At the weekend i headed to Attenborough in Nottinghamshire. There i revisited the nature reserve (former gravel pits) and then walked along the Trent until i reached the Beeston Cut (or canal). A nice walk with some good scenery, and plenty of boats too!
You can see my photos of the Attenborough nature reserve here, and my photos of the Beeston Cut here.
Maybe the main problem is that the story is narrated by and involves a rather unpleasant individual, a womanising con man, who is framed for the murder of his ex-wife. He is doggedly pursued by the police who are convinced he is the man even if a lot of evidence is circumstantial. If we are to believe the narrator, he is innocent but then again, maybe that is the ultimate con.
The story isn't bad, and indeed is an interesting take on a crime drama, but i found it hard to warm to any of the characters. A decent enough page turner to keep you occupied on the bus to work but not much more.
Pure childhood nostalgia : the amazing TV series of Gerry Anderson such as Thunderbirds and Stingray captivated a generation of youth. TV21 was a comic off-shoot of the amazing universe Anderson's team created, and this is the first collection of comic strips from that comic of the late 1960s and early 70s, which i personally never read before though i do have an old Thunderbirds annual somewhere...
The stories are fast paced and exciting though lack a little depth. The bad guys always seem to manage to pull a secret underground base out of nowhere. The likeness of the characters also varies which makes it a bit confusing sometimes to tell who is who, though of course the characters were puppets. Conversely, when an artist went too far to make their drawings match the puppets it looked a little odd. So, basically you can't win! These are just minor niggles though, the stories are an amazing thrill ride. Just read them as you would when you were 12.
Freed of the restraints of puppets the comics show a lot more physical action by the characters than on TV of course. Characters get into fist fights, fall down mountains or even get tied to ballistic missiles as in the case of Lady Penelope. The futuristic toys are still there too of course and this is where the true nostalgia hits me. Nostalgia for an age when the future was impossibly exciting and positive. These are comics written before the Oil Shock of course.
The Century 21 future doesn't have economic and environmental collapse, religious fundamentalism or resource depletion. Instead it has hypersonic nuclear powered airliners, cities in the stars and Lady Penelope in her pink Rolls-Royce.
This excellent little book by Andrew Martin covers (no pun intended) the story of moquette on London's transport from the earliest designs up until the Elizabeth Line.
The book is lavishly illustrated with colour images of all of the moquette patterns used and images and information of how the designs were developed and used. There is also a section on how moquettes are made. This is easily one of the better books on transport history, a niche yet highly important subject.
I had all of the original series books, as well as some audio book versions which were recorded by Johnny Morris. The books might be in my parents' attic somewhere but i decided to buy a couple of the original series anyway to have a bit of a nostalgic hit...
The first one i got was Mountain Engines, set on a rack railway that climbs the mountain Culdee Fell. As i read it the memories came flooding back, lovely stories to grasp a childhood imagination and i was reminded of how beautiful the original artwork was by Gunvor and Peter Edwards.
In nearly all of the stories Tom is no longer chasing the mice but instead being menaced by ghosts or trying to become a TV advert star. Of course, if the comic strip had continued to the present day nowadays Tom would be trying to be an influencer. Well thats a thought!
The best story however is a little more traditional (and has the classic era artwork natch). In one of my favourite Tom & Jerry stories of all, Tom takes up knitting and confused by this change of behaviour Jerry and Tuffy begin a scientific study of the cat.
Superb stuff, one of the best Tom & Jerry annuals.
However, the GDR did make an attempt to built their own domestic jet airliner, the Baade 152 but this futuristic looking bird never made it to production. Interflug struggled for a long time and were quite unprofitable at the end, having being unable to get more advanced and efficient aircraft to replace their ageing Soviet ones, apart from a single Airbus.
This is a story of the aircraft, the people and the operations. This includes the special flights used by the GDR secret police and military. I suspect service on these flights was somewhat spartan.
A very enjoyable read, the book is superb and has been very well put together with excellent design, material and good writing.
For a change i went off on a rail adventure on a Friday instead of a Saturday due to the weather forecast (though to be honest Saturday didn't turn out that badly anyway). I did not go that far, going to Hinckley in Leicestershire. It is one of these towns that i have visited once before and a return trip was long overdue (though you can partially blame Covid for that maybe).
Hinckley is a nice little town. The church of St Mary was open, which is always nice. You can see my photos here.
Locomotives and, to a lesser extent, multiple units usually are the focus of attention but rolling stock is just as vital. After all, without coaches and wagons the mighty locomotives would have nothing to do! This excellent book by Hugh Longworth covers the huge British Rail coaching stock fleet of the 1970s from first class compartment stock to the humble newspaper van.
