Authors Electric

Covid hair! I had a really good idea for a blog post the other day. Can I remember what it was? Not a chance. I swear my brain is fried these days – whether with the current situation, age, hormones or quite possibly a combination of all three. So, I’m sitting here with greyer hair than I’ve ever had (do I need to bother dying it? I’m curious to see how grey I actually am as I’ve not gone  natural  for quite a few years …) and an absolute desperate burning need to visit the dental hygienist before all my expensive bridgework falls apart completely through lack of maintenance. Interesting times, are they not? Is anybody watching  The Last Kingdom   on Netflix? We finished season 4 last week and I can’t help drawing parallels to  Game of Thrones . I mean our Uhtred was quite clearly Jon Snow in a former life - same dress style, same strategist. He even looks the same! And Sansa has morphed into Aethelflaed, with Cersei becoming Aelswith. I’m loving it, bu...

Maps in books ... When I gave my godson a book recently which I thought he might enjoy, he was thrilled to find that it had maps at the front. "I love maps!" he declared. Well, he is only 11. Although I love maps too, and I'm (nearly) grown up. I remember the excitement of following our progress in the atlas when out in the car (yes, this was pre-Sat Nav): I spent hours poring over the OS map for our area to look for bridleways and places to ride or walk to (and still do): the only geography lessons that actually captured my attention at school where those on map-reading and what all those squiggly lines and interesting icons meant ... I even had maps hanging on my bedroom wall - a giant poster of Middle Earth, a tea towel showing Kruger National Park (my Dad had visited while on an overseas business trip) and an old 18th century print of Northamptonshire, where I stayed during the holidays. Maps to wondrous places ... I get a kick out of seeing maps in fiction...