The Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent (part 2)

Blake & Mortimer books usually have sumptuous covers but they have really gone to town on this one, it is a classic of comic art. The ligne claire artwork inside is pretty good too, being to the usual B&M standard. The artwork is very well drawn and accurate depicting an idealised view of the world of the 1950s, beautifully coloured... and of course (as it is a B&M story) with plenty of words!

The story continues the one begun in part 1, which involved a mysterious Indian living god launching an electrical attack on the Brussels Universal Exposition. In part 2 our heroes travel to Antarctica to track down the source of the attacks. If you like secret bases at the South Pole and mysterious retro-future technology then you will be sure to love this. It is packed full of action and weird science...

The best part of the story though, to me, is the backstory these two volumes have provided to Professor Mortimer. Part 1 showed us some of his adventures in India as a young man and this all comes to a conclusion here where his past and present collide.

Skeleton in search of a cupboard

Another enjoyable crime novel by Elizabeth Ferrars, who has fast become one of my favourite authors. This is not a book in one of her series with recurring characters though, it is a stand alone story involving a young couple and their rather large family. The family have gathered for their step-mother's 80th birthday but thats when things start to go wrong.

The step-mother's house catches fire, a couple of her valuable paintings go missing, but worst of all: in the smouldering debris of the house a hidden cupboard is revealed which contains a female skeleton! The investigation into crimes in the past and the present day (a number of murders) begins.

A good story that, once it got going, was very easy to read however, i did not think this was Ferrars' best book. A lot of the story, especially at the end, seems rather overly convenient and the actions of the characters are often a bit strange. For example, one of the characters - a young pregnant woman - implies she has gone off to kill herself and no one seems bothered to try and stop her.

The concept - the discovered skeleton - is great but the story itself did not quite live up to it.

A trip to Liverpool

At the weekend i made my first trip of the year to Merseyside. I wanted to cross off three more stations in the Liverpool area so travelled first to West Allerton, then Mossley Hill and finally Halewood. My uncle and auntie lives in Halewood and when we came up to Liverpool when i was a kid we always used to visit them. I never came to the station though, until now!

You can see my photos here.

Prime target

Prime target by Martin Russell is an intriguing tale of crime, psychology and terrorism. Our main character Pitt starts to get confused when people begin mistaking him for someone else. This continues for some time and he starts to question his own sanity and his reality.

Finally, it is revealed that it is all a trick (a somewhat elaborate one to honest) to unnerve and ultimately control him, and he is the captive of terrorists who want him to plant a bomb in Downing Street!

The story has many twists and turns though some are a bit obvious in the end, such as Karen. However, a dog saves the day and that always makes a good story even better.

A trip to two new stations

There are five new railway stations opening in the West Midlands this year. Two in fact have already opened, last week (Darlaston and Willenhall). Three more will open after Easter. Last Friday i visited the two new stations, the day after they opened. There were still quite a few enthusiasts around, checking the new stations out. I met a YouTuber who was doing a video on them and we had a chat. A really nice guy.

You can see my photos here.

The London Underground Electric Train

There are many books on the development of the rolling stock of London Underground, quite a few of them are really good too and this is another one to add to that list. Maybe even the best, certainly one of the most technical.

This excellent book by Piers Connor approaches the subject from a novel direction: instead of a standard history of the London Underground network and its rolling stock, this book instead describes the development of the many technologies that went into the London Underground train as we know it and how the technologies all fitted together. So, starting with the earliest electric traction in the first Underground trains we see how electric motors and control systems, bogies, bodywork, brakes et cetera developed over the decades.

The book is well illustrated throughout, with a number of diagrams that explain how the various systems work. The London Underground was the first deep-level underground system in the world but it owes so much to early developments in the United States as well as decades of evolution and different paths (not all of which worked). Much development work is ongoing and the book is very up-to-date with the latest details of the future tube trains which will finally replace my beloved 1972 Stock in the late 2020s (perhaps).

A trip to Winsford

At the weekend i headed back up north, to Cheshire again. I haven't been to Winsford for a number of years, to be honest it wasn't high on my list of places to re-visit but i needed to get some up-to-date imagery of the station. I did think of walking to Middlewich but in the end decided not to as it was a little too far away. As Winsford is pretty hilly, i got plenty of exercise!

You can see my Winsford photos here.

Railway stations in Warwickshire

I have already seen the proofs of course but it is not until you hold the finished printed book in your hands that you truly feel that the project is over. I received complimentary copies of my second book a couple of days ago. The book is a survey of the railway stations of Warwickshire and took a lot of work to complete last year, including a 5am train from Birmingham in order to get to Polesworth for the one train a day!