Each type of coach included comes with a plan diagram showing the internal layout. The photographs are well reproduced, the text is very informative. Although most coaches have long since departed the network for the breaker's yard its nice to see that quite a few have survived into preservation or even continued use in charter trains.
A very good book.
Obelix encounters a young woman called Panacea in the village and falls in love, his heart is soon broken though when she learns that she is engaged already. Unfortunately, her fiancé has been press ganged into joining Caesar's legions. Asterix and Obelix vow to rescue him.
However, they soon discover that young Tragicomix has already been sent to fight in north Africa. Asterix and Obelix enlist themselves so they have a better chance of finding him...
This is one of the best Asterix stories, the running jokes throughout including the bemused Egyptian who can't understand why the hotel he thinks he has booked into has made him wear Roman uniform!
For once some of the Roman characters are the good guys and this adds a welcome change to the usual Asterix story plot.
The church of the Holy Trinity, in the Warwickshire village of Long Itchington which is east of Leamington Spa in the centre of the county is Norman. It dates from the late 12th or early 13th centuries. There were additions made to the church in the following two centuries. The church has a nave with a south aisle, a four bay chancel (a 14th century addition) and a west tower. The tower once had a spire but it collapsed in 1762. A clerestory was added in the 15th century.
The church is built from coursed lias rubble which has been interspersed with sandstone blocks.
These days there arn't many stations to visit on the line, i have been to Shrewsbury, Church Stretton (which is very nice) and Craven Arms (nice castle) though in the past there were other stations along the way, now closed.
The book also covers a couple of branch lines in this part of England, also now closed. As usual the book is a mixture of archival photographs, maps and informative captions.
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| Shrewsbury |
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| Shrewsbury |
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| Church Stretton |
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| Craven Arms |
The murder of a man, recently back in Britain after a long time overseas, appears wrapped up in a number of other crimes in a Midlands town, including other murders and the theft of diamonds. There is also the question as to whether or not the victim was the long-lost heir of the local aristocracy. The 9th baronet of the country estate.
This is an interesting enough read with some good red herrings. However, the story is somewhat marred by the eventual culprit being a bit left field and also uncovered rather suddenly. I enjoyed the story being based in the Midlands.
Blake & Mortimer is one of my favourite comic series, up there with Tintin and Asterix. In the order which Cinebook have translated into English and published the books, this is the first in the series, though the Yellow "M" is actually the 6th in the series in the original language by Edgar P Jacobs.
Why are the Blake & Mortimer books so wonderful? (And they are.) Well one reason surely has to be because of the wonderful period and reality they are set in, Britain in the post-war 1940s (though it could be any time in the 30s or 40s) and with a large dollop of interwar period mad science, weirdness, occultness and classic mystery.
The Yellow M is a mysterious super criminal who is terrorising London, even stealing the Queen's crown jewels! As Inspector Blake & Professor Mortimer investigate the criminal, they uncover the mysterious technology of the Mega Wave, mind control and murder!
As with all of the Blake & Mortimer books, the story is intense, you certainly get your money's worth as far as word count is concerned! The plot is deep, intricate and complex though also reminds one of old movie serials with the dastardly bad guys putting our heroes into peril after peril. Some reviewers have criticised these books for being too wordy, for explaining everything that is going on even when it is obvious from the pictures, but this to me just adds to the classic serial feel. You can just imagine the narration by someone with a very posh clipped RP accent.
The story is also so beautifully drawn in the clear line style. This isn't just a comic book, it isn't just a work of art, its a precious treasure. So precious the Yellow M would be sure to try and steal it...
The story is set in the Second World War, this is a good old fashioned family murder drama with the usual mixed cast of characters who range in various degrees of annoyance. This does make the dialogue a little hard going at times as paragraphs are wasted on family nonsense of little relevance to the plot, i do prefer my stories to get on with it!
However, the story has a good twist and an action packed final act with the German bombing of the murder scene. Unfortunately, the previous acts can sometimes drag.
At the weekend i headed down to London, i haven't been for a few months. I didn't want to visit any new stations this time, but rather revisit some stations such as Lambeth North that i have not been to for some years.
So, i headed up and down tbe Bakerloo Line from south to north west London, getting some updated photographs of a number of tube stations and also some street scenes at Lambeth, Maida Vale and Kilburn Park.
