The Girdle of Melian

was all set to write a memorial post, commemorating some of the musicians and actors and authors who died in 2016, especially those I didn't note at the time (Elie Wiesel, Leonard Cohen, Andrew Sachs, W. P. Kinsella...) but the list is so long that I've become overwhelmed. Over 200 on this list , and 166 in a gallery compiled by The Telegraph (60 more than in 2014, and nearly 40 more than in 2015). I do have one photo, unearthed and scanned from an old photo album: my sister and I with David Bowie, at Madame Tussaud's in June 1997, on our first trip to London: I've also got a couple of mini reviews! Yashim Cooks Istanbul , by Jason Goodwin "Inspired by recipes in Jason Goodwin’s bestselling historical Investigator Yashim series, Yashim Cooks Istanbul evokes the colors and flavors of the Ottoman world, combining Turkish recipes, illustrations and tempting descriptions from the novels. Fans of the series have been asking for this book ever sinc...

ack to London...in photo form! These are a handful of photos from our trip in November. Churchill! The Royal Stag pub in Datchet Where we spent our last night before heading to Heathrow in the morning (recommended, if you don't want to take trains or the Tube, and want a 20 minute ride to your terminal for £20!) London The British Museum Mummies! Argh! Upside down again! This was the view from Waterloo Bridge... Telford   Pub Argh...Sorry, horse! Sunrise Ruins of something in the town centre, right near a playground. There's no sign explaining what it is! Back home! View from the office: And old printing press on display at work: Today is Insecure Writer's Support Group Day! This month's questions is: How has being a writer changed your experience as a reader? I find this one very difficult to answer because I've been writing fo...

inter! I had all sorts of things planned for today's blog post (and I'm also falling behind in commenting -- I visit you all but haven't had a chance to comment!), but all the ideas and snippets are saved in my Yahoo mail, and for some reason Yahoo is having server problems today... It's still cold and grey outside for the most part, and work is quite busy -- the perfect time to share some winter photos! (Please excuse those that are upside down. They show up as upside down on the computer. I fix them in the Microsoft Photo Editor. But every time I pull them into Blogger, Google turns them upside down again. It's driving me crazy!) The village of Founex:   Ice created by the bise wind that comes down from the Alps: The town of Nyon: Views from outside of St Cergue, on the Swiss side of the Jura mountains: The villages of Rolle and St Prex in snow: Views of the ...