Daedalus

Thanks @RichardB 🙂

I forgot to mention that book 2 of my ‘Fortress of Malta’ series of WW2 novellas was out, but it’s now on 99p promotion on Kindle, so a good time to point it out https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bastion-Fortress-Malta-Book-2-ebook/dp/B07Y5MDLWZ/

@Raine I like that quote (it reminds me of the fake George Orwell one). Whether it helps or not is a different question, but as Joseph Conrad pointed out, ‘action is consolatory’.

@skylark I’ve been following your family’s journey when you’ve posted on Facebook and I can’t begin to express my admiration. The strength conferred by love is…[Read more]

@libby my take on it has always been that the laxative story is apocryphal. I think you’d have to ingest an awful lot of the stuff to have any effect, and the diffusion of the oil in the exhaust would make that difficult. One version I heard was that there were all sorts of things likely to have a laxative effect on pilots of that era – alcohol…[Read more]

Hi @Libby – I can recommend trying to channel the emotions from current affairs into writing, although I think you have to be in a reasonably strong state to do it. It can be hard to write anything much when life has you beaten down.

Ah, oil in biplanes! I don’t know about linseed oil, but castor oil was a very common lubricant for early…[Read more]

I agree that the political situation over the last few years has been difficult and distracting. I suspect it has affected both my writing and my mental health.

I can name one effect Brexit has had directly on my writing. On the night of the referendum, I had run out of time to finish the William the Conqueror novel I was co-writing with…[Read more]

Oh heavens it is good to see you 🙂

With such a litany of abysmal systems, irresponsible staff and wayward practices, it’s a wonder that a lot more than fifteen people weren’t killed. Not that that’s any consolation. The people who ran the show ought to have gone to prison for a very long time

I’ve composed mine. I just haven’t written it down yet…