Many years ago, as a pre-teen, I found a copy in a school library of " The White Mountains " which was the first volume of John Christopher's "Tripods" trilogy. The original trilogy consists of 1) The White Mountains (1967) 2) The City of gold and Lead (1967) 3) The Pool of Fire (1968) I read it avidly, and as the second and third books were not to be found in either the library at the school where my Mother taught and where I had found it while waiting for her, nor that of my own school, I located them at the city library and read them avidly too. In 1984 and 1985, two seasons of a television series were broadcast which covered the first two books of the trilogy. Sadly a third season which would have covered the events of the third and concluding volume of the story, "The Pool of Fie" was cancelled, proving that state corporations like the BBC are capable of making decisions every bit as disastrous as big private companies like Fox, Disney and Paramou...

  This is a particularly appropriate question for today. What irrational fear is referred to by the following word, paraskevidekatriaphobia? An appropriate prize (it isn't something nasty) will be sent to the first person to post the correct answer in the quiz thread comments on either of the two blogs on which this quiz post will simultaneously appear at 06:00 UTC on Friday 13th February 2026.

In which a galaxy-spanning supercivilisation becomes, so-to-speak, snarked ... "Chaos, Co-ordinated" by John MacDougal is a 1946 short story and an absolute gem. We would not tease people by posting a review of this story if it were impossible to get hold of: it can be obtained, but it isn't easy. This was only the second book in ten years your reviewers failed to find on Amazon: we got it from the Abebooks.com website. The story was originally published in the October 1946 issue of "Astounding" science fiction, edited by John W Campbell Junior and this, although it is not easy to find, can be obtained. At the time of posting there is a copy of that magazine available at  THE CHRONICLER by Van Vogt, A. E. John W. Campbell, John D. MacDonald, George O. Smith, Hal Clement, Theodore Sturgeon, Clifford Simak: (1946) First Edition. | THE FINE BOOKS COMPANY / A.B.A.A / 1979 Incidentally, we found this edition of "Astounding" not by searching for "Chaos,...

"A Knight of the Dragon Academy 3" by Michael Dalton and Eliza Hawk was published today. It is, as the title suggests, the third part in a series and is available for the Amazon kindle  here . Author Michael Dalton described this series as "Pern by means of the Medicis This series of novels has elements of what C.S. Lewis used to call a "Bildungsroman" (a coming of age story) in which the central characters aspire to become dragon-riding knights, which they achieve by lifting a curse from the dragon characters and thereby restoring their intelligence and moral conscience. It does indeed have distinct echoes of Anne McCaffrey's "Pern" series except set in a society more like Renaissance-era Venice and Italy in an age of religion and a world of fantasy rather than being set in the future on an alien planet many light years from earth.  A review will be posted within ten days, as soon as we have finished reading the book.  (We intend to get reviews o...

Stan Ford, a royal navy veteran who took part in the D-Day landings and survived the sinking of his ship not long after has died at the age of 100. Stan, who was born in Bristol and later lived in Bath, celebrated his 100th birthday in May 2025, at a party attended by family, friends, and local officials. Above: Stan Ford (centre) at his 100th birthday celebration Ford served in the Royal Navy during the Second World War and, at the age of 19, was serving was aboard HMS Fratton when it was torpedoed off the coast of Normandy in August 1944.  HMS Fratton was an escort ship assigned to accompany ships taking men and supplies across the Channel on D-Day and afterwards. The impact of the explosion from the torpedo which sank her was so severe that the gun platform Stan Ford was operating was blown off the ship and into the sea, with him still on it. He suffered a fractured spine and injuries to both legs when the ship was sunk in 1944, leaving him with lifelong injuries. He was pulled ...