A rival Gaulish chief tasks our indomitable Gaulish heroes with protecting the other tribe's money from the Roman tax collectors, the money kept in a cauldron. But while the two tribes have a feast disaster strikes, thieves steal the money and Asterix accepts the blame and vows to restore the money to save the village from disgrace (with Obelix's help of course).
Unfortunately, filling the cauldron with money proves to be more difficult than taking on a Roman legion. Asterix and Obelix fail to raise the money through trade, employment, fighting and even crime! However, finally our heroes manage to fill the cauldron but there is an unexpected twist...
Although not one of the very best volumes, this is still a very good entry in the Asterix series. The story is maybe a bit bitty but when those bits are good they are very good. The book has some excellent satire and word play.
This was a Bill Gunston book, so was of course very well researched and written. The book is also very well illustrated, but that is to be expected from a Salamander book. Some aircraft featured here such as the Nimrod AEW never made it, others like the Typhoon and Rafale are now combat proven types well into their mid-lives.
This book was released near to the end of the Cold War which saw the pace of warplane development slow dramatically. The military cut backs due to the "peace dividend" put paid to some of the projects included here too.
But the pace of military development was just slowed for a bit, it did not stop. What is cutting edge now (such as the JSF) does not even appear in this book, and of course the various advanced Chinese projects over the last couple of decades could not even be imagined back then. This helps make the book a very enjoyable read from a curiosity and historic point of view.
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| British Aerospace EAP, which became the... |
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| Eurofighter Typhoon |
The local area was also important for the military which drove early railway development, though this area of Berkshire and Surrey became heavily populated thanks to the railway, with many people commuting to the big cities nearby (most notably London).
The book includes stations such as Camberley, Longcross and Bagshot, plus Ascot itself of course. This is a lovely part of the country, and the railways of, that i have travelled extensively around over the last few years (some of my photos below) so that adds to the enjoyment for me.
This has all the hallmarks of a good Middleton Press volume including period maps and images plus information packed captions.
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| Addlestone |
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| Virgina Water |
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| Longcross |
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| Camberley |
Asterix in Switzerland is one of many of the indomitable Gaul's adventures where he and Obelix frolic around in a foreign country steeped in national stereotypes.
Goscinny and Uderzo do the ancient Swiss (or Helvetii) proud here by portraying them as a nation obsessed with cleanliness, time keeping, banking, yodelling and melting cheese. Unfortunately, ancient Rome predates the arrival of cocoa beans into Europe so we couldn't have the chocolate stereotype too.
For a change though Asterix and Obelix are doing a good turn for a Roman, a tax inspector who has been poisoned by a corrupt governor, the superbly pantomime villain Flavus. Getafix sends Asterix and Obelix to Switzerland to find a rare Alpine flower which is vital for the cure but Flavus finds out and sends word to his fellow governor in Switzerland to stop them at all costs...
This is a high point in Asterix with an excellent plot and hilarious charactisations especially the main villan Varius Flavus who is a truly odious individual. It is also good to see the usual Asterix universe turned upside down a bit with a Roman as good guy.
The humour in this book is also among the best, including Obelix's complaining about having to eat cheese with holes in it when he is hungry. As he says, holes won't fill a hole!
While it is very well done, this maybe leads to my only criticism i have with the book is that sometimes the dialogue is a little hard to follow as its often rapid fire with no naming of who is saying what so you can get a little lost. What can work well on screen does not always translate to text, and vice versa.
However, this only a minor quibble. As with the Superintendent himself the book is straight forward and leaves no stone unturned. I did hope the story was a novelisation of a now forgotten 70s spin-off of Coronation Street where Ken took time off to investigate crimes but alas...
Fear not, that soon changes but even then when he is catching the mice it's because of some ulterior motive (i.e. money) than anything else.
Tom also tries his hand at a bit of sculpture and building a pirate ship. He does such a good job of the latter you wonder if his talents are being a bit wasted.
The stories in this annual are a lovely variety indeed including a Mouse Musketeers story supposedly set in pre-revolution France where Tom becomes a "pooseycat"!
Tim is involved in a case of international trade, exploding houses and a rare Pre-Raphelite painting as he seeks art to satisfy a Japanese investor. The person who alerted him to the painting is an old acquaintance, definitely an old rogue but possibly dead, though as the book continues that looks increasingly unlikely. He also may be involved in a number of other deaths and other crimes, which looks much more likely.
Tim's wife Sue is also drawn into the plot, which ends with the two of them literally in the firing line...
Another good entry in the series with a complicated but reasonably well thought out plot, though the pace can be a bit slow at times.
Some knowledge of art might help though isn't really necessary to enjoy and follow the story, which has some good twists.