Perspectives on life from an early-forties man and a pint-size lion
My last post on this blog, How to Survive … a Classic Crime Novel?, covered the publication of my wife Kate’s book, How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel. The book came out in the summer of 2023. This summer, the book has a new video trailer:
If Kate’s reading of the introduction whet’s your whistle, do check the rest of the book out. Here are some links to where you can order the book on Amazon, Waterstones and Blackwell’s.
Until next time! (Hopefully less than a year next time!)
You wake up one morning, and something feels off. The air, which you’d normally never notice before your morning cup of tea, carries with it a faint indication – a hint – your first clue, if you like – that something is going to happen.
Hmmm. This seems a bit much pre-Weetabix. You shrug, and put it down to the extra turmeric tea you had before dozing off.
Rather bleary-eyed, you go down for breakfast. You open the pantry, searching for your cereal. … There’s a body. A card-sharp rogue of a colonel by the look of him. But how did you manage to deduce that?
Nope. Not this early. You close the door and put the kettle on.
Tea in hand, you retire to read the paper in your panelled library. Funny, you don’t remember having one of those. The portrait is off the wall, the safe has been cracked, and the door to the secret passage is ajar – lazily swinging in a faint breeze.
Shutting this – it’s a little chilly – you sit down, ignoring the world. It’s still far too early. Opening the Times, a bastion of solidity on this turbulent Thursday, a page of notepaper falls out. A message for you?
We know what your cousin Carstairs did. Fifty big ones, noon, the clocktower. Come alone. Or…
Blackmail before brekkie?
Ding dong!
Who… ? No, don’t ask. You stumble to the door.
Outside is a fellow in a tartan hat with a pipe, a Belgian with a twirly moustache, an aristocrat with a monocle, the inspectors, chief inspectors, and police commissioners of six counties, various fellows saying “I say!”, and… who knows how many people.
Bother.
You’ve woken up in a Golden Age detective novel.
“Oh no, not again.”
Your uttered line is clearly from the wrong genre, belonging properly – as readers of sci-fi will know – only to bowls of petunias. As the caffeine takes effect, you realise you’re in trouble, in the middle of a mess. You’re in dangerous, unfamiliar and threatening territory. Whatever will you do?
If the preceding sounds like something that has happened to you, or something you fear might happen to you one day, I’m pleased to announce the remedy. Today sees the publication of my wonderful wife Kate’s new book “How to Survive a Classic Crime Novel“, published by the British Library.
(I know, my last post was about a new book of Kate’s as well – they’ve been a bit like buses, and two have come along within a little over six months.)
Here’s the front cover:
And here’s the blurb from the back:
What would you do if you found yourself in the world of the classic crime novel? How would you avoid being framed for murder – or evade an untimely demise? Let classic crime expert Kate Jackson give you the tools to survive the golden age murder mystery.
From dinner parties to detective interrogations, you’ll need to know how to keep your wits about you in a world of red herrings, hidden identities and one too many suspicious butlers…
As the description suggests, the book is a light-hearted look at how to survive different situations you might encounter should you find yourself in a classic crime novel. There are lots of illustrations, helpful checklists, case studies, and other things, all based on the Golden Age* of crime novels.
*This is roughly the period between the two World Wars – though the dates are a bit flexible. It is the birthplace of characters such as Poirot and Miss Marple.
I am, of course, wildly biased, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book myself, and I’m really proud of Kate for writing it.
If you like Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, Lord Peter Wimsey (and so on) I think you will be likely to like this. The book is available in the UK from “all good bookshops”, as they say. If you are overseas it can be ordered from Blackwell’s. Here are some links:
Catch you in the next post!
For the last year my blog has been on pause as life has been incredibly busy. I (deep breath): started a new job, got engaged, planned a wedding with my fiancée, got married; we looked for a house, bought a house, moved, and got covid. With all the changes there wasn’t much time and energy left over for writing, and my website is also badly in need of updating.
My wife Kate recently (well, last November – as I say, it’s been a busy few months) had her first Bible study guide published, and this exciting new endeavour is the subject of this post. The book is called “Dining with Jesus”. Below are the front and back covers, showing what the book looks like and the blurb description on the back:
The book is published under the Circle imprint by John Hunt Publishing, and is just under 140 pages including the bibliography. Kate was lucky enough to get two commendations. The first, by Dr. Andrew Ollerton, is shown on the back cover above. The second – and more exotic for someone living in the north of England – is from the (Anglican) Bishop of Dunedin, New Zealand.
Geography is not my strongest suit and, even though I know that Dunedin is in New Zealand, I keep getting it mixed up in my head with Durban, which is also exotic but in South Africa.
While we’re on this subject, I’ll share a geography fact that I learnt while dating Kate. If you’re from the South of England pay attention – this will be informative, but may shock you.
The revelation is this:
Hadrian’s Wall is NOT the boundary between England and Scotland.
…
…
Hello? …. Ah, you’re regaining consciousness. Good. Have a sip of tea.
Well, if you’re good at geography (or just from the north) then I guess you knew that already. But I, a South-coast Southerner, didn’t. Cue my incredulity and Kate’s amusement.
It turns out that the boundary between England and Scotland doesn’t even run directly from West to East. It runs more-or-less directly Northeast from Carlisle (England) and Gretna Green (Scotland) on the West Coast to Berwick-Upon-Tweed (England) and Eyemouth (Scotland) on the East Coast.
As I was saying before I distracted myself and you with that aside, Kate was lucky enough to get a commendation from the Bishop of Dunedin:
In a world of change and innovation, mealtimes remain not only a staple of life, but an effective resource for community and relationship building as well as being times of refreshment and joy: eating and drinking can be very pleasurable! In taking the theme of Dining with Jesus, Kate has looked at how those who ate and drank in the gospels had their lives changed: both by the personal encounter with Jesus, and as part of the way Jesus taught in parable story. This study guide gives an informative and clear picture of the historical events but goes much further: Dining with Jesus is as much for us today as it is a reminder of words and events 2000 years ago. Kate has written a practical and accessible guide that enables us to look at our own lives in the light of Jesus Christ – and with a subject matter most of us can relate to, we are challenged to see our lives are changed by his loving, joyful presence. The Gospel has to be true to itself – Good News, and this guide allows us to discover for ourselves and share with others more of how God’s love is made real by Jesus Christ. I commend this Study Guide to small groups and individuals who are looking to deepen their understanding of the Christian faith, and who are willing to take the challenge of meeting with Jesus over a shared meal together.
Bishop of Dunedin (New Zealand), Steven Benford
As this is a blog post, I have more page space to describe what the book is about than the back cover, so here is a little more information. After an introduction, the book has 7 main chapters, each of which is centred around one of the meals at which Jesus was present:
The format of the chapters follows a traditional Bible-study pattern. Chapters open with introductory thoughts, an ice breaker question, and a small list of short passages to read. There are then discussion questions on the passages, and finally personal application questions.
If “Dining With Jesus” sounds like something you would be interested in, or would like to use with your housegroup, it is sold in a lot of places Christian books are available such as:
The paperback version retails at £12.99 (UK), and the Kindle version is £6.99 (UK).
Hopefully I will get back to writing blog posts now things have become a bit calmer.
Until then!
(P.S. If you decide to give Dining with Jesus a read, could you give a rating online afterwards, e.g. on Amazon? Even a short out-of-5-stars rating is really helpful for authors who aren’t household names!)
Life and Lions 