the great supernova of 2013

reading some of my 19th century  astronomy books   hand drawn and fuzzy pictures of nebula   use of defunct constellations  and  shared stars such as gamma aurigae 
and pre 1922 constellations argo navilis, Noctua, Anser and Robur
robert balls 1890s astronomy has section on novas  and the flaring of nova cygni over a few days in 1876 and eta carinae the  recent  nova (recent as in 1843)  eta carinae whose bright  fuzz is so beloved of hubble  is the candidate for the next supernova    or is that unstable betelgeuse
I  always wanted to witness   a night  sky supernova
 supernova betelgeuse would any one notice ?
 would a supernova  get on twitter   mix of  big star in sky  like bethlehem or  "end of world   by gamma ray   burst from death star"
however not happening  in this  century
 the sun is  a  bright star  to  the left of  orion as viewed from barnards star so would betelgeuse supernova  made a  fine view-if no one there to watch it
eta carinae would need to explode in  feb march to be visible here at a proper time   ie before 10pm 
 prehistory  got the best ie  veil nebula  in cygnus  either 40000 or 5000 years ago  would cygnus be viewed more as " man killed by beast "  by  stone age myths  than as greek swan
 expect most stone age constellation shapes variation on  man killed by beast
it is often cited  dark age europe too busy to see  the 1054  supernova what did they miss see above for yourself

noticed that quite by accident most of my  short poems are  either 140 charactors in length ideal for twitter  longer stuff at 275 words  just the right size for ipad 
been thinking on exo planets just before i drop off to sleep and then hopefully dream  of them 
 did not  someone called ingo swann do something called planet dreaming in 1974
dreamt  i was able to view planets around binary suns  either alpha centauri  gamma lepus era  cassiopeiae  tau cygni
   as with  all dreams mix of deja vu and surrealism  ie saw  mariner flyby wide expanse  of   blue and white block  garden with   roller coaster hall towers by  illuminated sea  low with cloud ice
this may be  psychic vision pf light years distance  or  a pre memory of some CGI effect of some yet unmade  blockbuster    star wars  VII  Heir to the Empire  or Issac Asimov's   Foundation the movie  of which only  foundation  and empire   would make a decent two movies  the campaigns of imperial  general Bel Roise  and  the second movie the  Mule

noted much on discovery of two planets  sharing same orbit but separated by 60 degrees what is this a star trek episode ? shades of  saturnian moons tethys taptho calypso   and the hadean collision of proto earth  and Theia   a slow catchup of two co orbital planets   and creation of the moon while earth inherits theia iron core  thats the theory
are binary stars  and co orbital  planets the norm
 
 two months since left adult education sector with redundancy  and now feel out of it  for ever
at the last week before christmas two unsucessful interviews at the local further education college both  non teaching but  in areas I have experience in
from national award winner last year  to  on dole this year  but as said  has foreseen it in 2007  
2013 better

written out of my organisations website as they carry on without me
 16  years faithful service even if the final year one of 2/10 job satisfaction  empty classes   and  too high targets to achieve

will E publish the  collectipn of at least 60 poems theragletters  in 2013   and add new stuff  to the third collection   much of the first book  christoipher lantern old stuff some of the more cryptic  ie inannas boat explained in sequels  in the ragletters

books of prediction and chronology

 books of prediction and chronology
I Read an interesting looking  forward  to the 1990s book was the book of predictions by wallace, wallace  and wallechinsky a book of lists from 1981  looking forward to the 1985 of president Mondale and hypersonic travel   and onto to house robots  and  asteroid mining in between jeane  dixon upheaveals  arthur C Clarke  writing
  his usual thing  and  nostradamus being vague
 I  like the snowman john lewis advert on british TV  the previous john lewis advert   was  a young couple  in love separated by nearly 90 years to celebrate  the 1925-2012   existence of the store 
 a 2012-2099  advert of shared lifetimes would be harder to do   between the cliched  london  media bloke and the  one mind organism of the future  
I had intended adding more of my  learning resources to youtube
ie scanning in my 1979  star trek chronology  1980-2188  with its now non canon chronology of 2005 Moonbases   and  L5 cities by 2010 an over optimistic  space race book  of full page Starship statistics   and paintings
 with  an alternative first contact UNSS  Icarus  and a Romulan war 2106-2109  some 1970s good  wash colour paintings by Rick Sternberg  of UNSS Galileo, Marshall class destroyers  and  USS Tritium   you see these paintings on many websites  
would have made the excuse for the video as  star trek resources for learners  to practice scanning and  using movie maker
 well  I did get in the local paper for my lord of the rings maths worksheet   and followed this  with equally successful escape from death star maths
received  an bangalore call centred accent phone call from google   yes a PHONE call from google 
informing me that was I aware I had published a book on google website    have I ? checked it out  type in  christoher lantern his midnight name  seventh down the page  you do get link to the  amazon uk page
 turned out it was  christopher lantern my ebook on KDP    and when asked the call centre voice told me this was the PHONE number associated with the author so how do my KDP account private details end up   as knowledge to google phone service  
all they did was ask about my books how did I come to write it was I writing another one and said they were pleased I had chosen google   
volume two the Rag letters will have to wait    72 poems this year
usually have writing doldrums in winter months poetry mainly a spring  and summer occupation
  but suddenly created the long beginning to zennor wedding in two minutes  watching  BFI  archive about seaside  100 years ago
may need work -older poems  go onto sunrise and watch  to seaward also  taking bits of the zennor theme
poems  tend to follow similiar structure and language

 been redundant just over a month and feel on scrap heap  noted I was even written out of  the organisation  website   I designed  for them in March 
having little response  in my applications for work skills tutor jobs  either as these are looking for business trainers  with own transport and  my horizon has strunk  20 years ago thought nothing of  commuting to another city leaving in the dark coming home in the dark after a 14 hour day also noticed  that car user is now considered a norm  for full involvement in society   despite the fact  by 2070   no one knows what a car/automobile is  some sort of dodo?
 but after so long  just having 5 minute walk to work feel like medieval villager  not wanting to journey far but this is from same person who subscribes to astronomy picture of the day  and has vivid dreams of other worlds and times
the 10 years 2002-2012 at  the learning centre were nothing more than  salary earning  comfort zone  where I could spend my time on using  web 2.0 tools  well at least since 2011  -anyone remember alta vista  or ice rocket
reading books like the truth about the internet tomes "the  net delusion",  "the filter bubble"  "the winter of our disconnect"  pr the  winter of our discontent a family not using youtube social media  or google  for six  months  poor things  reminded me of a circa 1915 "what we did when  all our domestic staff went off to war"   and  technology free lifstyle  manuals  spec email facebook and twitter are not all we expected them to be
i used to feel the same about  CP/M  and compuserve

