Author of PHOBOS PD and lots of other fun things, Classics teacher, Bookworm, Rickenbacker 4003 owner, mandolin dilettante, husband and father.
Amersham, South East
Joined January 2019
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PHOBOS PD: The First Three Investigations - paperback now available. Have you got your copy yet?
First a corpse in a space elevator pod. Then a fatal fall on the far side of Phobos. Then a trail leading all the way down to Mars. Along the way: a dirty aquarium, a bakelite telephone, and questions about how many biscuits is too many. Part detective story, part space opera. Tea available throughout. amazon.co.uk/Phobos-PD-First…
Before laying the first stone of the Reggia di Caserta (20 Jan 1752), architect Luigi Vanvitelli asked the King's leave to visit Naples "to see the nativity scenes." In fact he went shopping for a new coat of blue velvet with gold buttons for the occasion 🏛️ #Vanvitelli #Caserta
Phobos hangs above Mars, tethered by a space elevator. Vice-Quaestor Dave, Earth-born, tea-fuelled and devoted to old pulp detective novels, has a body in an empty pod, a packet of something nobody should have, and a dolphin who knows far too much. Three investigations. Plenty of biscuits. amazon.co.uk/Phobos-PD-First…
VATES: The Journal of New Latin Poetry has a new home. 🏛️ Find it at vates-journal.github.io with all 15 issues free to read, the original Anthology book and a guide to writing Latin verse. A new issue is coming from editor David Money very soon. Contributions welcome!
"Risk is our business" - the spirit of Star Trek (and the spirit of optimism about the future) summed up in one superb speech from Capt. James T. Kirk.
This really blew up, and that’s good. It’s a vital conversation about AI that we must have now.
“Risk is our business.”
This is true if you’re using AI. And true if you’re not is the issue.
How do we compartmentalize the extremely powerful tech advances happening now?
Probably we can’t is the answer. But we must discuss it. A global debate.
Sebastiano Conca's Immacolata (1757), painted for the Chapel Royal at the Reggia, Caserta but never used. It was thought lost for centuries, but researchers have recently identified the altarpiece at San Nicola la Strada in Caserta as Conca's lost work.
Fronzino, P. and Lattuada, R. (2020) "L'Immacolata di Sebastiano Conca per la Cappella Palatina della Reggia di Caserta", Napoli Nobilissima, series 7, vol. 6, fasc. 3 (September–December 2020), pp. 5–12.
Is this really the most recent history of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies in English? Can anyone recommend anything more recent?
I rewatched The Ghost and Mrs Muir for the first time in ... oh, decades. It was as good - better - than I remembered it. And Bernard Herrmann's score is glorious, much warmer than the better-known but rather chilly romance of Vertigo youtu.be/p3XBBwS6Y8s?si=wmHY…
What is the one thing you'd tell a new teacher about teaching Latin that no training course did? For me it would be that you will spend most of your time teaching basic English grammar before you can even attempt Latin.
Listening to the wonderful music of Joe Hisaishi @official_joeh is scientifically proven to make you feel happier. Try it for yourself ... youtu.be/tCNhBE6doak?si=4rRF…
Can't help feeling this would make a better movie than anything Disney have done with the franchise so far ...
Top tip for Halloween: a 12th-century vampire-hunter explains what to do when a dead man won't stay in his grave.
”Sir,” said I, “the House of Commons is the Beast. There are 658 members of the House; and these, with their chief officers, – the three clerks, the Sergeant and his deputy, the Chaplain, the doorkeeper, and the librarian, – make 666.”’
"Learning something new, something that will give you an intellectual challenge, something that will exercise those brain muscles in new and interesting ways, has got to be worth a try. You never know, you might just enjoy it!"
"If a man can be a woman, there is no such thing as a woman. That might not matter to you personally, but it matters to millions of women who don’t have the luxury of pretending that their sex doesn’t matter. I remain on their side." JKR in absolute beast mode.
I wrote a new piece about women’s rights and whether or not I want trans people dead. (Spoiler: I don’t)👇
jkrowling.com/opinions/an-up…