Contents:

What can you find here? Reviews of new and not quite so new Sherlock Holmes novels and collections. Interviews with authors, link to blogs worth following, links to where you can purchase my books and some reviews of my work garnered from Amazon sites. Plus a few scary pics of me and a link to various Lyme Regis videos on YouTube...see what we do here and how....and indeed why!!! Next to the Lyme Regis Video Bar is a Jeremy Brett as Holmes Video Bar and now a Ross K Video Bar. And stories and poems galore in the archives.

Sunday 10 June 2012

Murder At The Lodore Falls

Charlotte Smith's 'Murder At The Lodore Falls' took me by surprise a little. Let me explain; I met Charlotte in 2009 during a Sherlock Holmes 'get-together' and a lovely warm-hearted person she was ( and presumably still is!) so the description of the violence meted out to various characters in her novella came out of the blue. The violence is stark, uncompromising and affecting, but offers a counterpoint to the friendship on display, notably of course that of Holmes and Watson. The main story is plausible and exciting and Charlotte has done a great job in recreating the atmosphere of the originals, even allowing for the fact that these accounts are not narrated by Watson. Life in Baker Street is portrayed with great skill and love and as we all know, 'no one writes of Holmes without love'. Charlotte is not alone in her belief in the strong bond that connects Sherlock Holmes and Doctor John H Watson and the scenes of the two men together in these three stories are very touching.
 Miss Smith.....can we have more please? 

Thursday 7 June 2012

End Peace

With the publication of Holmes and Watson: End Peace today I felt a few more words of explanation may be necessary. Virtually every mention of the book that I have seen is coupled with the word 'controversy', now I am sure I have never been controverial in my life so perhaps I should bask and delight in it. To my mind, I have taken themes that have been used before and remarked upon by others and given them my own twist......and I stand by the fact there is nothing in End Peace that is at odds with the Holmesian Canon. I see that the only 'daring' thing is to have produced a novella which is all dialogue apart from the opening and closing paragraphs; I had in my mind something cinematic where the camera creeps in ( think of the roving, searching camera in the opening of Citizen Kane) observes the action then pulls back at the story's conclusion. Some may wonder why there is no mention of Lyme Regis or Watson's love, Beatrice. This is a stand-alone story which references the canon freely, to reference my other works would have negated the effect I wanted or wished for. Sherlock Holmes and the Scarborough Affair shows no such reticence and name-checks Lyme and its inhabitants (the Lyme Regis novella number three is underway too!).

I suppose with 'End Peace' I wanted to try something different, a serious piece which stands or falls on its own merits without being bolstered or otherwise by short pieces, poems and humour (although there is humour in it, at least I should say that I attempted to inject some humour into the proceedings). Whether I succeded or not I leave for others to judge.

Holmes and Watson: End Peace is available in more places and formats than you can shake a stick at. Enjoy.

Friday 1 June 2012

Lyme Lit

Why Sherlock Holmes? Why Lyme Regis?

Why not? It's a perfect location for a Holmes adventure. Simple, short answers To expand: Lyme’s literary connections are fairly well known and include Sir Francis Palgrave; GKChesterton who holidayed in the town and stayed at the Three Cups,Beatrix Potter, and JRR Tolkien who visited Lyme when a youth and later returned many times with his wife and children. PG Wodehouse set some of the plot of ,‘Love Among the Chickens’ in a thinly disguised Lyme and Geoffrey Household set a major part of his most well known novel,‘Rogue Male’ in and around Lyme Regis. John Fowles’s highly acclaimed novel, ‘The French Lieutenant’s Woman’ was set, written and later filmed in Lyme. John Fowles was a resident of the town and
became the curator of the museum. The literary tradition of Lyme has not died away; more recently, Colin Dexter set the opening of one of his Inspector Morse novels in Lyme, having Morse as a guest in the Bay
Hotel on Marine Parade. Tracy Chevalier, the bestselling novelist, set a recent novel in the town, ‘Remarkable Creatures,’ dealing with aspects of Mary Anning’s life. This tradition shows no sign of abating. New writers pop up each year, new novels are set here each year. In ther town at the present time are the renowned writers and illustrators, Graham Oakley ( the 'Church Mice' series) and Rikey Austin. Lyme's literary heritage and splendid history is celebrated far and wide, not least by the town itself. Lyme Regis is a small town in size and in population (which has scarcely tripled in five hundred years). It has nowhere to go, but equally, nothing to prove. It is static, yet ever-changing and evolving. It lives in the present, yet rejoices in and celebrates its past.