Category Archives: reads

Monsters in the to-read pile

I have little doubt one day the police will break in my house after i have been ‘missing’ for several weeks to discover my body, under this pile of books.
There are worse ways to go. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 42 ~ The Black Cat

Pluto the cat was not named for Pluto the planet. Pluto the planet was not discovered until 1930 (though one suspects it was always there…) which was almost ninety years after this story was written. Continue reading

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Turning Widdershins

Three turns windleshin’s

Around the Lochfa’ston

Three turns windleshin’s

an’ call the other’s names Continue reading

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The spirit of 76

This book is a window on an era, a moment in musical history, a moment of social change and upheaval. The beginning of the end of post war establishment Britain. Punk had arrived… Continue reading

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A Hint of Scarlet

Then last night, or rather this morning while I was trying to make it back into last night, I had something of a break through. Scarlet started speaking to me, as she has previously only whispered. So perhaps, just perhaps, it is time. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 41 ~ The Gold Bug

To an extent then, this Poe story shorted the second world war and saved the lives of many allied soldiers… Which is almost enough to forgive its flaws… And certainly more than the DeVince code ever managed to do. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 28 ~ The Mystery of Marie Roget

‘Based on true events’ is a cliche, a trope so common we pay it no mind. Writers have been using it for years… In fact it is not unreasonable to say they have been using it since the autumn of 1842 when our own Dear Edgar dipped his toes in that particular well. Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 37 ~ The Landscape Garden

the Landscape garden, a story by Dear Edgar that is not exactly worth your time… with an explanation of why that is the case. and an expose on 1840’s women’s magazines Continue reading

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10 years down the Lane

Ten years ago this month I published my first novel. I wrote it in July the year before, then spent a year redrafting it several times, while trying to convince myself it wasn’t just a mid-life crises project. I had always wanted to write a novel, I been writing for the better part of three decades, but now I had actually written one. It was finished it was done , it was as good as I could make it. The only thing left to do was to send it out into the world. It was terrifying… Continue reading

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Dear Edgar 36 – The Masque of the Red Death

In the world of art there are many indisputable masterworks. True masterpieces that transcend the art world. Van Gothe’s Sunflowers. DeVince’s Mono Lisa. Vermeer’s Girl with a pearl earring. Goya’s The nude Maja, Giorgione’s The Sleeping Venus, that one by … Continue reading

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