The Lake District Murder

Theatre director and producer Ernest Elmore wrote thirty detective novels under the name John Bude, of which The Lake District Murder was one of the earliest. It was first published in 1935 and has been republished as part of the British Library Crime Classics series.

The Lake District Murder is the earliest Inspector Meredith story, the Inspector appearing in most of Bude's novels. In this case, Meredith investigates the apparent suicide of the owner of a remote roadside petrol station in the Lake District. As the case progresses we see that it was murder not suicide and wrapped up in a complicated plot involving illegal whisky stills.

As a detective novel The Lake District Murder works very well. Meredith is meticulous and thorough though sometimes the novel goes into a little too much detail. The part of the investigation that involves weights and measures for example could probably have done with a little editing!

For a second novel though it is excellent work. Bude manages to portray the geography of the setting very well. The Lake District becomes one of the principal characters.

Book 3 submitted

I have sent the materials for book 3, on the railway stations of the West Midlands, has been sent to the publisher. Book 2 could come out next April, about a year after i submitted those materials so i guess that third book may come out in August or September next year.

I do have plans for two more books so hopefully the publisher will ask me if i want to proceed with them and my career as an author will continue. So, here are some photographs from West Midlands railway stations, i think they will all be in the book!

Jetliners of the Red Star

The first aircraft i ever flew on was a Tupolev Tu-154 from London to Leningrad when i went to the Soviet Union in the late 1980s for political indoctrination a school trip. Thus, my love of Soviet era airliners was born, and this book by Charles Kennedy on Soviet era airliners is right up my street... or flight path.

A very well illustrated and written book covering Soviet jet airliners from the Tu-104 to the 204 and the other Tupolev, Ilyushin (my return flight was on an Il-62, nice but the Tu-154 was cooler) and Yakovlev types in between. 

Many of these aircraft are no longer in service, especially in Western skies which is a shame as the Airbus-Boeing duopoly can be a bit tedious at times. I did enjoy seeing the regular Bulgarian Tu-154 flight into Birmingham Airport up until a few years ago, and regular Sukhoi Superjet flights in as well (not since the Ukraine War began of course).

Highly recommended.

Tom & Jerry Annual 1972

If you are familiar with the Tom & Jerry cartoons as shown on TV then you will find the annuals (the classic ones anyway) very different. For a start, the characters talk and often the story isn't "Tom trying to catch Jerry" but something often quite surreal as they have adventures both together and against each other... all with dialogue thats all quite hip (or was in say the 1950s).

Some of the stories in this annual for example include Tom as a hairdresser (trying to cut a lion's hair) or trying to take a photo of an elusive snow rabbit. There are also a few comic strips starring Spike and Tyke, a pair of bulldogs.

What i like most about these stories are the ones that take place in Tom's house, especially behind the walls where Jerry lives with his friend Tuffy. The one where Tom forces Jerry and Tuffy do some home improvements for him is a highlight.

Churches of Warwickshire (2) : St Michael, Ufton

Ufton is a village in Warwickshire a few miles to the south east of Leamington Spa. The parish church of St Michael has 13th century origins, most likely a simple nave and chancel.

There were additions to the church made in the next two centuries. The church has a four bay aisled nave and a two bay chancel. A clerestory was added in the 16th century. The west tower has three stages which were added over time though most of it was built in the 14th century, the third stage being added in the 15th century.

The church is built from squared coursed lias and limestone with sandstone dressings.

Murder Underground

The British Library have re-published dozens of Golden Age crime novels, many by authors now largely forgotten. Mavis Doriel Hay wrote three crime novels in the mid-1930s of which this, Murder Underground, was the first.

Like many Golden Age authors her career was cut short by the Second World War and the chaos caused during and after it, she never added to her three novels post-war. Though she did write some non-fiction books in the 1950s and 1970s.

Her first novel Murder Underground, which deals with the investigation (largely by amateurs) of the murder of a woman at Belsize Park tube station, can be best thought of as "promising". The set-up of the story is well done and interesting but unfortunately the story meanders a bit too much with the characters being rather one-dimensional and mostly rather unlikeable.

Towards the end of the book though it really starts to pick up once the story seems to get some direction and the ending is excellent, it is just a shame the earlier two-thirds of the book are a bit lacking.

Overall though a good enough read, and it has a lovely painting of a 1938 Tube Stock train (some photos of a preserved one below) on the cover!

Britain's Buses in the Seventies

Two of my favourite things: old buses and the 1970s in one book, so how can this be anything other than awesome? Actually, it isn't quite as good as it could have been. All of the photographs inside are black and white, which does take a way some of the atmosphere a bit. However, this is a great nostalgic read.

The book, by E.L Cornwell and John Parke in 1976, covers all sorts of bus operations and operators across the country. What i like most with these kinds of books are the details alongside the actual bus. By that i mean the shops, the street scenes, and, yes, even the fashions. All very enjoyable.

