THE SKINNER

Monday 13th May I have to admit to drinking an excessive amount on Friday night. After wine and brandy at the Gabbiano I made the critica...

Monday 6th May It’s been boiling hot lately – 25C up in the village and 30C down in Makrigialos – so on Sunday we decided to go for a swi...

Elizabeth Moon is a name I’ve heard in science fiction for a long time but I’ve never read one of her novels before. She’s American (and a ...

        It’s been a while since I picked up a Peter Hamilton book, mainly because of an aversion to great big doorstops. However, I re...

Sunday 28th April The new taverna at the bottom of the village is a handy addition for us here. I’ve learned that it’s called ‘To Avli’ w...

Wednesday April 24th So, we’ve been back on Crete for six days now, the first three of which were colder than in England and required us...

Martin Durkin’s excellent documentary last night perfectly outlined my thoughts on the dangerous subject that is Margaret Thatcher. You ca...

Right, I just managed to do my 2,000 words. This was after drinking far too much red wine last night, which resulted in me waking up at 3...

"Science fiction asks what it means to be human; how we relate to our technology; and what our place is in the vastness of time an...

While I meticulously study contracts I see that the whole Night Shade Books debacle is being written about all across the internet. I won’t...

Nice to see that the books I’ve been posting off are arriving safely: It’s also nice to see the shelves up in my loft steadily em...

Ah, got it at last after much screwing around. I warn you this is over 20 minutes of burbling...      Update: Okay, Laszlo has started...

We've just been having a bit of a clear-out and I found these gathering dust atop the unused cookery and reference books. (Who doesn...

One of the things I’ve been noticing over the years is how though I can read or watch and enjoy fantasy and the most outrageous science fic...

Okay, I spent part of Sunday scrabbling about in my loft sorting out boxes and double-stacked shelves. I've been meaning to do this for...