secret, occult organisation called "the Great Society", said to be an offshoot of the order of the Knights Templar, or the Freemasons. They argue that the whole thing was too well co-ordinated and spread country-wide rather quickly given that the people back then didn’t have mobile phones or Twitter.
  10. While it seemed that the uprising had failed, over time the serf system did decline, although possibly for economic reasons rather than as a result of the protest. Workers gained more freedom and basic rights in the long term. Governments and rich people were now a little more cautious about taking advantage of the poor. No government collected a Poll Tax again until 1990, and that one caused unrest as well. The events were also said to have had a more personal effect on the 14 year old king, Richard II, making him proud and over-confident, which ultimately led to his downfall in 1399.
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Saturday, 2 January 2021

3 January: 10 things you didn't know about wallpaper

Today is the feast day of St Genevieve, who is the patron saint of wall coverings. 10 things you never knew about wallpaper:

  1. Since the Chinese invented Paper in the first place, it’s hardly surprising that people in China were the first to use wallpaper, back in 200BC.
  2. It was the 16th century before people started using wallpaper in Europe. The earliest known European wallpaper was found on the beams of the Lodge of Christ's College, Cambridge. It was initially used to decorate smaller rooms and cupboards, but later caught on among the aristocracy who used to hang paper scenes on their walls like tapestries.
  3. Wallpaper as we know it came into being in the 17th century when Jean-Michel Papillon began making block designs in identical, repetitive patterns on rolls of paper. It was a slow, laborious process, however, so it was only a matter of time before someone invented a machine to make wallpaper. In 1839 the first wallpaper printing machine was patented by Potters & Ross, a cotton printing firm based in Darwen, Lancashire.
  4. In 1778, Louis XVI issued a decree that required the length of a wallpaper roll be about 34 feet.
  5. Flock wallpaper is made from powdered wool, which is a waste product of the wool industry. A design would be applied to the paper in varnish or glue so that the powdered wool stuck to the design. As well as being fashionable, the paper had the added advantage of repelling Moths due to the turpentine in the adhesive.
  6. At one time, your wallpaper could literally kill you. Green was a popular colour for wallpaper in the 1850s, but the colour was created using arsenic. By the 1870s people had cottoned on to the fact that sleeping in a damp, airtight room left one in danger of being poisoned by fumes coming off the wallpaper. The young and the sick were in particular danger, and so special wallpapers for nurseries and children’s bedrooms started to appear. Not only were these wallpapers free of arsenic, but they were made from oil based pigments so the paper could be sponged down without damaging the colours. The designs were intended to influence impressionable young minds and featured images like cherubs asleep in roses which they thought would encourage the children to go to sleep.
  7. The most expensive wallpaper in the world today is called Les Guerres D’Independence and consists of 32 panels of military scenes created from 19th century woodblock prints. It takes a year to make and would set you back £24,896 in 2006, or £432.83 a metre.
  8. All manufactured patterned wallpaper is based on one of seventeen basic patterns, called wallpaper groups.
  9. In Oliver Cromwell’s time, wallpaper was seen as frivolous and production of it stopped. However, when Charles II was restored, wealthy people started buying it again. It was popular enough that the government of the day saw a money-grabbing opportunity and taxed it. A tax of 1d (0.75p) per yard was levied in 1712, rising to 1.5d (1p) in 1714 and 1.75d (1.25p) in 1777.
  10. In the 21st century, You can get scratch and sniff wallpaper – a tutti-frutti roll costs $550. You can get wallpaper that glows in the dark or black light wallpaper. There’s even wallpaper you can use to light the room, with LED lights incorporated in it. It’s even possible to control and change the pattern of these lights using a Bluetooth app. Finally, in 2012, scientists at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology announced wallpaper which could help stop walls from crumbling during Earthquakes. The wallpaper uses glass fibre reinforcement in several directions and a special adhesive which forms a strong bond with the masonry when dry.

NEW!

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.


His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.


A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?


Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?


Available on Amazon:


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Friday, 1 January 2021

2 January: Granada Day

Today is Granada Day, which commemorates Spain’s capture of the city from the Moors in 1492. 10 things you might not know about Granada.

  1. It's the capital of Andalusia, in Spain, and is located at the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
  2. The population is around 232,000.
  3. The city's name comes from the time it was occupied by the Moors and derives from an Arabic word meaning "Hill of Strangers." It became an important city when their ruler decided to live there instead of in al-Andalus because it was on higher ground and easier to defend.
  4. In Spanish, the word "granada" means Pomegranate and so the pomegranate is the symbol of the city.
  5. On 2 January 1492, Muhammad XII surrendered Granada to Ferdinand II of Aragon and Isabella I of Castile. At first, the Muslims living there were told they could continue to practice their faith, but in time, they faced persecution, exile and even execution if they didn't convert. All the mosques were either demolished or turned into Christian churches.
  6. Some Muslim architecture did survive – Granada has two UNESCO World Heritage sites which both date back to before 1492 – the Alhambra and the Generalife. The Alhambra (from the Arabic for "red palace") is a walled town and military stronghold dating back to the 11th century. It was where the Moorish rulers lived and later became the home of the Catholic monarchs. Hence it was here that Christopher Columbus made his request for Queen Isabella's support for the expedition that would result in the discovery of America. It is the most visited tourist attraction in Spain with about 6,000 visitors a day. The Generalife is a garden attached to the Alhambra as a place for the rulers to relax.
  7. Other tourist attractions in Granada include the Cathedral, the Royal Chapel where the Catholic monarchs were buried, the Charterhouse, a monastery founded in 1506 parts of which are considered masterpieces of Baroque art. There's also a mosque in the city again now, the Mosque of Granada, inaugurated in 2003, and a museum dedicated to perfumes.
  8. Another reason tourists might make for Granada is that there is Skiing to be had. 35km away there is a ski resort with 105km of piste and which hosted the Alpine World Ski Championships in 1996. The area is known for its high proportion of sunny days, even in winter.
  9. Granada's twin cities include Aix-en-Provence, France, Marrkech in Morocco and Coral Gables in Florida, USA.
  10. There are four rivers in Granada, the Genil, Darro, Dilar and Guadalfeo.


NEW!

Who's That Girl?

Matt Webster lives in a tower block and attends a failing school. He dreams of being a spy like James Bond. Little does he know that he is being watched by someone who can make him into even more than that – a superhero.


His first solo mission is to attend a ball at the Decembrian Embassy and discover who is planning to steal a priceless diamond. While there, he meets the mysterious Lady Antonia du Cane, and is powerfully drawn to her. It soon becomes clear, however, that Lady du Cane is not what she seems. Matt’s quest to discover who she really is almost costs him his career.


A modern day Guy Fawkes gathers a coterie around him with the aim of blowing up Parliament with a nuclear bomb. To achieve this, they need money. Lots of it. Selling the Heart of Decembria Diamond will provide more than enough. All that stands in their way is the Freedom League – but the League is beset by internal disagreements. Can the heroes put their differences aside in time to save the day?


Prime Minister Richard Miller and his wife Fiona grieve for their daughter, Yasmin, who has been missing for three years, and is presumed to be dead. Viper agent Violet Parker could hold the key to what happened to Yasmin, but Violet is accused of giving away the organisation’s secrets. She is to be executed without trial. Will she take her knowledge of what happened to Yasmin with her to her grave?


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