time travellers blistered by monkey arrows

still working on alien astrolabe  occassional dream about  reading future  scientific manuals and  had vivid dream of main  historical  events  in 2060  some sort of siege ends a war  society   para physical  and  nanorganic
 once dreamt i read that tau ceti has no planetary system(this has now been proved)  and that tau cygni was the closest star system with advanced intelligent life on the wanting to meet an alien scale  
 82 orionis nearest for lifeforms
only ever believed kellyville goblins and trent photographs actual evidence of real ET  villas boas encounter  turned  out to be  a Covert ops  LSD experiment 
jobs in 2060 and hopefully newly redundant to not want to wait that long
knowledge designer
food engineer
religion manager
  
poetry  a  long lull but  always write the most oct to november  march to may  each year  
 despite change in circumstances  and future security  I wrote  some of the usual on  the afterlife, science as failure, visions of  the future   and musing on ruins  ie "time traveller returning in butchered  sequence
 blistered with monkey  arrows"   and "henge fallen lith  lays  as an Arthurian queen
a ring of folded   jackdaws her maidens" and this last week inspired by  jim  al khalli  doing his usual telly thing
"whistling discord to collapse
easy superior scientists  hope their   students will save the universe  and not get an ordinary job
 entropy  in the rain "

never got around to finishing zennor wedding   nor fight between  knight and spaceman
  not  uploading any of the new poems  to poem hunter or  poet sanctuary  as this does not help in job search
longest few months I  had had for years as had was used  to  counting  the days  according to my  learners time table
 despondency  of redundancy from my job as  tutor or as  I put on my CV  "twice national award winning tutor"

  not even a goodbye after 16 years  with the same  organisation!!  move on think of the future not the past

but there is little  to do online as I only  used the internet  to   dealt  with work  issues ie   teaching blog writing  ebook creation  and video creation for youtube  in classroom never much of an internet user despite teaching the subject 

I should delete my  learning centre  videos  from my  youtube page as the  old learning centre room is now used for storage by the day centre next door 
still amazon reviewing but have occasional flamers  a minority who claim spoiler alert on of all things a   fantasy novel by stephen baxter  cursing me  as a spoiler  if i say the  obvious ending and storyline  are  cliched what is a spoiler about that
and we all know how important a  CV is at times like this
not much available in local area for adult education and training  even in voluntary capacity

where did I go????

where did I go?  well made redundant   and this blog originallly designed as part of  one of the courses  I taught  so left it lay farrow fro a while


working on  my  second ebook of poetry   the rag letters
noticed i wrote 54 poems in  2012  compared to 18 in 2011   looking back at the 201  finding them trite   and  old fashioned  compared  to my current stuff

got most enjoyment from this blog on the scince stuff and astronomy  posts
may return to it  in future but  mot time on  internet which was classed as part of my place of work    is on job search websites

finding where I am with an astrolabe

 well  regarding my employer  making me redundant  to quote douglas adams "so long and thanks for the fish"
I teach four subjects so have four skills areas to  look at other opportunities  in !

perhaps i will finish that  star compass    using my mariners astrolabe i find i am  under an unchanging north star
   remembered an old site I found years ago that  provides  kits   to build cardboard working models of the ptolemaic   and copernician   solar  system models http://cp.c-ij.com/en/contents/3148/03311/index.html
will give it a go   after all what else to do





re blog i have decided to do all my weekly book reviews on amazon  but  noticed in past weeks that despite my 95 reviews  over a year my most recent ones   are getting flamed   with hard faced criticism of my  use of punctuation  and paragraphing rather than the content


"two words for you - FULL STOP!" on my review of a dire alchemy romance novel  fate by LJ fredericks 

and long  comments from  two on Richard Dawkins  the greatest show on earth 

Hmm, my suspicion is you haven't read this book at all and were determined to post some kind of diatribe against it's author, regardless.

"If you're going to bother writing a review, could you stir yourself to use basic punctuation and correct spelling to make it readable? Surely anything less betrays some measure of contempt for anyone who might stumble on it.
Not sure what your point really is. For sure, evolution is not an appealing, human-centred fable. Are you suggesting Dawkins shouldn't bother setting out the evidence for it because it's not interesting? Isn't this partly why he's doing it at all?"

end of the end end, end is it the end?

well it is the end  nothing but the end  end, end   given british olympic triumph  seen many peole out on their bikes  lots of bradley wiggins  fluorescent   fat men  in knee pinching shorts sweating by the mile

poetry well  told today will be made redundant on 1st september    after nine full years due to overwhelming funding cuts
writing zennor wedding  -   more romantic mermaid poem than zennor morning    more closely based on the mermaid fairytale    of the mermaid seducing the man in church   a lot of notes and lines such as  "she is not a kings daughter  a banshee a tear heart " or "they pulled her until,she turned fish"
this zennor wedding long term construction unlike my other poems  looking at  a big Giotto and   saint George and the Dragon which were  written in one go

watched the cleopatras now available on youtube  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NfHucSYFoTg  the same era of  top notch British TV dramas such as  Upstairs Downstairs I claudius and Brideshead revisited  this was an odd pantomime of  a saga with    indoor sets  like a theatre production    the Cleopatras  told the tale of the ptolemaic    dynasty   and  all seven cleopatras    mainly  basic english  soap opera  with  court intrigue and funny costumes  i watched and remembered it  as it is the only TV dram  I know that mentioned the  seleucids (episode 3 and 4)   and the inter dynastic  feuding but using repertory  type acting  and  lack of  extras     not quite an epic and a dud on first release  not much scope for drama as the seleucids and ptolemies   only really know from inscriptions, bit of  chronicle gossip    and their Greek faces on coinage

reminded me of the Ptolemies quartet   by Duncan Sprott  only two novels of a planned four   volume 1 house of the eagle  2004 volume 2  daughter of the crocodile  2006   with a  similar  pantomine  history of the  early Ptolemies from  Alexander the Great 's General Ptolemy I to Ptolemy IV

writing that same old mythos stuff

read 1001 paintings to  see before you die well actually 996 paintings  since this library copy had  been hacked about and was missing pages and   paintings   mainly from the fifteenth century section    suffered from  the layout of one or  two paintings and artists to a page     and colourfully  went from 18th dynasty egypt to the turner prize  more detailed post 1950 and  in the  2000's    and for a great painting book few great masters  more of a word view with  from the start art from china, india and japan    but in the main still life portrait landscape mixed up feelings  with paint

