20 February: Gloria Vanderbilt

Gloria Vanderbilt, US fashion designer and heiress, famous for developing designer jeans, was born on this date in 1924. 10 things you might not know about her:

1. She was born into a wealthy family, her grandfather being Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt, a railway and shipping tycoon. Her father, Reginald Claypoole Vanderbilt, was also a railway magnate. As soon as she was born, she inherited a trust fund worth $2.5 million dollars ($40 million in today's Money).
2. All that dosh didn't make for a happy childhood, though. Her father was an alcoholic, and died of cirrhosis of the liver when she was a few months old. Her mother, not wanting to give up her lavish lifestyle, dragged the young Gloria to Paris on a regular basis so that she could go on shopping trips and parties with her friends and her identical twin sister, Thelma, who was mistress to the future King Edward VIII.
3. Meanwhile, her paternal aunt Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, watched all this with horror and fearing for young Gloria's welfare, sued for custody. The ensuing trial was a media circus with the press picking up on all manner of inappropriate things Gloria's mother allegedly did, like leaving erotic photos lying around for the girl to find, and teaching her how to mix cocktails. Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney won primary custody in the end, possibly as a result of testimonies young Gloria gave to the judge in private. Even so the press managed to learn that Gloria had said that she wished she could live with her aunt as her mother didn't pay her much attention. Later in life, however, Gloria confessed that she remembered her aunt coaching her on what to say. Living with her aunt didn't really work out, either, since Gertrude imposed strict rules and Gloria felt stifled by her stuffiness. At 17, she dropped out of school and left to live with her mother in California.
4. Soon after that, she married for the first time, to Pat Di Cicco, an acting agent. The marriage lasted four years. Gloria confessed in later life that he was violently abusive.
5. Gloria was married four times in all. Her second husband was the conductor Leopold Stokowski, who was 40 years older than she was. That marriage lasted ten years and they had two sons. Vanderbilt’s third marriage was to film director Sidney Lumet – seven years. Her fourth and final marriage was to Wyatt Emory Cooper. She had two more sons with him, and the marriage lasted until he died.
6. One of her sons with Cooper is Anderson Cooper, who is a CNN news anchor. Her other son, Carter, killed himself when he was 23. Gloria saw it happen; she tried, but failed, to stop him.
7. While most famous for her denim jeans with the swan logo (she had spent some time dabbling in acting, and the first play she appeared in was entitled The Swan) she was also an artist and writer. She wrote memoirs, including A Mother’s Tale, about losing her son, and The Rainbow Comes and Goes, a dual memoir with her son Anderson, in 2017. She was in her 80s when she wrote an erotic novel, Obsession: An Erotic Tale, which horrified some of her more straight-laced friends. She once said that when seeking inspiration she would open a dictionary at random and let her creativity take over.
8. She only wore nail polish on one finger: the left ring finger. “In mythology and palmistry, the left hand is called the dreamer because the ring finger on the left hand leads directly to the Heart,” she explained. “I find it a very poetic idea.”
9. It has been said that Truman Capote’s character Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany's was based on her.
10. When she was 95, her son Anderson persuaded her to get an Instagram account, and she took to it immediately, quickly gaining more than 200,000 followers. “I have such fun deciding what I am going to post,” she said. She could even have become a victim of social media addiction - “Of course, I am tempted to post all day long, but Anderson warned me I shouldn’t get carried away,” she added.

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:

Paperback

E-Book

19 February: 50

Today is the 50th day of the year, so here are some things you might not know about the number 50:

1. 50 is the atomic number of Tin.
2. There are 50 states in the USA. The most recent addition and therefore the 50th state, is Hawaii, and it is from this that we get the name of the police drama Hawaii 5-0. In turn, 5-0 as slang for police officers or a warning that the cops are coming derives from the TV show.
3. 50% is equivalent to one half. Hence the term "fifty-fifty" for something divided equally in two. It's also the percent of genetic overlap of a parent and offspring.
4. The 50th year of something is its golden anniversary.
5. 50 Cent is the stage name of Curtis James Jackson III, an American rapper, songwriter, television producer, actor, and entrepreneur known for his impact in the hip hop industry. He named himself after Kelvin Martin, a 1980s Brooklyn robber known as "50 Cent". Jackson says he chose it as a metaphor for change and to symbolise that he will provide for himself by any means.
6. In Roman numerals the number 50 is denoted by the letter L; in the binary number system 50 is 110010; and in the hexadecimal number system it's 32.
7. In religion, the Jewish Kabbalah mentions 50 Gates of Wisdom (or Understanding) and 50 Gates of Impurity; and in Christianity Pentecost takes place on the 50th day of the Easter Season as the first Pentecost occurred 50 days after Christ’s resurrection.
8. In 2016 the singer Rick Astley released an album entitled 50.
9. The "Great Escape" was a World War II mass escape from the German prisoner-of-war camp Stalag Luft III. It resulted in the execution of 50 recaptured escapees, who became known as "The Fifty".
10. In numerology, the essence of 50 is varied experience, freedom and adventure. People with 50 in their numerology chart will seek out new places, new ideas and things they haven't tried before. They have a wide range of interests and enjoy social interaction.

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:

Paperback

E-Book

18 February: Batteries

Today is Battery Day, so here are 10 things you might not know about batteries:

1. The word battery was coined by Benjamin Franklin to describe the multiple Leyden jars he used in his experiments. He took the word from the military term “battery”, meaning a group of weapons working together.
2. It's possible people were using batteries two thousand years ago. In 1938 some archaeologists in Iraq found a 5 inch clay jar containing a vinegar solution and an iron rod surrounded by a Copper cylinder. The device produced 1.1 to 2.0 volts of Electricity. Nobody knew what its makers used it for.
3. The first battery as we know it was invented by Italian physicist Alessandro Volta in 1798. It consisted of a stack of copper and Zinc plates, separated by brine-soaked Paper disks. He called it the voltaic pile. He didn't quite understand how the thing worked, that it was fuelled by chemical reactions and wasn't inexhaustible. However, the voltage of such early batteries wasn't constant enough for them to be of any practical use. It was 1836 before British chemist John Frederic Daniell invented a more reliable device called the Daniell cell, which could be used to power electrical telegraph networks.
4. Rechargeable batteries came along in 1859 after French physicist Gaston Plante invented the Lead acid cell.
5. The largest rechargeable battery in the world is located in Fairbanks, Alaska, where it is used as a backup source of power to be used during outages.
6. Batteries work best at a temperature of 20-30 degrees C. Extreme heat and cold are both damaging to them. On a related note, if you've ever wondered why smoke alarms seem to beep a lot at night, it's because the air has cooled and slowed down the chemical reactions, making the power lower than it would be during the day and more likely to trip the device's low battery detector. That said, storing batteries at lower temperatures when not in use can extend their life.
7. There is a battery-powered bell at Oxford University which has been continuously ringing for more than 175 years. No one knows what the battery is made of and no one wants to take the device apart to find out.
8. A common experiment in school science lessons is to make batteries out of pieces of fruit or vegetables, like Potatoes. They don't produce enough power to be useful, however. If you happen to have some nuclear waste and artificial Diamonds hanging around, it's possible to make a battery that will last centuries.
9. A battery is made from four main components: a positive electrode, a negative electrode, an electrolyte and a separator. This is true no matter how big or small they are.
10. While there will be an expiration date on a box of batteries, they can still be used after this date. They may be slightly less efficient but they can still be used.

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:

Paperback

E-Book

17 February: Ash Wednesday

In 2021, today is Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent. Here are 10 things you might not know about Ash Wednesday:

