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… it has been nearly a year since I revealed that I was now writing a series of fictional stories and articles with a Cold War theme… – although I have been quiet, a lot has been happening behind the scenes! This is the current status of my writing projects: The ‘Lissa Blackwood’ novels wereContinue reading “Lots of Progress with my Cold War / New Cold War stories…”

The internet is bubbling with news stories about comet C/2014 UN271 (Bernardinelli-Bernstein). Current size estimates are that the comet is about 100-370 km across – much bigger than the previous size winner, Hale-Bopp in 1997 at 60km. There are big uncertainties at the moment, with C/2014 UN271 some 20 AU away. Those uncertainties will narrow,Continue reading “Astronomers Thrill at Giant Comet Flying into Our Solar System – Scientific American”

Over forty years many of the books I have enjoyed were ‘very good’, some ‘excellent’, and just one was ‘nearly perfect’ (Les Miserables by Victor Hugo – you might say that ‘he went on a bit’). Now I’m excited to share what I consider to be a PERFECT story – Manda Scott’s 2018 ‘A TreacheryContinue reading “Book review: “A Treachery of Spies” – Manda Scott”

I’m very interested in how propaganda was (and still is) used to influence the general population to accept nuclear weapons, even though it quickly became clear that nuclear war was not survivable in the hydrogen-bomb era. Taras Young’s “Nuclear War in the UK” is on my reading list for 2021. In the meantime, this shortContinue reading “‘Sinister yet pathetic’: how the UK was primed for nuclear war | Books | The Guardian”

Sad to hear that John le Carré (David Cornwell) died on 12th December 2020. His books were great fun to read and very inspiring. Was his greatest legacy Smiley or Leamas? I reviewed some of le Carré’s stories on my blog in 2018 – that article can be found here. A legend in his ownContinue reading “John le Carré (David Cornwell) died on 12th December 2020… the master of espionage thrillers was 89 years old.”

I found James L. Halperin’s 1996 novel “The Truth Machine” a curiously dull-yet-interesting read… an unusual combination. The cover looked exciting and the tagline of “In the Year 2004 The Truth Will Be Told” promised ‘excitement, adventure and really wild things’… to misquote Douglas Adams. Unfortunately Halperin chose to tell the story from the ratherContinue reading “Book review: “The Truth Machine” – James L. Halperin”

Honduras has just ratified the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, meaning that the minimum number required for it to come into force has been reached. There are currently 193 member states of the United Nations – 122 (63%) of them have approved the accord on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons. Now 50 statesContinue reading “Nuclear weapons treaty: Campaigners hail new era for nuclear disarmament – BBC news report…”

NASA is hopefully going to grab up to 2kg of rick samples from asteroid Bennu and give us a fantastic insight into early planetesimal formation in the solar system… The spacecraft’s first attempt to gather material from the space rock’s surface could become the largest nonlunar sample return in history Source: NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Seeks toContinue reading “NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Seeks to Grab a Piece of Asteroid Bennu – Scientific American”

A fascinating article in Sci-AM suggests possible hints of dark bosons in heavy isotopes that could be clues to new physics: Source: Possibility of Dark Bosons Entices Physicists – Scientific American Stories about possible new physics arise all the time, but this one sounded a bit more fascinating than usual!

First up was a re-read of “Sigmet Active” by Thomas Page (1978). I had read this around 1982 and it stayed lodged in my imagination ever since — but would it be as good now? The answer was “yes and no”. ‘Sigmet’ is a pilot’s notification of significant meteorological activity. Sigmet conditions make flying veryContinue reading “Reading through a backlist during the Covid-19 outbreak, I had mixed reactions to these three stories from 1978, 1989 and 1991…”