first life david attenborough based on the bbc series of same name   and  full of blue water photo-spreads, slabs of rock  and computer graphic reconstructions of the early life  from  archaen  bacteria  to  micro fossils  ,  trilobites to  dragonflies   a tale of linear evolution but well detailed and  wide ranging   the  bbc film crew  had gone world wide with visits to burgess shale, mistaken point    and carboniferous sandstone

star wars old republic Revan by drew karypyshtn  set 4000 years or so  before luke skywalker this is another tale based  n the video game concerning Revan  Jedi  knight turned  Dark lord  and back again  as if after a bout of force flu to Jedi knight again   despite being set thousands of years ago  a mess of droids, jedi imperial  sith troopers and mercenary cantini scum
  played up to the action  and given that it is old republic slotted in medieval dungeons and dragons   wizard sith, dark fortresses and  chained slaves  worth a read even if you are not a game player

Ghosts of war  by george mann    a steampunk batman  from the pulp era    echoes of HP lovecraft     but more dixon hill than lee falk    set in a alternative world of Queen Alberta   it had our ex fighter pilot  hero battling flying night creatures     and ended in a climatic airship versus monster fight

the adventures of untitled watch

In may i send off  three of my  poems to a anthology poetry contest and received notification back they wanted to publish one   honestly i had not expected   them to publish  the ironic  England i love this Republic in a collection of jubilee poems  and they did not instead it was the  one hailed by  forum poster as  the waste land in ten lines   the  watch the road  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/watch-the-road/  poem with its images of decline decay and" no metaphor of ship wreck sea hating and depressing "   but oddly they called it "untitled watch"   and wanted me to buy  a lot of copies of the anthology  to get it published   so it was vanity publishing after all
looking back even on my poems of 2009-2011 in my own book  http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=christopher+lantern+his+midnight+name+&rh=i%3Aaps%2Ck%3Achristopher+lantern+his+midnight+name+&ajr=0  i find that old stuff pretty old fashioned  and trite compared to my latest work but keeping the best stuff to myself  latest  about a fight beyond a knight and a future astronaut " lost spaceman, Dome and a million shades"  in a city that is alternating between   21st century and medieval


 

where in our quiet times are the refugees from future wars?

good Olympic opening ceremony   and emphasis on London pride   god bless em
i had written an ode to the Olympics in april but since forgotten it starts "score down the torch , run race to last place" cannot help be ironic  often dreamt that 2036  is  the last summer Olympic games   and it goes the way of the world  cup   and despite all the 60s and 70s poptastic  theme of the 2012 opening ceremony  the 2060s and 70 s will be years  of change and  ultimate world conflict   on a level to   reduce all nations! but then again  if so why  is not the present  day  quiet  and historically uneventful as it is  full of  refugees from future wars ?

read  new york   the art guide    by morgan falconer   over 60  museums   but not as would have been helpful a museum by museum guide    but rather a theme gallery  of all the cities  museums from early civilization to medieval   art and nation by nation schools of painting    from  the met to the whitney  the MOCA and the MOBA    most of the book was a typical tames and huson  modern art  guide with  colour tab sections on art and artists   colourful is the description of this book   as it read like like pictures and hypertext
the knight a medieval users guide one of the many   user friendly 60 second   history type guides   using  text boxes and the  beas bits from long medieval chronicles  on little fact blocks  god sections on all the history of the knight from damsels  to   mercenaries   loot and booty to campaigning


 the times encyclopaedia of   world religions from   the summerians to  new age religions in Asia using maps from the times atlas of history  all the main mythologies in summary and art  all the main religions in brief history  although this is the first book on the subject  i have read that has a tabbed inset   on page 169 stating the author disassociates himself from the content  on that page

one hundred favourite poems   chosen by classic fm readers   from  masefield to marvell    adleshop to  dover beach    from the highwayman to the listeners    the ones we regard as classic as they are remembered


re redundancy some sort of lifeline funding but  half the money from  last year  decided not wanting to do  any college course  not travel outside my comfort zone as having too much anxiety

palpatine teenage dark lord a rebel with out a cause

read  darth plagueis  by james lucerno    a factory line  star wars novel   set over 40 years before new hope  a back story of darth succession  from sith master to sith master   and a young palpatine who outdoes anakin as  as   a  irritating teen rebel    as stiff as a historical novel  the book by lucerno a profesional star wars  genre novelist   only  comes alive with movie familiar characters such as Dooko  , Jedi cliches and  catina lowlifes  and  as a back story only fills a hole in the  narrative  rather than tells  a good tale

dakota cipher  by william dietrich   another  ethan gage adventure this at the last crusade plot level    set in the wild west of  pre lewis and clark   it has enough villains  , beautiful ladies and heroes  to fill a hundred action scenes and thunders along to the climax beneath a huge lightning tree and a  long lost  norse god  treasure   a enjoyable way to pass the time read and enjoy

legions  of Rome the definite history of every  Imperial Roman legion  by Stephen Dando-collins  
a great  addition to the usual  tomes about Roman military  warfare    this 600  page book tells the campaign history of every  Roman legion from the fall of the Republic to the sack of Rome    
part 1  details Roman legionary life from kit to  enlistment   procedures  
Part 2 includes a  history of every Roman legion  and offers new theories on the disappearance of the 9th Legion and the origins of the 10th legion
part 3 is a chronological  summary of every Legion campaign from the wilds of caledonia  to the  cities of Persia from the year of the three emperors to severan  campaigns
idea for history buffs , diorama  modellers  and  anyone  who has watched  a Roman epic  movie

the age of chivalry  by  hywel williams the story of medieval europe  lavishly illustrated   an introduction to medieval life   idea for someone like me who spent their child hood  memorizing medieval king lists and who   could name  the  battles of the black prince  by age ten   good sections on florentine city life,  the kingdom of anjou -Naples and  the  100 years war    sadly no mention of any  northern kingdom such as sweden    or much on germany beyond the salian  and hohenstaufen dynasties  but a great  book to read overall

A sleeping engine my time travel by dream

This is one of my latest poems   oddly like  xanadu revealed in a  dream
 I was  actually  in the medieval period between ruins  and  medieval reality  witnessing  some sort of    forgotten crime of passion     as it happened  

 England has lot of ghost couples unhappy in love haunting and haunting
 but most you realise are  from stories of fiction    or tourist  traps  - no real way to trace the origins of this  

I live out  the past

A sleeping engine  in a shocked  blank room

Older than saxons

Older than jutes

Older than older !