1. It's not on the same date every year because it is linked to the date of Easter. It can occur as early as 4 February or as late as 10 March.
2. Ash Wednesday gets its name from the practice of placing ashes on the foreheads of the congregation as a sign of mourning and repentance. Not just any old ashes, either – the ashes used are from the burning of last year's Palm Sunday palms.
3. It's the start of Lent, which is a period of 40 days of self-sacrifice, which is observed in numerous ways from abstaining from food completely until sunset, abstaining from meat for the duration or simply giving up a guilty pleasure until Easter, such as smoking, Chocolate or television.
4. However, if you count the days between now and Easter on a calendar, it's actually 46 days, not 40. That's because, traditionally, people didn't fast on Sundays.
5. Ash Wednesday isn't mentioned in the Bible. In fact, it wasn't a thing at all until about the 11th century. The only potential link is the connection made in the Bible between ashes and grief, repentance or fasting, which isn't tied to a specific date or ceremony. That is the reason not all Christian denominations celebrate it. The Eastern Orthodox Church, Mormons, Evangelicals, and Pentecostal Christians all give it a miss.
6. For those who want to observe it, but can't fit in attending a church service on a weekday, "Ashes to Go" has become a thing, especially in the USA, and in Sunderland in the UK. For people who can't get to church, the church will come to them – ministers will go out into the city centres, in public places like railway stations, even at Traffic Lights so you can get ashed up while waiting for a green light. In fact, since the application of ashes isn't a holy sacrament, it doesn't even have to be done by a member of the clergy, so people can take a bag of ashes home and apply them to the foreheads of people who weren't able to get to church.
7. In Victorian times, theatres refrained from putting on costumed shows on Ash Wednesday, although entertainment in which people didn't dress up was allowed.
8. In Iceland, Ash Wednesday is a bit like Halloween. Children dress up in costumes and go about singing songs in exchange for sweets. Another custom there is for kids to carry small bags of ashes which they surreptitiously pin on to people's backs.
9. In Ireland, Ash Wednesday is also National No Smoking Day, which ties in nicely with giving up the fags for Lent. In the UK, the first National No Smoking Day in 1984 was held on Ash Wednesday, too, but it has since been fixed as the second Wednesday in March.
10. In St Paul's Cathedral in London, Ash Wednesday sees the annual Cakes and Ale Sermon. This started when Alderman John Norton left money to the Stationers Company for the purpose of refreshments of cake and ale on Ash Wednesday. After the cake and ale is all gone, members of the company parade in livery to the cathedral where the Company Chaplain gives the Cakes and Ale Sermon in the crypt.

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:

Paperback

E-Book

16 February: 47

Today is the 47th day of the year. 10 things you might not know about the number 47:

1. 47 is the atomic number of Silver.
2. +47 is the international dialling code for Norway.
3. The ancient Mesopotamians discovered that Mars has a 47 year cycle, taking that amount of time to return to the same position among the stars and the same relationship to the Earth and the Sun.
4. In 1964, a professor called Donald Bentley of Pomona College, California, wrote a joke mathematical proof that all numbers equal 47, to introduce his students to the concept of the mathematical proof. It led to 47 being a favourite number of the college and its students.
5. It didn't stop there, since one graduate of that college was one Joe Menosky, who went on to become a Star Trek: The Next Generation story writer. He took his affection for the number 47 with him, and hence 47 shows up quite a lot in the Star Trek franchise since then. The Enterprise was built in Sector 47 of the Riverside Shipyards. 47 Klingon ships are said to have been destroyed by Nero's ship, the Narada. The computer of the Enterprise reports to have found 47 occurrences of the word "Darmok" in its database. And so on.
6. There's more. One of the Star Trek producers who became infected with 47 mania was J. J. Abrams, who went on to make frequent use of the number in subsequent films and TV shows he has directed, The final sequence of Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol takes place on Pier 47; In Star Wars: The Force Awakens, the thermal oscillator is located in Precinct 47 – to name just two.
7. One of the founders of the Brooklyn-based hip hop collective Pro Era, Jamal Dewar, better known by his stage name Capital Steez, was another big fan of the number. According to him, 47 is a perfect expression of balance in the world, representing the conflicts between the Heart and the Brain (the fourth and seventh chakras).
8. There was an incident in Japanese history which has become legendary – the story of the 47 Ronin. Ronin is a word for a Samurai without a leader. The 47 found themselves in this position when their leader, Asano Naganori, was compelled to perform seppuku (ritual suicide) for assaulting a court official named Kira Yoshinaka. The 47 spent a year planning revenge on Kira, and in due course, killed him. This meant they all had to perform seppuku as a punishment for murder. The story represents the kind of loyalty, sacrifice, persistence, and honour Japanese people should aspire to. Incidentally, there are 47 Prefectures of Japan.
9. Agent 47 is a character in the video game Hitman and its spin offs. He is, as the name suggests, a paid assassin who shows no emotion and is extremely efficient. He's a clone, the 47th clone to be created in an army of genetically engineered hit men.
10. In numerology, the number 47 is all about relationships and building teams and relationships that will prosper. A person who has the number in their numerology profile will be diplomatic, co-operative intuitive and pragmatic. They're good at dealing with people and will do so in a sensitive way. They probably belong to a number of social groups for different purposes and feel lost and lonely if they find themselves alone.

