Simply tremendous to get together with a lot of fen at Novacon this weekend, in the somewhat old-fashioned Palace Hotel in Buxton. I am a huge fan anyway of Guests of Honour Christopher Priest and Claire North, both of whom gave amusing speeches detailing their problems with the publishing industry; a surprise appearance from Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo, whose husband has just published a science fiction novel; a recording of the Octothorpe podcast with Marguerite Smith standing in for absent Liz Batty; and much planning ahead for next year's Hugo administration and for the ever more energetic Glasgow 2024 ...
Second paragraph of third chapter:Mya's muscles burned with the effort of dragging the injured man. Beside her, Mr. Richard did nothing to help. The altitude had set him gasping for breath from the moment Mya's meditation had brought them to the forest. In the outer world it was rainy season, but everything was different here. Sometimes when Mya came to the immortal forest she found lush mangroves, sometimes bamboo jungle. Today it was cold and the air was thin. Trees spiked the blue sky, ending in the snowfields of the Himalayas. There were fir needles under her slippered feet.A good ...
There is nothing new in politics, something that recent events have reinforced. The recent controversy over the Tories allegedly selling peerages to high value donors mirrored a row fifteen years ago when the police investigated Tony Blair's government for similar allegations. The difference this time is that the police have declined to launch an investigation. And who can forget Peter Mandelson being forced to resign from the cabinet over a non-declared loan. Admittedly, the circumstances were different but now we have an allegation against the Leader of the House of Commons, Jacob Rees Mogg, that he received £6 million in ...
This post first appeared on the Radix UK blog... I have been very interested to see the slow return of a broader consciousness of history, after it has driven out by a combination of modernism and economism. I would like to think that my own, very tentative timeline for a history of community development since 1940, published over the summer by the Local Trust, has helped a little. Either way, last week, I found myself at a fascinating online conference in the Spaces of Hope: People's Plans programme - and was wondering, gently to myself, about why so much of ...
It's not always easy to find a ray of sunshine in the dark clouds which follow from an attack like the bombing at the Women's Hospital yesterday. Naturally we focus on the horror and the immediate concerns for the safety ... Continue reading →
Good morning, gentle readers, as the days get shorter and the nights that little bit gloomier. Certainly, they're not short enough for the Conservatives, even as they are definitely gloomier. I have to admit to wondering whether there was anything that the Government could do that would shake the British public out of its apparent lethargy. A botched Brexit? Apparently not. A shambolic management of the pandemic? Seemingly, no. But, as it turns out, they had found a "long fuse" means to undermine themselves – greed. It does astonish me that some Conservative MPs are so wilfully negligent of conflict ...
Sun, 12:39: "I rather guiltily enjoyed lockdown. For fifty years I've been sitting in a room on my own, and all of a sudden it's legal" - Christopher Priest https://t.co/NZ1ut7iTm3 Sun, 12:56: RT @MSmithsonPB: The Tweet of the day so far https://t.co/pFiqPMnnkK Sun, 14:05: Recording of @OctothorpeCast with @BohemianCoast @JohnCoxon and guest @MargueriteS_IE standing in for @lizbatty at @Novacon50. https://t.co/WjUtBE34fZ Sun, 16:17: My 2021 Hugo votes: Best Novel 1) The City We Became, @NKJemisin 2) Piranesi, Susanna Clarke 3) The Relentless Moon, Mary Robinette Kowal 4) Network Effect, Martha Wells 5) Black Sun, Rebecca Roanhorse 6) Harrow The Ninth, Tamsyn ...
This year's Dundee West End Christmas Fortnight will be the largest ever in its 21 years, with over 30 events taking place, including a Christmas Market and Lights Switch on in Perth Road, a Santa Cavalcade around the West End, competitions including a West End Primary School Art Competition and a Primary 6 schools football competition, a Christmas Cards initiative to all West End care home residents - as well as online talks and walking tours of the West End. Although we were able to run West End Christmas Fortnight last year, because of the COVID lockdowns in 2020, most ...
Winston Churchill was the greatest Englishman of the 20th century, but "his view of Indians, not to mention Africans, remained until the end of his days that of the Victorian lieutenant of Hussars he once was". Max Hastings says modern politicians who claim Churchill's mantle embody his worst traits. Carly Page looks at recent events in North Ayrshire and concludes that we are not ready to accept facial scanning in schools. For 20 years, a Tennessee baby thief kidnapped more than 5000 children from the streets, hospitals, and shanty towns of Memphis. Erika Celeste tells the story of Georgia Tann. ...
Sorry to disappear for a week, but that's caring. While I was away the new Liberator (issue 410) appeared - you can download it for free from the magazine's website. And if, like me, you go first to Radical Bulletin, you will find this story: Fans of a progressive alliance may care to have a look at the borough of Richmond-on-Thames, where a deal between the Lib Dems and Greens is expected for the May 2022 elections, This is despite disagreements between the two local MPs and an analysis done after the previous such deal in 2018, which concluded it ...
