21st November 2021

 We are on high ground here, near the Lickey Hills, so snow is still piled up outside the door. Hasn’t reached Maine levels but at my time of life I’m loathe to struggle out and risk slipping on the ice. A few weeks ago I suffered a bad dental experience as well as a suspected damaged spleen and was feeling sorry for myself. So, I started what I told myself I wouldn’t do: write my 13th book. It’s a way of taking yourself away from the physical present, allowing writers to not only inhabit a dreamlike world, explore another time and exotic countries, but also to tackle issues which need highlighting in today’s world.  So, laptop at the ready, using ancient touch-typing skills learned a hundred years ago, I explored a topic and places I haven’t written about before. What spurred me on was watching a documentary on TV. Sometimes in life, there’s a previously-unexplored situation, involving people who are relatively unknown but who have performed miracles. Time they were acknowledged.  So, let the snow fall.  I’m busy…

21st November 2021

There’s been much in the news about increasing numbers of migrants crossing the Channel from France - 1000 in a single day earlier this month. And yet, a century ago my own paternal grandfather, fleeing murderous pogroms in Lithuania, was thankfully welcomed into the UK. An important point here, therefore, is that the migrants crossing from France, unlike my grandfather, were already in a safe country (France) so the question is: why? For anyone who’s read Pensioners in Paradis (see right), it’s obvious. Unlike Britain, France is a country which relies on bureaucracy. It’s essential today for all French residents to have ID (to show the police), a carte de sejour and a carte vitale (to secure health services), but they are very difficult to obtain. It took us ages. Without such essentials, everything’s closed to you. Also, during Covid lockdown, you couldn’t leave the house in France without a completed police form stating where you were going and why.  In contrast, here in Britain there’s no ID, no health card, nor right-to-live-here documentation. So, is it any wonder that migrants who are already in a safe country risk life and limb to cross the Channel from France?

14th November 2021

A big chill is coming. The last members of the Glasgow Cop26 knees-up have now departed on their private jets. “The end of coal is in sight,” said Alok Sharma. But 2 countries were notable by their absence. China and Russia. The coal declaration was not signed by the top 3 coal consumers: China, India and the US, who account for 70% of global CO2 emissions. Hypocrisy everywhere. The US was observed liaising with the UAE to increase oil production. Meantime the UK’s push to instal solar panels ignores the fact that China produce them using coal! And if the UK continues to discourage BP, Shell etc from investing in more oil and gas, from where are we going to source such commodities that the public demand? Russia and Saudi Arabia! So, our hard won economic stability is being transferred eastwards. And me? Yes, there is global warming; yes, man is contributing CO2 into the atmosphere; but I believe the major cause of global warming is the regular (every billion years or so) planetary shift, which in the past caused the Ice Age. I suspect it’s already starting to shift the Gulf Stream, as our weather’s getting like Maine. Warm summers, and heavy snow is forecast….

7th November 2021

 Explosions still reverberated outside last night, live explosives inexplicably freely sold to the general public here. Fitting really, as we watched the first two episodes of Valley of Tears on channel More4, the magnificent Israeli drama about the 6 day war. For once I didn’t mind the subtitles, the story was so compelling. It even included actual footage of General Dayan and PM Golda Meir as they broadcast to the nation during the 1967 hostilities. It took my mind back to why I included a chapter about the conflict in The Meleke Stone. As fictional Dov Cohen says to his men on the eve of war: “Israelis only ever fight when attacked. We’re not interested in aggression unless sorely provoked. All our people have ever wanted is to be left in peace on our own tiny bit of land. But today, as usual, yet another aggressor’s on the horizon proclaiming aloud their sole intention to annihilate us.”  A question to the rest of the world: what would your country do if continually attacked by a consortium of surrounding states, vowing your extinction? Well, after WWII and being herded silently to the gas chambers by yet another enemy, there’s only one thing the Israelis can do: stand up, be strong and - when attacked - fight back to defend themselves.