As the book has no bus photographs in colour (apart from on the cover), here are a few photographs of preserved buses from that period, and of my 1970s youth.

Vertical take-off fighter aircraft

Considering how many different designs of fighter aircraft there have been over the years, and how useful it would be to have them be able to Vertically Take Off and Land (VTOL) to avoid being stuck on vulnerable air fields, it is a surprise that there have been so few successful VTOL fighters. The Harrier, the JSF and a few Yakovlevs and that is it.

However, as Bill Rose's excellent book from 2013 shows, that hasn't been for lack of trying. The reason so few have succeeded is down to one simple reason: it is hard. Dozens of designs have existed since the Second World War. A few made it as far as flying test beds, i particularly like the Ryan X-13 tail sitter, the noise of it taking off or landing must have been epic. 

Very very few designs ever made it into service, they are mentioned above and are given coverage in this book though i found some of the more outlandish concepts that never made it beyond the drawing board most interesting. 

One design which definitely did make it beyond the drawing board was the iconic Harrier, here are a couple of photographs of Harrier jump jets from the RAF museums at Cosford and London.

Looking back at bulk carriers

One of my favourite things is looking at photographs of hard working vehicles, whether on land, at sea or in the air. They don't have the glamour of some forms of transportation such as ocean liners or express locomotives, but are just as - and arguably more - vital to the world. So, there are plenty of examples of these in Andrew Wiltshire's book Looking back at bulk carriers.

As the introduction of the book says, the bulk carrier is the real workhorse of the sea, plying loads such as iron ore and coal across the world. This book is full of superb photographs of these workhorses, which have been superbly reproduced.

The Mayfair Mystery

Some of my favourite novels these days are the detective and mystery stories from the first half of the twentieth century (mostly between the two world wars), known as "Golden Age of Detective" fiction. Stereotypically these stories are thought to always involve mysteries in country houses investigated by keen amateurs. Though there was a lot more to these stories that that.

The Mayfair Mystery, also known as 2835 Mayfair, to be honest it does not sit that comfortably in the genre at all. It was written by Frank Collins Richardson before the First World War and later reissued as part of the Collins Detective Club.

Although an enjoyable and witty read, as the book progresses you are not sure what kind of story it is, is it a crime novel or something else a little more esoteric? It is something else but you arn't really sure what that something is until the ending.

The story actually is pretty preposterous and only a skilled author could get away with it, luckily this is the case here. The characters are well drawn and you do care about them in the end which is always a hallmark of a good story. The best thing about it though is the reproduction Collins Detective Club cover.

Churches of Warwickshire (1) : St Peter, Dunchurch

The parish church of St Peter in Dunchurch is thought to have early Norman origins though little if anything of that original church remains after a rebuilding in the 13th and 14th centuries. The tower was an addition in the 15th. The church was restored and modified in the Victorian era as with so many medieval churches.

The church is in the Decorated and Perpendicular style of English Gothic architecture. The Decorated style was the middle stage of English Gothic and is so named because of the greater amount of ornaments and decorations. The Perpendicular style was the final stage of English Gothic architecture and is characterised by large windows (although maybe not so much in a smaller parish church compared to a cathedral) and straight vertical and horizontal lines.

The church has an aisled nave and a chancel, the latter gained a north aisle in the 19th century. The church is mostly built from sandstone ashlar.

The Falklands War

To someone like myself who remembers the Falklands War of 1982 very vividly (maybe the most abiding TV memory of my childhood) a graphic novel telling the story of that war at first appears a bit strange. But then again graphic novels of WW2 and even more recent conflicts like Vietnam are common and for some people they are still vivid memories, so why not?

And indeed this is a very beautiful piece of work with excellent artwork. To fit the whole conflict into the confines of one volume was difficult, and at times the story races along at breakneck speed and also puts somewhat odd speech into the "characters'" mouths in order to advance the narrative sufficiently.

I did notice a couple of inaccuracies with the events portrayed here but something only a military or history geek would really pick up on.

This is a very good piece of work indeed.

Argentinian Pucara at RAF Cosford museum

My career as an author to date

So, i don't just review books that other people have read, i also write books... well book, as i only have one published so far. This came out last year, Birmingham's Railways, and is available in all good book shops. My second book, on the railway stations of Warwickshire, is set to be released in April 2026.

Now, I am just finishing my third book, on the railway stations of the West Midlands. This will be submitted to the publisher later this month, i assume it will be released sometime next year. I do have some plans for future books but i will just have to see if anyone is interested.

It is amazing the thrill you get when you see a book that you have written in Waterstones (other book shops are available), and being a published author has made me pretty chuffed. It won't make me rich but money isn't everything. I spent my royalties for my first year on a decent filter coffee machine so i have invested well in my future career as an author.

