Conjure Woman’s Cat by Malcolm R Campbell

I’ve just finished this short novel, which had me spellbound. Recently I praised Lynne Cantwell’s ‘woo woo’ novellas.  Now I am praising Campbell’s ‘Conjure Woman’s Cat’, which is stuffed pretty full of hoo doo (which he is at pains to point out is not the same as voo doo). Eulalie, the conjure woman, and Lena,

Joglaresa : music for Magna Carta

LBMC indulged in a different sort of music on Saturday 17th October. The change of style was better suited to a different venue, so we decamped to St Barnabas’s church. Sadly, the well-known, mediaeval heating system there was in one of its grumpier moods. But were we down-hearted? Not a bit of it. We enjoyed

Alexander Ardakov opens LBMC’s new season of concerts, Saturday 19th September 2015

From Carnegie Hall to Leighton Buzzard! I kid you not. Professor Ardakov hadn’t come straight from Carnegie Hall, you understand. Not without a change of socks, as it were. But he has played there, and in Leighton Buzzard: four times in each venue. I asked one of the Driving Wheels of LBMC how they had achieved

Damascus Trance by Matt Rees

This is a short story set in present-ish day Damascus – a time and place much under-represented in fiction, sadly. I have read several crime novels set in Turkey and was pleased to have found this story, set in Syria, which is a taster for Mr Rees’s longer fiction set in the same time and

Roma Nova IV: Aurelia by Alison Morton

Do you like historical fiction? Set in Ancient Rome? Do you enjoy reading about capable women? Do you enjoy alternative history? If you answered yes to any one of these then you will enjoy this series of books by Alison Morton. Aurelia is a prequel to the earlier 3 Roma Nova novels. It stands alone

Bletchley Archaeological & Historical Society’s talk in November:

On Thursday, 5th November 2015: 7.30 for 8 p.m. at Rectory Cottages, 49 Church Green Rd, Bletchley, Milton Keynes MK3 6BJ. presents “From Russia with love” by Peter and Sue Jarvis being an account of time spent in Russia, mostly of the Grand Duchy of Muscovy in Communist days, including Moscow, Zagorsk, Vladimir and Rostov

Lynne Cantwell and the woo-woo

I have become a real fan of Lynne Cantwell’s writing. I can’t remember why I downloaded a sample of her book Seasons of the Fool. But I did. And was hooked before the end of the sample. Frankly, these days mozShe uses a mystical element (the woo-woo) in her work which really gives it zest.

‘Intrusion’ by Rosalind Minett

      This is a delightful addition to the ‘World War Two’ genre; sort of a cross between John Boorman’s movie Hope and Glory and Mark Twain’s The adventures of Huckleberry Finn. The whole book is told through the eyes of Billy, a small child – an achievement in itself. At the top of

National Poetry Day

Jamming together the incongruent facts of it being National Poetry Day and having a conversation with the girls in Bakery in my local Sainsbury’s earlier about working in a chocolate factory, I have disinterred my poem about working in a chocolate factory: THE CHOCOLATE FACTORY Chocolate air hung over the town. We breathed in chocolate,