The land gives back

Dreary English ghosts

Demonic and  inertly orthodox

Wake a  dread height

Travelling aquatint gives us light

Spilling utter twisted dust

 Lace, frost and the same ringing weather from here to there

May day festival  and hobby hob foul 

chalk horse  chases down grass  giant

this is a complex relationship  of  love and  place

two  of the other strangers dance

he rejected !

she repelled !

many lives are here

safety in numbers 

car drawn farm cart coarse with  hanged man 

maid in her grave

a romance of  the medieval from beginning to end

tear it up   bring candle to water 

canon origins of the borg

read  star trek destiny  three novels in one   by david mack  this is the  canon trilogy that  at last gives a credible origin for the borg  finalyy getting away  from Vger or  as part of a failed medical experiment  light years away  three novels  gods of night, mere mortals and  lost souls  make a raygun rip roaring space opera combining  characters starships types, planets and aliens  form all the post TOS star trek franchise from next generation to   enterprise and set  15 years after the best of both worlds sets the stage fro a  galaxy wide  Borg war   probably the best  star trek novels I have read  as they are so familiar even to the Gorn and Tholians   but on the negative side when you have read one paragraph about a Borg cube being destroyed by star fleets  secret weapon you do not expect the same scene again  and again   across three books  and that the Borg origins come late but already guessed  and in one of many subspace temporal wormholes  all the way back to  events in    Earths prehistory

the Atlantis code by charles broclaw is the opposite poorly written  an airport novel full of hot air and   dull Vatican  villains and Russian   gangsters   the Atlantis code is sub dan brown even to  the finding  of anachronistic  Christian gnostic  type secret scriptures as the  big secret  in Atlantean  ruins


ode to the sea  a national trust poetry book  mix of sea fevers , rimes of ancient mariners and odes to mermaids  and   rock pools  interesting but  a companion table book


 A complete guide to the soul  by Patrick harpur the cover blurb asks  Who am I? What's my life's purpose? Where am I going when I die? and the back cover calls this important  book  well the  cover questions are not answered and it  mainly another book on  neoplatonist thought  diamons and psyche  with added freudian dreams and jungian symbols 







 not had many interesting or vivid dreams fro months   mainly dream of college campus  and catching public transport  these must be my inner fears 

building an astronomical cross staff

have interview next week so  should actually use my own interview practice resources  myself

  found various  sites where you can learn how to  contract a  cross staff  so added them here for record

brilliant old book on renaisssance scientiifc instruments  just look at that tychos tranverse scale http://articles.adsabs.harvard.edu//full/1986JBAA...96..353C/0000354.000.html

a build your own cross staff from instructions  http://www-spof.gsfc.nasa.gov/stargaze/Scrostaf.htm like this the best
using a cross staff to measure angular separation http://www.education.com/science-fair/article/angular-separation/

in no way is it painless this loss of emotion

 read Death of empire by M K hulme  one of his trilogy books this is prohecy book 2   seen it all before  novel set in  the time of attila the hun   only   new idea that merlin was a travelling healer with the roman army    journeying with a crowd of other woadish  stereotypes from Britannia  to constantinople  a little less conversation a little more action needed in this novel!  most of the  big events  were peripheral  and the main characters Aetius, Atilla just had walk on parts  starting well it had by page 200  turned into   a 1950s melodrama of a door stop sized  Roman empire novel without a good story   in contrast to  anything by  ben kane or richard blake
with  all MK Hulme the story is padded out for  duration of the full series  and that is the weak point of this well researched  dark age series

A line in the sand  - Britain France and the struggle that shaped the modern middle East by james barr  based on Newly  declassified government papers  this is  a stuffy archive of a book that re tells the  period of the   revolt in the desert form cabinet minutes and  has less content on interwar Syria than i expected  and  then goes full speed  into the  oftold transformation  of Palestine into Israel  a more interesting book on the changes  and politics in  interwar iraq and transjordan is  reduced to a few paragraphs 




modern art british art in the early 20th century basee on the whitechapel art gallery catalogue  of 1914 and it five strands of modern art   it followed this lead to   write about sickets tabloid mrder paintings,  vortiicism tyros pastel vanessa bell    and had a good section on  blomberg  and gettlers jewsih art  lie the 1914 catalogue it only shows how art and taste are dated 

the city of london   a companion guide by nicholas kenyon    this is not the london of legends or tourist attractions  but the city area from temple to tower    concentrating on the architecture of  demolished churches,  livery halls and  the changing  sites of financial institutions from  flat Georgian edifice  to  1960s tower then  this demolished for 21st century  skyscraper

did not write much  poetry   applied for nine voluntary jobs and three college courses to move on

humanity the ape of anxiety

got letter warning me of "potential redundancy  that reflects the  difficult trading  circumstances  in which we are operating"
10 years as  twice national award winning adult education tutor specialising in  adaptive technology
well that is it having bouts of anxiety   for past week but that of worry over travel to college at night to do  further education  teaching course  and wait for bus in an another town  dark  now not so anxious as realised can afford taxi there and back  but of course now no place to teach at - neither have i taken the  29 days of holiday owing to me

poetry still popular with readers for example  he died in the ark http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/blogentry.php?blogentryid=29549

Not sure where you were led with it, but a bloody brilliant piece of poetry."
"I'm not completely sure I follow the exact meanings of it, but at the same time, I found it a sparking and stirring piece of poetry."

writing lot of mystic variations on myth and tending to tell  little stories in my poetry ie he died in the ark  timeslip, threshold bride , the sleeping engine,  zennor morning,  arthur the king,  helen is finally faceless 
that tell as much as the long romantic narratives
will still carry on with this

I have hoped to build my hawaiian  star compass if it EVER stops raining  and construct a cross staff  and build a paper sextant from kit  and hoped to blog on it
using the astrolabe  i can only work out I am standing still  !

those crazy eccentric British is all an act!