It will be available on sale in all good bookshops from next month, though you can buy it online now!

The Fenokee Project

The Fenokee Project by Roy Lewis takes place mainly in the frozen wastes of Canada and takes quite a while to get going. This is a slow moving tale of a cold (in more ways than one) case.

A man tries to find out how his wife died eight years before. What may have seemed an accident now seems to be mixed up in something murkier, with paid off witnesses and big business corruption.

It takes a while to warm up but when it does you are rewarded by a complicated but logical plot.

Book 3 emerges

With my second book now just weeks away from hitting the shelves, focus can turn to book 3. This is also on railway stations, but this time in the West Midlands. My publisher sent me a draft of the cover of the book yesterday. I don't think it will be released until the late Summer or early Autumn but the cover looks pretty good.

A trip to Warwick

At the weekend i went to Warwick, i haven't been to the county town for a couple of years. I have been waiting for the rebuilding works at the railway station to be completed before i went there to update my photography. The works are almost complete (why does everything take so long in this country?) and so i went there, i had another visit to the Warwick Marketplace Museum too. I love a fossil and some ancient (looted) knick knacks me.

You can see my Warwick photos here.

American Warplanes

I love a big Salamander book, they were the backbone of my book collection when i was in my teens. This volume by Bill Gunston is on American military aircraft from the earliest of days until the 1980s. 

So, this is standard fare for a Salamander book. Aircraft profiles with good information, technical specifications and plenty of photographs and illustrations. As the book was by Bill Gunston then you know it is informative and very well written.

This is an interesting book, covering all types from the famous like the Mustang and Eagle to the obscure. The latter are more fun of course. By now the book is very dated of course but still very enjoyable.

Gently where the roads go

After a man is brutally murdered by a maniac with a sten gun, Superintendent George Gently is bought in to investigate a murky tale of stolen military supplies, enemy agents and a fair amount of sleaze. Gently also finds himself in danger as the gun man tries to cover his trail by also filling Gently with lead.

This is quite a respectable crime romp by Alan Hunter, though at times the story is a little dense with clues and plot points, some of which seem to be going nowhere fast. It is well written and pretty gritty. The ending is a surprise though, but not completely in a good way. The resolution did surprise me though as i was becoming pretty sure the culprit was one of the characters, but in the end they only had a supporting role.

I have a few other George Gently books in my large to-read pile, and i am looking forward to them.

Sowing some seeds

With the spider plant and some garlic bulbs seemingly taking to the mini-greenhouse, it was time to sow some seeds and try and grow something from scratch. I has sown some daisies, dahlias and poached egg plant seeds in trays. Hopefully i will soon have plenty of flowers which i can pot outside the front of the house to try and brighten it up a bit!

22 Pans

I have a big pending list of fiction books to read so of course the most natural thing is to greatly increase it! I have bought a job lot of 22 Pan paperbacks from the 1960s. They include some authors i am familiar with such as John Creasey though a lot that are new to me. Exploring them will be fun, when i finally get around to them. That may be some time!

A trip to the Severn Valley Railway

At the weekend i headed up to the Severn Valley Railway for their branch line weekend. I usually go the SVR at least once a year (though last year i didn't go due to reasons). The branch line weekend was a great event involving smaller trains running more frequently. I visited Northwood Halt for the first time, this is one of the line's request stops and i need it for one of my future books. A great day, hopefully i will visit again later in the year.

You can see my photos from the SVR here.

The Gondwana Shrine

This Blake & Mortimer volume follows on from the excellent Sarcophagi of the Sixth Continent two-parter, although it can't quite be considered "part 3" it does follow up on quite a lot of the plot... though everything is recapped so you can read this on its own and understand whats going on!

At the heart of this story is that staple of books of Blake & Mortimer's ilk : lost civilisations. Though in the case of the Gondwana Shrine, the civilisation is truly very ancient (as in millions of years old) and that does stretch credibility a bit. 

Professor Mortimer takes the lead in this story though of course Blake is never far away and a certain persistent villain also makes a reappearance. To be honest it would be nice for Blake & Mortimer to have some other enemies to face...

As with all Blake & Mortimer books, it has a dense storyline and full of intrigue and adventure, and of course very well drawn. However, as the central concept of the story is a little too far-fetched it did detract from the story a little but it is still well worth your time.

Portrait of a Murderer

"Portrait of a murderer" by Anne Meredith is an excellent Golden Age mystery. A gentleman is murdered on Christmas Eve. One of his six children has killed him. However, this isn't a whodunnit. We witness the murder, then examine each of the children in turn, looking into their backgrounds and lives, creating characters with depth.