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:

Paperback

E-Book

15 February: The Angel of the North

On this date in 1998, the Angel of the North was installed on a hill at Low Eighton in Lamesley parish, overlooking the A1 road. Here are 10 things you might not know about it:

1. The statue stands on the site of a former colliery pithead, which was re-claimed and earmarked for a sculpture in 1990.
2. The Angel was created by contemporary artist Antony Gormley, and the body of the angel is said to have been based on Gormley’s own body.
3. Somewhat bigger, of course. The Angel is 20 metres (66 ft) high, the height of a five story building or four double decker Buses on top of each other. It weighs 200 tonnes – the body 100 tonnes and the wings 50 tonnes each. The wings measure 54 metres (177 ft) across, which is longer than a Boeing 757 or 767 jet, and just 4 metres shorter than a jumbo jet. The wings are angled 3.5 degrees forward to suggest an embrace.
4. It’s exposed location means the Angel needed some serious weather-proofing. It is made of weather resistant Cor-ten steel, containing a small amount of Copper. There is enough steel in it to make 16 double decker buses or four Chieftain tanks. 700 tonnes of concrete and 32 tonnes of reinforcing steel were used to create the foundations, and it’s anchored to bedrock 20 metres below ground level. This means the Angel can withstand winds of over 100 mph (160 km/h).
5. The Red colour is caused by rust, which you might be surprised to learn, actually protects the metal underneath.
6. It is Britain’s largest statue (although not the largest sculpture since the ArcelorMittal Orbit in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in Stratford, London is 114.5-metres high) and the largest statue of an Angel anywhere in the world.
7. As with many monumental structures, The Angel of the North received a mixed reception at first. According to Gormley, it was a tribute to a forgotten industrial age and the work of the Coal miners and steel workers of the region. He wanted it to mark the transition from an industrial to an information age; and thirdly, to serve as a focus for our evolving hopes and fears. Detractors nicknamed it The Gateshead Flasher; there were fears that it would interfere with TV reception and cause car accidents due to people gawping at it as they drove past. The latter was solved by letting trees grow at the spot where the road passes closest to the statue to hide it from view. Now, however, it has become iconic enough to be used by the long-running television detective show Vera to help establish the setting of the series in Northumberland.
8. There are in existence several maquettes of the angel (a maquette being a sculptor’s equivalent of a rough sketch). Anyone lucky enough to own one is sitting on a fortune. A bronze maquette owned by Gateshead Council was valued at £1 million on Antiques Roadshow in 2008—the most valuable item ever appraised on the programme. German fashion designer Wolfgang Joop kept a life size maquette in the garden of his mansion in Potsdam, Germany until he sold it at auction at Christie's in London. It went for £3.4 million to an anonymous bidder. Another was donated to the National Gallery of Australia in 2009, and now stands in its Sculpture Garden.
9. The components were transported by night in a convoy—the body on a 48-wheel trailer—from the construction site in Hartlepool, 28 miles (45 km) up the A19 road to the installation site. The journey took five hours and crowds turned out to watch.
10. A Daffodil with a distinct reddish colour has been registered with the Royal Horticultural Society and officially named the ‘Angel of the North Daffodil’.

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:

Paperback

E-Book

14 February: 10 Quotes about Love

 For Valentine’s Day: 10 quotes about love:

1. Love consists in this, that two solitudes protect and touch and greet each other. Rainer Maria Rilke
2. He is not a lover who does not love forever. Euripides
3. When I saw you, I fell in love, and you smiled because you knew. William Shakespeare
4. Life is the flower for which love is the honey. Victor Hugo
5. To be loved is all I need, And whom I love, I love indeed. Samuel Taylor Coleridge
6. Each time that one loves is the only time one has ever loved. Oscar Wilde
7. When love is not madness, it is not love. Spanish proverb
8. A dandelion from a true love means more than a red rose from a friend.
9. Love doesn't always come in convenient packages. Stephenie Meyer
10. Love doesn't make the world go round. Love is what makes the ride worthwhile. Franklin P Jones

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:

Paperback

E-Book