read whitstaple mum in custard shortage  and other world exclusives  from Britain's finest local newspapers  an attempt to be funny with headlines like  cat stuck on roof, two dogs collide on pavement -dog hurts nose, church window nearly smashed    snow on roof for third day an update  however the news papers were local to the authors area  rarely going up north and the Argus (brighton and Hove ) hogged these headlines (14articles  in total)   a slim volume it was padded out by having both the  newspaper headline and article in full from clipping  and  on the facing  page  a  duplicated word for word transcript of the article content

understanding italian renaissance art   another thames and hudson book  with  some fine painting based around themes  ie colour, devotion. atmosphere  and fashion

romantic moderns  english writers artists and the imagination from  virginia woolf to john piper  by Alexandra Harris  a study of inter war  writers   with  some famous now others famous then  showing their development form rural isolation and village inspired lyrics to writing sponsored rural travel guides and  painting for advertising commissions 

London by peter ackroyd

  a concise classic of a book  with  incredible detail on  london as lived  from saxon times to late victorian along the   themes of sewers, parish poor and  parish  watch   hanged, haunted   and fogged over   excellent guide  to London as it was   all gone now  wonderful to read about

 read well and some poetry notes but  had number of work meetings and despite great success in past   lack of  future funding  in my area of expertise   there is an irony there somewhere 

alien night sky

as mentioned alpha centauri skies have similar constellation patterns but additional stars  the most obvious being the sun as chief star in the  combined Perseus and Cassiopeia  constellation "the harper "  nearby is the long  constellation  taking up most of the sky i call the storm sisters  with orion  as the archer  in the jaws of the storm sister Sirius and betelgeuse by their position are seen as a very bright double star   but to alpha centauri  myth are they lovers, brothers or enemies ?

 The sirius  betelgeuse star was once million of years ago  bright Sirius B when it shone as a prehistoric bright star  "Red Sirius"  where as  Red Betelgeuse is only ten million years old  "born after the death" of red Sirius so interesting alien skies  in the distant past  which may have  been celebrated in alien myth

wolves and isolation

red deadly animals by gordon grice  similair to and inspired by man is the prey by james clarke 1969 this book detailed animal -human attacks from lions in the siegfried and roy act to   rabid otters    and nibbing bugs    it seems strange that in many countries wild animals from  wolves to bears moose to cougar share the neighbourhood  and the newest asian cities have feral baboons and  insect swarms
interesting book  for someone living in a green and pleasant land


 the gathering  night by margaret elphinstone  set in mesolithic scotland   and avoids the cliches of other prehistoric novels, not quite Jean M Auel but readable and well researched by the author  however the plot was lacking in purpose and the prehistoric folk although well drawn were  mainly hunting  camping and fishing

the incas co written by the daughter of victor von hagen the author of the  highway of the sun  a 1950s book on the Inca road network this was much of the same   and looked at provinces  and adminstration rather than the Inca politics or religion  useful tour of the ruins across all four regions   from jungle to desert

from christ to coke  by martin kemp    how image becomes icon  an illustrated study  of  cultural icons brief articles  with bibliography  on themes of christ , lion,mona lisa  coke bottle , DNA  e=mc2  with more content on the modern than the ancient icons


having no native Uk wolves  i did however use wolves as an image in one of my poems
 the theme is being  old and dying alone in your own home

Wolves and isolation 
crying to the pity

The day of his death

Move out of sounds way 
Thin walls to the fortress and the moat

A mid coloured banner bends in the rain 
Dross frost of pin flowers
Ancient bleak of wheat

No body say doomsday




however comments seemed to have picked up on first line only- do readers get beyond the first lines of my poetry ?  this diatribe for example from a poetry forum i posted to    i see  the wolf as metaphor he sees wolves  only 

"I see when the wolf roamed free the world over; now giving up its empire to isolation. 
Whoever gave this six is sick. Have a grand tomorrow…Jack "


wrote again to simon armitage re his  grim up north pennine poetry walk   actually all emails go to his literacy agent  so no wonder  i never got reply  must think i am stalker  with  poetry submissions  so you will  ignored  if  you write to the author about their books and their agent is delegated to read it first   a common ego event as i have mentioned before that  some authors now have  their publicity team do all their facebook and twitter  for them  

the star compass lost in the rain

got design of my star compass ok using rising of Polaris as marker and the summer/winter  triangle  but as typical  lack a summer in england
  as with other garden ornaments  eventually the star compass rots away  if  kept outside all year   just in case anyone does not know the sound of a british summer try this
best run it in a loop for best effect  things tend to go  mouldy ever read  weinbaums the Parasite planet just like england in June



alien astrolabe  going well  believe that orbit of alpha centauri B  a 80 year circle from  capella  to apheratz
sun situated in  middle of  the milky way as brightest star next to conjunction of sirius and betelgeuse
check it out on astronexus website  or software like astrofly  quite a beautiful sky

never had an urban legend happen to me

phantom hitchhikers and decoy ducks by albert jack   this turned out to be a 2006 book  released under a new name  very much  a guide to urban legends of the familiar kind and avoiding the most horrific  or crude
a rehass of the old tales of  the escaped  mad axeman   in the backseat  or on the roof,  hamsters and rabbits   disappearing, lost trousers and the vicar  and then as a filler padding about historical myths re JFK and Y2K.   expect there is an urban legend floating about the internet about people who compile collections  of urban legends

chung kuo novel daylight on iron mountain   by david wingove  had read chung kuo future earth  novel before but we are now presented with 20 volume rewrite of entire series  and what dire stuff  it is    sort of a prequal  it read like poor Pearl Buck  with hash court historicals , long series of events  cardboard cut out tyrants and a trite murder mystery while none of the really interesting background the destruction of half the world  and the state by state conquest of the united states by chinese armies  were just  headlines

how to read a painting by patrick de rynck
a beginners  art history but a small format book with small selection   some choice art all the way from duccio to goya  but  mainly  reads like a website with zoom in of detail and brief comment on paintings theme  this was useful in the bosch and brueghel masses of little figures   but  limited in all the medieval Annunciations and crucifixions
useful guide to art history and what you see by looking at a painting

apollo's angels  a history of ballet by jennifer homans I admit i have seen a handful of operas on TV but never seen a ballet  at all   so knew nothing  about ballet but aware of who margot fontyn   had been   interesting and concise ballet lovers guide from origins of ballet in 17th century french court dance through to the nineteenth century  with its early swan lakes and giselle  leaps and jumps  and on to Russian ballet and a large section on modern  dance   a beginning for me  recommend to fans


poetry wise  just a few notes and musing on ruins  and art
discovered i have theme and structure but  still lot of loose lines

i had posted the article tp bettany hughes  facebook page  which i had emailed "history babe" bettany hughes   in april  that a lot of  minoan archaelogy  and the snake goddess  minoan beauty is faked  "babe bettany" has no opinion then-never had any reply  http://crete.wordpress.com/2009/09/13/evans-knossos-and-the-minoans-facts-and-forgeries/    and  the post is now missing off bettany hughes  facebook which is mainly fans  "praising the babe"


take it that simon armitage is not  working on a yorkshire dialect translation of the kalevala  as he nor his publishers assistant never replied either  should i have praised him   instead  here is first rune of kalevala from  twoohoo yorkshire translator 
I' primeval times, eur maiden, beauteous daughta o' t' etha, passed for ages 'a existence in t' girt expanse o' 'eaven, o'a t' prairies yet enfahded. wearisome t' maiden growin, ha existence sad 'n 'opeless,

