I love cooking. First I'm going to sing the praises of London's 'Sam's Restaurant' purely because they made a highlight of something that I love. Steak and kidney on toast - toast and dripping that is. Anyone who can promote toast and dripping can do no wrong. Back in time, the early 1950's, when rationing was on the idea of steak and kidney - well it would have been scarce. A cube of steak and a kidney halved on toast and dripping went down well. The most essential ingredient of dripping is the jelly for that is the goodness. Today I still make pork, chicken or turkey dripping. I find most TV ..read more

March 2020 should have been good times. A time for the family to get together and enjoy the good times. My wife and I were going to celebrate our 50th Wedding Anniversary but the lockdown put that out of the question. Had we listened to all the 'woe is...' attitude back in 1970 we wouldn't have lasted 50 days, weeks or months let alone years. The thing was that we were chalk and cheese therefore we knew what we were doing. If you know each other then you know about how strenghts and weakness work together. Lockdown was something that neither of us expected to last - still we topped up the food ..read more

Having grown up during the 1960s this book had a certain appeal - after all it came with it's own soundtrack. And a subject that I could relate to but not in the way that you might think. In 1961 I was 16 years of age when something reared it's head - something that you would think that, in this day and age, was new. Well, there's nothing new under the sun. Back then a newspaper 'outed' the model and actress April Ashley as transgender. She had been born a man who had served in the Merchant Navy but had undergone traumatic sex reassignment surgery. Despite this the law stated that she was sti ..read more

The Grum Reapur is about saving lives. These sculptures come from the imagination of anti- suicide artist Brad Humble himself a suicide survivor and mental health activist. After years of being considered a 'freak' he was diagnosed with BPD (Borderline Personality Disorder). The long journey of self-discovery unleashed the inner artist within and the Grum Reapur was born. This talented artist has a gallery of his paintings on show; he is,also, a writer and poet. Currently, he is working on a Grum Reapur comic. I am flattered that he asked me advice about writing but after reading some of h ..read more

How Might The Government Be Described As ‘Oppressive’ In the Hunger Games. In this piece of writing, I will be comparing the governments in reality and In the Hunger Games to answer the question: How might the government in the Hunger Games be described as ‘oppressive’ in the hunger games?To begin with pointing out the obvious, the government of The Hunger Games make teenagers from each district fight one another to the death. The reason that the Hunger Games are held every year is so the districts know that the Capitol is "the one". The reason there are Hunger Games is because the districts ..read more

Chapter 24NemesisRay Foster      Major Steve Sullivan leaned back in his chair his eyes drifting from the scruffy individual sitting on the edge of his desk to the crestfallen face of the young man seated on a camp stool to the front of them.     “Well, Tim, what an unexpected pleasure,” the unkempt man said, lowering himself from his perch.     “Mister Devlin,” Tim Schendel acknowledged without raising his head.     “You two know each other?” Sullivan asked.     Devlin nodded: “You could say that. Young Tim there has been in and out of trouble that he’s bloody lucky not to see the inside of a ..read more

'The Feud' tells the story of the Graham-Tewkesbury war that took place in Arizona's Tonto Basin in the 1880s. It follows Edwin 'Breed' Tewkesbury who was the last man standing. The story opens with the death of Edwin's sister, Josie who was married to George Graham. Edwin finds his sister emaciated and struggling to keep her new born baby alive. As her brother tries to help her she dies in his arms but not before she has told him what was going on. Edwin and Josie are half-breeds - their mother was an Apache who died shortly after her daughter was born. Josie's son showed more of his Nativ ..read more

James Gunn is sitting outside a Cumberland pub admiring the local scenery of the English countryside when his conversation with his friend is interrupted.  An angry young farmer bears down on the protagonist with a promise to stick him with a pitchfork unless Gunn marries his pregnant sister. In the fight that follows the young farmer falls awkwardly, breaks his neck and dies. In no time at all Gunn heads for Liverpool and arrives in Boston. Here Gunn discovers that he is well out of his depth - a stranger in a strange land. Pick pockets, thieves and con-men wait for unexpecting victims and i ..read more

Authors Paul Bishop and Scott Harris have put together a magnificent spectrum of the Western novels that span over a century from Owen Wister's 1902 novel 'The Virginian' to the 2015 Mickey Spillane/Max Allan Collins 'The Legend Of Caleb York'. All the usual classics are there like 'Shane', 'The Searchers' and 'The Big Country' as are writers Frank Gruber the man behind the tv series 'Tales Of Wells Fargo' riding the trail with Louis L'Amour, Clair Huffaker and Elmore Leonard. This is not a book of lists - that is not what this book is about. Each book is summarized in a way that makes the ..read more

The 1960s saw changes emerging in the way movies depicted the west. No way could you imagine the likes of John Wayne or James Stewart taking six gunfighters across the border to defend a small Mexican village. Lee Marvin could have but Yul Brynner got the role of the cold, businesslike Chris. 'The Magnificent Seven' became an instant classic - and much quoted in Western novels like John J McLaglen's 'Herne The Hunter' series. Next on the scene was a scruffy, bristle faced, poncho wearing 'hero'. Took a bit of getting used to seeing how 'Rawhide's' Rowdy Yates had let himself go - but Clint E ..read more