Just back from a few days in Derbyshire and the summer storms have begun in earnest. Not found time to write here recently, though I have been making random comments here. Most of my ‘followers’ seem to be self publicists, so I’d welcome some people I actually know… While in Winster, I demolished one entire fat novel, Steve Tesich‘s ‘Karoo’, a comic masterpiece about a self destructive script doctor, as recommended by Frank Cottrell Boyce. I also read the first third of Philip Davis’s fine biography of one of my favourite writers, Bernard Malamud, an absorbing, superbly researched study, particularly good on the drafting process. I continued my trawl through selected comic works of Brian Michael Bendis by reading the first half of his ‘Alias’…

We’ve never really considered having a scarecrow in our allotment. However, with all the summer fruits out and under attack, one would come in useful. Seeing the beauty above at the Jardin Des Plantes in Paris last week, has made the idea tempting. The CD eyes and half CD mouth are very effective, and only the French would think to give a scarecrow that rather stylish jacket. Once my novel edit’s out of the way, I feel a summer project coming on.