Star Trek voyage of the TV argosy

read star trek a brief guide by Brian J  Robb as an avid 40 year  trekkie  believed this book would tell me little did not already know despite most of my reading being technical  manuals and star fleet chronologies
useful read ( but as expected you can find the same info on wikis and fan sites ) spending equal time on all the franchise from early roddenberry pilots to next generation and the other ones  all the way to  a good chapter on unfilmed  episodes  and  plot ideas with less on the usual actor memoirs and   studio politics

lot of interesting info  ie  from  early next generation  casting of  Roy (The Invaders) Thinnes as Picard ,  pre  movie star Wesley snipes as Riker and Jenny Agutter  as Dr Crusher - useful to  wonder what first contact woud have been like with Tom Hanks in the role of zefrem cochrane   and that first contact was originally to be called   Star trek Renaissance with Picard and leonardo da vinci taking out the Borg
some excellent detail on what we did not see ie a 1970s planet of the Titans  (Star trek play on chariots of gods) Star Trek phase II new series of 1978  and   the planned   next generation  movies  "Star trek  Prime Directive " and "Star trek Stardust"

good chapters only went to prove that Deep space Nine started well  with  good plotlines tacking colonialism and gender stereotype but ended up in dominion war  Ray gun battles, that Voyager honestly did make it up as it went along  and that Star trek Enterprise  has some good story arcs  such as temporal cold war  and  founding of the federation but gave up on these early in the shows run  ended up  replaying old 1960s ideas  but at least that failure saved us from other series ideas such  star trek academy(cadets  lost in space) and star trek federation( the 30th century federation  treking in andromeda galaxy )
the book only went to prove that as I know from experience it is truly  possible to draft the story board for a complete two season  star trek series  on one side of A4 on  a wet sunday afternoon   yes I am looking at you   Star Trek Glory ( the aftermath of a  Galaxy wide Borg Dominion war ) and Star Trek  Resistance ( an alternative history where Earth lost the  pre federation Earth-Romulan  war)
Despite mention in the book of  Star trek 2012 (Star Trek Evolution? )  still waiting for this to be released it is now Star Trek 2013  latest rumour that Benedict Cumberbach is playing either  Khan wrathing again or  the lesser known TOS character Captain Garth  or  an English accent villain with PSI powers    "Montagu Fanshaw- Cholmondeley"   and it will be bigger and character led  rather  than bringing in Klingons this time instead of Romulans  but that is what they said about DS9  and voyager

 the best art you have never seen 101 hidden  treasures from around the world  by julian spalding    picture book guide on treasures in private collections , artists homes or in museum basements from  parts of buddhas to  painted over religious art  from art hidden by hate to art hidden by concepts  useful links at end to ever present websites  and  museums world wide


 the projection of britain  a history of the GPO film unit  a dry academic work a series of articles that given the small subject matter often tell the same story twice  but does its best  to make films about phones and mail boxes  interesting as did the original  film makers  on what is best understood by watching the films on you tube check out len lye and night mail   two examples of the best

a brief history of the grail  giles morgan   a compact detailed book  with less emphasis on new age glastonbury   and arthurian  victoriana  as usual in this subject  covering without comment  all the pre celtic legends to grail myths of dan brown  and the  quest films  of george lucas and peter jackson

 now the jubilee is over all we have is the twiiter comments of  a n even more regal person Fearne cotton  veteran kiddie TV  and trending pop show presenter   taking offence at  every criticism  of peoples opinion  her  poor TV presenting at the jubilee Events
you could tell all the tweets replying to complaints  were from Fearne Cotton as each was probably  prefaced  with "Do You Know Who I am! "
or I just judging

Queen enough for you

results of jubilee poem came in  did not win of course with "England I love this Republic"  the winners were  two elderly women and a school girl really simple  rhythm  no wonder pam ayres  loved them
mixed emotions over the jubilee was it just a TV event  "her majesty god bless her" strange having to say prayers in church for the heirs of Henry VII
finally put my jubilee poem together  and on to the Olympics

Queen enough for you

Not quite an era , an epoch

All one in decades

Age ridden monument

Of kings and a line of kings

God gave them  their stone

Castle fast tombs

Where they  are grinning like lords

Red white and blue

White rose

White cockade

Not part of me

Past and emotionalated

Rigid biped moving at diagonals

Vertical severe architecture

Elizabethan virgin, Victorian virgin

She walks among us

The restless beef  a shout crowd and flags

Can this be a Republic

But no I fall at the first

Cry to near century

Not part of me

All of me 

totally jubilated

after four days of jubilee   totally royalist
 spend time watching the TV coverage   but soon learn to avoid the  trite low level personality driven bbc coverage of events
spent rest of time reading books and working out the line of relationship between henry VII and Richard III  and their descent from  Edward III( great great grandson RIII, great great great great grandson HVII   best to  use pen and paper for this  but used to be able to do it from memory

read last white rose the secret war of the tudors  by desmond seward  having won the battle of bosworth when most of richard the third army changed sides the tudors faced  rebellions and loads of relatives with better claims to the throne  for the next forty years   hence henry VIII's search for a male heir  and  executions of relatives and  great lords good sections on the pretend pretenders lamber simnel  and perkin warbeck and how henry VII was as eager to execute his nobles as  his son   who having been the  middle son of three  grew up aware of himself as sole tudor heir  of a  distant  descendent of the past dynasty  that claimed the crown  on the battlefield   typical english history book for those who like tudor politics at is best

read the last lingua franca  the rise and fall of world languages by nicolas ostler
fundamentally the triumph of world english  but long and interesting chapters on  the medieval languages   of turkic and pali  and the rise  dominance and decline of Persian from the ancient world to   nineteenth  century  indian ocean trade

the masque of africa  glimmers of african belief  by VS naipaul   rather random in content   never really achieving the object little  new on african belief but the old idea  that it is traditional  and  half way to witchcraft   and not really a  travel book mainly conducted in english and  colonial in scope

 lore of the land by westwood  and spencer excellent and  concise  countywide  A to Z guide to englands legends and myths  ideal for anyone  with interest in boggarts, shucks and hobs  read this for fifth  time
its familiarity   meant that i was not really inspired  to write any new poetry

transit gloriania

 so its 60 years of the queen and  dating from  907AD  a lot longer for the monarchy   of course must not forget the last legitimate  king was Richard II Plantagenet  murdered by his cousin  Henry IV and that the house of Lancaster and york spent the next hundred years wiping each either out over  claims to the throne  ending in the completely illegal   claims of the Tudor dynasty   making some sort of peace
Given that  the queen mother lived to be over 100 years old  will we we be as  glorious about the 70th jubilee in 2022 and our endless monarch

