Just had a very pleasing review of The Age of Treachery on the fascinating Crime Fiction lover Website. Here's the link if you'd like t check it out http://www.crimefictionlover.com/2016/04/the-age-of-treachery/ ...
My beloved mother-in-law was a publisher in New Zealand and I think her greatest delight in the process was when the next book was ready to be launched and she could say " I think it's time we had a party." Well, we had a party this weekend here in Santa Monica to celebrate the official launch of The Age of Treachery and it was terrific. Our house and garden full of a hundred and forty loving and wonderful friends celebrating the first Duncan Forrester adventure and giving me a...
This is the first Punch cartoon Forrester saw in 1946. It depicts, rather movingly I think, Father Time saying farewell to the terrible year of 1945. But it wasn't long before 1946 brought its own tribulations, notably in the form of America's reluctance, now the war was won, to loan Britain the money to keep going. One result was a shortage of consumer goods - exemplified by this cartoon of a shop with not VERY much to sell ...
I'm not saying that Duncan Forrester, who had a fairly busy year in 1946, read all the books here, but at least he might have picked them up in Foyles, Hatchards or even W. H., Smith and considered buying them. Certainly, as a historian of the ancient world, he would have taken notice of this January offering: It was the first of a new series to be known as the Penguin Classics, and was a translation by E. V. Rieu. Over the next ten years it was to become Britain's best-selling book, and...
I was recently restoring one of my sculptures which hangs in the magnificent Wild West era McCloud Hotel, near Mount Shasta in Northern California. While I was at work one of the characters in the sculpture escaped and was only recaptured after many adventures, as I think these pictures prove ...
One of the many books of social history I consulted while researching The Age of Treachery was David Kynaston’s wonderful Austerity Britain. Here are some fascinating snippets about Britain in 1946 from its pages. By September 1946 the number of married women at work was down from a wartime peak of 7.2 million to 5.8 million. 4 million British servicemen were demobilized between June 1945 and January 1947 and couples who might not have seen each other for years found themselves having to get used to each other again, which the divorce figures...
An interview I did with Dr. Caleb Sharp about his book on the real significance of Black Holes. Turns out they're even more fascinating than you imagined! ...
Some of you may remember my video diary last month urging Santa Monica City Council to remove as soon as possible the parked planes from the part of Santa Monica Airport to make way for a park. This is what the first 6 acres looked like not long after the video, as photographed by my friend and fellow campaigner Michael Brodsky. Here's Michael's picture of what the same 6 acres looks like today. Bravo our council, plus Rick Cole and Nelson Hernandez! And here's what I'd personally like to see when park designer Mark Rios...