Therefore, the story stands out from a lot of it's peers. This is more of a psychological study of murder and motive than the standard detective yarn of the period, and explores how the culprit tries to avoid being discovered. It may lack in suspense but makes it up with good characterisation.

The interesting premise may though be the best part about the story, the initial part especially is a bit of a slog though it does pick up later on.

A trip to Wigan and Hindley

I go to the north west quite a lot, but always to Merseyside. Why don't i go to Greater Manchester more often, after all its where my northern relatives actually live and i'm sure as i am only half-Scouser i won't dissolve. So, at the weekend i headed up to Wigan. I also took a short train ride to the nearby town of Hindley. At Easter i plan to so some more exploring up Manchester way.

A nice trip up north, also nice to see the Manchester Bee network buses, hopefully we will have something similar in Birmingham soon. You can see my photos here.

The Rainbird Pattern

At first this book by Victor Canning is a bit strange, and hard to get into. It has two separate plots which seem to be completely unrelated to each other, but once you realise just how they are related you can't wait to see how this thriller turns out!

One plot involves the kidnapping and ransoming of VIPs by a highly professional couple. The Secret Service are completely flummoxed as to who the kidnappers are but suspect they are planning their big job. Indeed, they kidnap the Archbishop of Canterbury and want a fortune in diamonds for his release.

The other plot involves a medium and her lover / assistant who are employed by a rich older woman to find her long-lost nephew. Trying to find this nephew is very difficult but they finally do succeed... but you can guess who it turns out to be!

A good book, a slow start is ultimately very rewarding. The characters are well written and the demise of one of them hits hard. The book ends on a pretty dark note as well. Interestingly, the story was adapted into a film called Family Plot, which was Alfred Hitchcock's last film.

Obelix and co.

There is an irony that arguably the best Asterix story of all (in my opinion of course) is named after his well-covered if thin-skinned friend Obelix! 

This book is a hilarious satire on capitalism and marketing. Caesar sends his young protege Preposterus to Gaul to corrupt the Indomitable Gauls using the profit motive. He creates a fake demand for menhirs and begins to corrupt Obelix and later other villagers in the pursuit of profit...

This is utterly wonderful stuff, packed full of nonsense and often biting satire. We have the memorable scene where Preposterus (who is said to have been based on a young Jacques Chirac!) tries to explain the concept of marketing to Caesar, the gaudy fashions of the nouvelle rich villagers and the Romans trying to get a piece of the menhir action.

Naturally it all ends happily ever after and our friends return to their simple rustic lifestyle of hunting and eating boar and fighting, uncorrupted by bags of money! Goscinny and Uderzo were at the height of their powers here, it is a shame that this was the last book written by Goscinny to be published before he passed away.

Liverpool to Runcorn

Another Middleton Press volume, this one covering the London & North Western Railway line south from Liverpool across the Mersey to Runcorn, nowadays part of the West Coast Main Line. 

This is still a busy line now, both for passenger and freight traffic though a lot of the industry has gone now and some of the intermediate stations between Liverpool and Runcorn are also no more.

The line ran past a parkland near where my Uncle and Auntie lived in south Liverpool. When i was a little kid and we went up there, i always liked to go up to where the railway line was and hear, if not really see, the frequent trains going past. I've been past on train now many times. I always think of those times.

Liverpool Lime Street, Liverpool South Parkway (a more recent addition) and Runcorn are interesting stations which are well worth a visit.

A trip to Ruabon

Time to head to somewhere new, time to head to Wales! At the weekend i visited the rather nice little town of Ruabon near Wrexham. I was pleasantly surprised at how nice Ruabon is, it has a nice church, some lovely old buildings and even a stretch of Offa's Dyke! Old Mercian King Offa's defensive work is now just a path mostly used by dog walkers, and me!

You can see my photos of Ruabon here.

The House Opposite

The House Opposite by J. Jefferson Farjeon is apparently the second Ben the Tramp story. 

Ben is the main character of this tale, a good old gentleman of the road who stumbles upon mysterious, and even murderous, goings on in the house opposite the one he is squatting in.

Ben is reluctantly drawn in to try and solve the mystery. The story is fairly unusual, and the main character is quite novel, but at times i found the story a bit hard going. I've always found dialogue written in a strong dialect is a bit tedious to read but i suppose it makes Ben more authentic. Once the story gets going its worth the read but getting there (without giving up) takes a bit of effort.

Lego roses

I didn't know Lego had a botanicals range, including red roses. Well, as it was Valentine's Day yesterday i thought it would be nice to make the Lego roses to give to my Wife instead of natural roses which will be dead in a few days! It has been a few years since i built a Lego set, i went through a bit of a craze about ten years ago. Maybe i might make a few more Lego sets in future.