Where as England was once four kingdoms Scotland was of course a kingdom from 843AD    and  I think it is still part  of the united kingdom

it is also the period  of the transit  - the Transit of Venus that is
unlike 2004 when i had a transit cake  of lemon icing and chocolate drop baked for me by my learners  the 2012 is in the middle of the European night  
of course all planets transit the sun at intervals  found this video of the transit of earth  seen from Mars not to be viewed   until  2084 when hopefully Mars will have human colonies -  same hope once expressed for the 1984 transit

think this is my first failure during a time slip

wrote and uploaded on various sites this  time slip poem  ok as it is  a walk in woodland  and a sudden time slip between prehistoric woodland dwellers and  the present  dirty park  http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/time-slip-2/   not had that many readers or comments as usual
feel it is a failure  of language and image
 best lines i think is  are

Damp plastic hung skinny from ash tree
Lightning forked on something like an oak
Stump raised in flight and fungus lime


rather than the   one million years BC captain caveman  vision  of
same place
different time
or is it the other ?

brute skin fury hungry in a good carnage
bone arrow bowmen
eyes open to their gods

feather and bird skin
long ivory crushed from freshly killed beast a thousand hours ago


diificult to  be emotive  over  a time slip
 never had that experience not even  a deja  vu ! and despite being in hospital intensive care and very ill years ago never had the light at the end of the tunnel  or out of body experience   most timeslips are seeing a wonderful cottage or great  Georgian   house  which when seen again  is a ruin of centuries


putting finishing touches to my jubilee poem  for 4th and 5th June the sun has now given over to rain for the day

cannot get a diamond jubilee mug and smash the monarchy mug as a gift set

a week to go and my jubilee poem still on target   of course it starts off totally republican  and inspired by revolution and ends with  me as  loyal subject caught up in the crowd  or "restless beef" as i refer to them

"of kings and a line of kings

  God gave them their stone 

 castle  fast tombs where they rest grinning like lords

red white and blue  

white rose 

white cockade "

white rose and white cockade referring to the Yorkist and Stuart claimants

read Devil as Muse: Blake, Byron & the Adversary (Making of the Christian Imagination) by  Fred parker  this writes of the old chestnut  poet as the devils party  milton's friend etc  an introduction to blakes ironic fantasies  byron with tall dark handsome demons and mann trying his best to be goethe 


Survival  of the beautiful  science and evolution by david Rothernberg 
how beautiful is nature   from the bnower birsds obession with  blue , aptterns of wings nad feathers  to  cave  art and the template for drawing  the perfect mammoth

Out of OZ  by Gregory macguire  thisi s book 4 of the wicked series  and the first I read 

a modernisation of baum   with  ageing characters from the Oz books and the imperial politics on the capital hill in EC  and the politics of the free state of Munchkinland  . an multispecies nation caught up   in  sebastianism for a lost pretender and Dorothy brought to trial for double witch murder  noted by the presence of folded corners and bookmarks  that i had been the first reader to get past page 200 

the fairy bible   everything you want to know about fairy folk and fairy lore  from spirits of the elementals   to flower fairies  and a belief  in nature creatures  rather simple illustrations   but  full of content and  melody 

wrote poems about time slips  and  the modern theories of heaven and hell   this week  

a mermaid has lost my voice-the greedy girl

As said wrote lots of poems over weekend and just tidying a lot up    as usual minimalist and mystically  obscure

this is one of my most peer  praised on the poetry sites i post to  

based on mermaid stories which are based on sodden  mermaid paintings such as above 

 find I do not write conceits or odes  only confusions of existing myths 

 Zennor is a sea port village in Cornwall  famed for its mermaid romance  and commemorative carving of   mermaid in the local church 

as you can see the poem is not romantic 

Zennor morning

I find you a mermaid

Rip her fish

We had not dreamt of mythology 

And of the thoughtless   standing chained in  the quicken deep

A ship burns  on the water

Daybreak  still in incident 

what am i talking about in these poems

read deep space martyr a novel linked to the deep space  game franchise as expected a back story to the game  no plot or characters to speak of , bodies literally spill out,  monsters are reanimated corpses   and they keep on coming on and on in dark corridors and behind locked doors   loose mention of an unexplained alien artifact  which is  an  sentinel  obelisk called  here the marker  as any on ther better name for an alien artifact already taken
Richard Dadd the artist and the asylum  a illustrated biography of the parricide artist from his early colour plate  orientalist work to his  belief  of being possesed by ancient Osiris  from murder and madness  and then a slow genesis into a painter of delusions and fey  horrors   that made his name

the black book    of modern myths    the usual paranormal guide ticking all the occult from EVP to  spirit posses ion of a computer  but including examples from  the far east , phillipines and the pacific rim   many old stories retold

the 20th century in poetry    i admit i read very very few books on poetry  and thsi book only really got interesting in the 1960s   the pre war poets the greats were in the main dead and wrote like the dead, some  good content from the  first and second world war poets who fell in the field    but  often dire in inspiration and  content  from odes to the titanic to odes to  going shopping   all the laureate is here but little of the laurel

thinking if remaking my star clock  note the time  for december and may  reading off ursa major 

wrote  14 poems this week mix of supernatural mystic and  more mystic   for example written last night at 1945 GMT
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/helen-is-finally-faceless/
 http://www.writeoutloud.net/blogs/marklittler

hurrah I sing the jubilee

wrote another jubilee poem
alas too late for the deadline to be judged by pam ayres as usual my  ironic obscure stuff   and  referring to Queen libet as "age ridden monument "
noted I use a limited vocabulary of words and themes  my stock phrases are dark , day , outside, ending,  emptiness decay, christ, loss  and that I can interchange lines from poem to poem
only a poetry hobbyist   would write and ask simon armitage about what it is like being "a poet superstar destined to be celebrated for lines immortal"  but of course would just get ignored again  stiil waiting for a reply from my 19th April enquiry  and i think his yorkshire morkshire  stuff is *** anyway

