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The Yard revisited: I just read a factual book about the Victorian police. This makes The Yard even worse in it's inaccuracies. For instance the two unmarried constables Pringle and Hammersmith living together in a rented "flat". (which actually turns out later to have a landlady, so is actually a boarding or lodging house). In reality all unmarried constables lived communally in a Section House. Another fault is that all the detectives are Inspectors- in fact a Division would have only one Inspector, overseeing many Detective Sergeants and Detective Constables. It also seems that the hero, Inspector Day, has been promoted straight to Detective Inspector without being a DC or DS first, which would have taken about ten years in reality. Because of this I have decided to down grade the rating to 2/5.

I remember reading Let The Right One In and enjoying it. Your Victorian murder novel- was it just set in Victorian times (i.e. a modern writer) or an actual Victorian writer? This seems to be becoming a popular modern genre but I find the modern writers often get both small and major details wrong.

Welcome! We want to know all about your varied book tastes in detail!

Into The Woods. Didn't really hold my attention. Some of the actors/actresses I don't really like and the ones I do were sort of wasted in roles I couldn't believe in.

Welcome Lanka. What sort of books do you like to read?

Hi Alexi, didn't realise it was a series. After I wrote my review I looked on Goodreads and some of the reviews are very scathing!

Welcome Lauren. Glad to hear that reading is becoming your favourite pastime!

Welcome Simon. Look forward to hearing in more detail your favourite authors, best books, etc. Medical? you mean like reading about types of diseases and stuff?

The Yard 3/5 (downgraded now 2/5) Alex Grecian Charity shop find. This was a thick book, although not a doorstop. Turned out to be an entertaining enough quick read, although I have some reservations and issues, which I will get to. The year is 1889, Victorian London. The year after the shocking killings by the world's first serial killer, known only as Jack The Ripper. The "yard" is of course Scotland Yard. A new detective called Walter Day has just arrived from Devon, untested and unsure of his own abilities. It seems there is another killer on the loose; this one has killed a policeman and, weirdly, sewn up his lips and eyes before stuffing his body in a steamer trunk. Day is given the job of tracking down the killer. Before long there are more killings, but of different modus operandi. It seems as if the whole of London has gone murder mad. There is plenty going on, and the plot moves along quite briskly. The author is American, and it looks like he did lots of research , because the small period details read just right, but then he ignores facts and deliberately puts a huge mistake in the plot. [sigh]. He also lets a few bits of 20th/21st century vernacular slip into the dialogue, and there is not enough difference between the main characters (for instance Day and Constable Hamersmith seem to be carbon copies of each other) and none were truly believable for me. With all those gripes out of the way though, I must say I enjoyed certain parts immensely, especially the parts between Day and his wife, which were written with a light humourous touch.

Hi timebug, I read one Dennis Wheatley a very long time ago, it was one of his "devils" novels, I can't remember which one. I can't have been that impressed as I never read anything else of his since. I had no idea he had written some different series. I might look for some, but I have never seen any of his in charity shops.

Hello Gord welcome! I like SF and fantasy too but have not read any HP Lovecraft. I may have to rectify this!

Welcome Intubrew. Politics eh? Good luck with that. I decided I would wait till I was older to think about politics when I understood it more.....I am older and still don't understand it.

Welcome to the forum Sam! Do you visit the big London bookshops a lot , or where do you buy your books?

It doesn't sound like the Angelique series by Anne and Serge Golon...

Superb!! He was a fantastic wordsmith. I first read a book of his when I was a teenager (The Languages Of Pao) and then had to get hold of every SF story he wrote.

Have you read any Jack Vance?

Hi Corporate, yes it is my first novel. 50,000 words in so about half way.

Hello Simon! I am writing a SF novel too. Look forward to conversing with you.

Scorch Trials. Very different to the first film. Seemed to run out of energy towards the end but I am interested enough to want to watch the third film. Also Thoughtful Daughter was home from uni and we watched Romy And Michelle's High School Reunion together. The crazy dance scene is still one of my favourite film scenes. Tonight on my own watched Cowboys And Aliens (again!) I tend to put that on when I want an action no brainer.

Hi Janet, it would be a very nice book to have in a bigger hardback format. I don't want to give the impression that the text is completely worthless, it is just that I have now read about 30 factual books about the era so it was going over old ground. But if it is the only book you are going to own it does show lots of interesting facts and insights.

The Victorians Britain Through The Paintings Of The Age 2/5 Jeremy Paxman It is really just some short essay notes explain the background to some of the more important paintings. The opinions and conclusions of the text didn't tell me anything new. My paperback copy is falling to pieces, but the colour plates are too small to rescue and do anything with, although they are printed on nice shiny paper.

I watched The Martian sunday. I enjoyed it. It satisfied my need to watch something spacey with a lot of hardware. The science was plausible I thought, at least for film purposes, apart from the very ending. Big Daughter is home , she wanted to watch something old so we watched Coming To America with Eddie Murphy . I like that film.

Amazing bit of video. Your picture didn't show up though. I use photobucket as a host but even that doesn't seem to work as it is supposed to for me.

That one is still on my To Watch list. Sometimes I just like to watch something spacey. Anything except Interstellar, that is.

Eye 1/5 Frank Herbert I started in on that huge haul of Frank Herbert books I caught last year. This was a book of short stories. To be honest I found them all very dull and dated and instantly forgettable. Had no hesitation in disposing of that one .That is one less book to clutter up my shelves