The End of the Line

This is a post-script to the website, introducing The End of the Line, probably the last book John will write. He is back in his favoured territory, north of the Ribble, in green pastures, and south in cabbage fields. This time, he’s changed the characters....

MIXED MESSAGES

Here’s a short story I wrote a few years ago, and did nothing with, perhaps for good reasons! It does read a bit like a reprise of Gregory’’s Girl. But waste not, want not isn’t a bad motto for life, so here goes. My phone gave out a ring. That was...

I’ve been watching them 70 years

By the time you reach my age, there are so many anniversaries to honour, some happy, some sad. Sometimes you miss one. On the third of January, it was seventy years since I first watched Bolton Wanderers. My Dad decided that at seven I was old enough. We were playing...

christ knows what

I listened a couple of days ago to two excellent podcasts by Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook about the life of Christ, part of their The Rest is History series. They were well done, if telling me what I already knew or have thought. I agree with them that the census...

Elation from a Great Review

There’s nothing better than reading a review from someone who’s really got what you’re on about. The latest from Donovan’s Bookshelf in the Reviews section has done just that. I’ve not written a bestseller, and the books aren’t going to be the next Netflix series, but...