The Sween(e)y

The Sweeney was one of the most iconic TV series of the 1970s and of course quite a few tie-in novels were written, of which this was the first. It was written by the same bloke who wrote the original teleplay (Ian Kennedy Martin) and many episodes in the series too. Though the first thing to notice is that Sweeney is spelt "Sweeny" on the front cover and spine! Luckily, it is spelt correctly throughout the actual book...

In the story a US cop comes over to London to join an investigation... and my heart immediately sank. The British were obsessed with adding Americans to stories at the time but my fears were needless as the story works out very well and the characterisations arn't far off either - though Regan is truer to the earlier feel of the show with Jack as a loner who hated everyone (and being mostly mutual) and not how the show developed with Jack and George Carter forming one of the best double acts in TV history.

Oh Jack Regan, what a hero. The 70s idea of a hero too, nowadays TV detectives tend to be groomed and buff. Jack Regan was an Old Spice man fuelled by Scotch and the only "Jim" he knew was the bloke he gave a kicking to in the cells last week...

A Losing Game

I have read a number of books by Freeman Wills Crofts before and always enjoyed them (indeed he is one of my favourite "Golden Age" authors) and so expected no less than excellence from this book, first published in 1941. It is billed as an Inspector French mystery though the detective does not appear until quite some way into the book.

The set-up is good, involving a blackmailer who is found dead in a burnt down house. The coroner determines that the man did not die in the fire, and was dead beforehand which turns the case into murder. A young foolish man becomes the main suspect and is charged by police even though we know he is innocent but there is a lot of evidence against him. Luckily, the man's sister know Inspector French from the Yard and helps bring him into the case.

At first it does not look like French can find the real culprit, but some detailed and well thought out plotting and deduction from the evidence helps turn the tide. The ending really ups the pace as the murderer begins to compound his crimes in order to escape...

An excellent read, Inspector French is a very good character. A thoughtful and serious policeman who isn't tortured by inner demons as fictional detectives so often became in more recent decades. A complicated crime and an enjoyable unravelling of the case.

The Electronic Calculator

In many ways the little electronic calculator, introduced to the mass market in the early 1970s, was the first personal computer. Now calculators are everywhere but back in the 1970s they were still fairly novel and even a bit mysterious, this book from 1976 by Claude Birtwistle is here to help!

It explains what calculators actually are, and how to operate them. Now this might seem so simple nowadays that it barely needs mentioning but we must remember that in the 1970s few people had access to electronic or computerised devices as they do now. Plus during my years working in IT i have found it essential to never under-estimate how clueless the user might be...

The sections on using the calculator memory and constants are actually pretty useful. I use a Commodore 776M (contemporary with the book) as my daily driver so hopefully this book can help with my future calculations.

The sections on using calculators for managing your money are, probably, also very helpful but i don't have any money so i can't say exactly how useful they might be. The one criticism i have with this book is that it does not have any photographs of suitably retro 1970s calculators so here are a few from my large calculator collection.

Trident Tankers Ltd

I love an obscure maritime history book me, and this one on the entry of P&O into the oil and gas tanker trade certainly qualifies. 

In fact, this is a rather excellent book, packed full of photographs of small tankers and their operations, many from the author who served on some of the ships included here.

I also enjoy some of the technical information presented here such as the pump and line arrangement in some of the tankers. This is the kind of information that you will be hard pressed to find anywhere else except maybe in very niche (and expensive) technical journals. Of course, why you would ever need the information is a question, but personally one i do not feel you ever need to ask.

A wonderful book.

Sopwith F.1/2F.1 Camel (Haynes Manual)

Once Haynes only did car manuals, intended for car owners to keep their vehicles on the road without needing to call on the professionals, but a number of years ago decided opened their horizons much further afield and cover topics ranging from outer space to submarines... and aviation. 

So, here is a Haynes manual for the iconic Sopwith Camel, the first truly famous British aeroplane. It could, of course, be of use for owners of the World War 1 icon but the vast majority of readers will never own the plane, so is the book worth having?

Haynes manuals are very good value for the money, very readable and very well presented. These manuals for historic vehicles usually include a potted history of the type in question and then go on to technical details as to how it was built and how it can be maintained. The Camel book is no exception. The history of the Camel also includes a brief history of the origins of the RAF. Its a good read but maybe should have been gone in to a little more depth.

The technical portion of the manual does goes into depth on how the Camel was built. I find with these manuals there tend to be sections of interest and others which i skip over. The section on starting the engine for example is very good.

So yet again a good Haynes manual, and if ever i manage to get myself a Sopwith Camel (which isn't in 1:72 scale) i'll know how keep it all together!

Two views of F6314 at the RAF Museum, London

F6314 is an F.1 variant built by Boulton & Paul