lot of pending poems as seen above  and now run out of paper in the notebook i started in 1987   will have to go back and rub out all my early work -who needs it

over blown Dune novel eaten by worms

read the prequel  prequel Dune universe novel  the sisterhood of dune by brian herbert and kevin J anderson  a long novel of remarkable little story telling the ancestry of house corrino house harkonnen and house Everyone Else   written by the son of Dune creator Frank herbert   it reads like a bad Peter F Hamilton space opera with less plot   and no originality  one for the  mass market  and for the money

kingdom of light by guilio leoni   a novel about dante the detective set in 14th century florence and dealing with the  search lost treasure of emperor frederick II from 50 years before    full of secret conspiracy and  secter brotherhoods   starts well with a ship  arriving  full of a dead crew  but too much plot not used well  either it was about islamic science brought to a disbelieving or  court conspiracies from long ago   (one or the other please)  finishes on  a second rate "Name of the Rose" conclusion about a  long lost scientific device that threatens the world  and really does very little  characters appear just to be killed off   and the  murderer is signposted early

In search of a masterpiece  a art lovers tour of britian and ireland  a tour of galleries  and their best art  large section on london  but minute on edinburgh, wales and Eire  do they really have few museums   space for laing art gallery preston museum and  Tate St Ives    showed the best art  in their collection so do not need to go there now

Masters of Crime: Fiction's Finest Villains and Their Real-life Inspirations   riproaring tales about jonathan wils, jack shepherd and moll cutpurse  and their origins in rather unsavoury real life crimes, section on the inspiration for professor Moriarty and how every black art satanist magician in print is really only based on Aleister Crowley and his publicity 

regina queen

read mistresses by  elizabeth abbot  strangely trite history of the mistress from the often told royal mistress  to  the kept woman, jewish mistress of nazi , gangsters moll    and  the literacy mistress  in fact and fiction    rather uninspiring brief biographies of what were in the main selfish  woman  stuck with selfish men  hope there will be companion piece on fancy men and male lovers
the travellers day book   a tour of the world in 366 days  by fergus fleming    a long year of a read and  of mixed content    a year a page using sources from the medieval to the  TV programme  but in the main   boring  content from travel writers  and novelist  journeymen   barely hiding their disdain  of foreigners  none of the extracts long enough to tell a story  but short enough for judgements  and solitude
rather a long laborious read  and had forgottten most of the days by the end

the victors crown Greek and Roman Sport from Homer to Byzantium  by  david potter
interesting  history of early sports  and with good  new theories on minoan bull leaping    and with  2012  already here  a better than usual  section on the olympics   including not only the victors but their trainers  fans and promoters  leading to the mixing of greek and roman culture and early history of the games  avoiding the arena cliches  and giving new though to the myth  that the christian church ended the roman games
modern architecture a guide  since 1900   well illustrated history of architecture divided into   schools and  movements from classical and post classical modernist and post modern  including  the architecture of metropolis and the dictator  and showing how the patron works with the architect  many new designs fro cathedrals,  museums  skyscrapers and new multicities


mixed inspiration  and many loose lines     i had noted that there is a daily mail competition for   diamond jubilee poems  judged by sir andrew motion, pam ayres and  sir roy strong
love to send my England I love this republic  to sir and to judge  cannot expect  to win   if pam ayres is judge    for those who do not know  pam ayres started as unconscious  entertainer  of very simple  harmless verses  same is however true of sir And
my new currently fragementary  royal poem uses  the words " long diagonal, rectangle,elizabethan virgin, victorian virgin , silent architecture  severe vertical "  to describe  HM  who has been  so long on the throne almost an institution  and just a definition for stability  the Regina Queen
with new presidents in France  and Russia starting new terms
the idea of england having an elected president seemed odd after all our parliamentary politicians  are not worth rising to president and that leaves only a figurehead from the performing arts to fulfil the role of four year term head of state

hawaiian star compass

always wanted to create an polynesian star compass   based on the northern hemisphere   skies  and make it out of rocks  which i would put in a  circle in my backyard  see design below   easy to spot and follow the movement of the  constellations from solstice to solstice  and indicate the  passage as stones   ie winter cassiopeia north west
summer cassiopeia north east (however the hard bit is actually seeing the stars in an urban security light  illuminated suburb know the constellations are there- just cannot see them )

Mau Piailug's Star Compass pattern of stones  from wikipedia 

my poetry  now scattered around on various  forums and poetry sites  

my Arthurian poem " Arthur the king" scoring some hits    as this is popular  theme 

still no reply from simon armitage re kalevala but do not expect one as such things now dealt with   by the publishers PR team

Mara Jade hold my hand

the art book   a thames and hudson illustrated guide  to  thousands of years of art from cave art to indian  installation art of 2010  as it says on the back  cover easily navigatable and user friendly  all types of art there in this print website  format from  ancient sumerian to the mannerists and onto  every post war artist since 1945  totally without comment or pretension

lore of the playground by steven roud  a 100 years of childrens games from tag to skipping    british bulldog to marbles and tops i spent my childhood indoors reading books and memorizing king lists and dates in history  so the idea of clapping games  conkers and  skipping rhymes new and unknown to me

warlords the struggle for power in post roman britain  stuart layock   some thing  familiar to any reader of a Arthurian novel     good on detail and heavy on sources form gildas  not only imcluding the favourites Arthur, vortigern and Hengest but also Gerontius  and Penda

star wars omnibus a series of three graphic novels   stars wars shadows of empire, mara jade  by the emperors hand  and shadows of empire evolution      i pickled this up and realised that i had read these in the 1990s but still  remembered the story    set betwen yavin and endor    it told  of peripheral events usually amongst  galactic scum and  cantina lowlife  for example the adventures of  boba fett transporting  a big block of han  solo to jabba ,the conspiracies of prince xixor and his black sun criminal gang   mara jade   (later of course mrs skywalker) and her early life as high kicking high kill count imperial  agent  and the last story shadows of the empire evolution    telling the story of Guri the barbie blonde replica human assasin droid from the black sun gang sought by criminal gangs, cantina low lifes and galactic scum all of which  she of course crushes underfoot   wonderfully  cliched  and  drawn colourfully if not totally to scale