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Beam me up.....
I've always liked a dram of whisky - or whiskey since I often stray from the Scotch variety - but over these last few years I've gotten into the drink in a big way. That is I've stopped just drinking the stuff, though I do a fair bit of that, and started to evaluate what it is that makes that golden liquid in the glass so alluring. Drinking whisky/whiskey is more than the simple act of glass to mouth and swallow; it is a journey across fragrant pastures, through fields of corn and grain, into oaky casky caverns, charred walls of grapey residue. A red nosed Tomb Raider, exploring, seeking, longing sustenance - that orgasmic water of life. Time ages perfection! It is the feel of fresh rain, of golden sun and brisk breath-taking winds.
A drink like no other - there's history in each and every drop, lives lived, deaths died, lies told and scolds sighed. It is more than than that , so much more...that precious treacly gold which I imbibe.
Here's to you all.
Details of Anthony Horowitz’s third official James Bond novel, With a Mind to Kill, have been revealed ahead of publication in May 2022.
The third Bond book by Horowitz, a novelist and screenwriter, is part of a deal between Jonathan Cape, Vintage and Ian Fleming Publications. It will be published on 26th May.
“With a Mind to Kill opens with M’s funeral,” the blurb reads. "One man is missing from the graveside: the traitor who pulled the trigger and who is now in custody, accused of M’s murder — James Bond. Behind the Iron Curtain, a group of former SMERSH agents want to use the British spy in an operation that will change the balance of world power. Bond is smuggled into the lion’s den — but whose orders is he following, and will he obey them when the moment of truth arrives?
“In a mission where treachery is all around and one false move means death, Bond must grapple with the darkest questions about himself. But not even he knows what has happened to the man he used to be.”
The cover has an explosive image of smashed glass resembling an eye, and was created by in-house Vintage designer Kris Potter.
Horowitz is the only author in recent years to have been invited by Ian Fleming Publications to write successive, official James Bond novels. The collaboration began in 2015 with Trigger Mortis (Orion), followed by Forever and a Day in 2018 (Vintage). He followed in the footsteps of William Boyd’s Solo (Vintage) in 2013, the American thriller writer Jeffery Deaver, with Carte Blanche (Hodder) in 2011, and Sebastian Faulks, whose Devil May Care (Penguin) was published to mark Ian Fleming’s centenary in 2008.
THE KILLING TIMES have reported on an all new series of Beck which will premiere on Christmas Day in Sweden, with a UK showing in the wings - great news for fans of all things Nordic Noir -Beck – A New Life will be the first of four new films.
A body is found floating in the water near Liljeholmen. The body belongs to a 39-year-old Danish citizen with a solid criminal record and a member of a notorious Danish drug
gang. When his car is found near suspicious premises, Alex and Josef start guarding it.
That's an explosively good deal!
Go, get it.
From the pen of G. M. Dobbs, creator of the Granny Smith series.
Set deep within the picturesque Welsh valleys lies the quiet village of Gilfach. Nothing ever happened in the village until - the peacefulness is shattered by a confusion of killer clowns and a full-scale terrorist hunt.
John Smith is an everyday sort of man with everyday concerns. He spends his time working at the local supermarket, walking his dog and arguing with his domineering wife, Rose. However, John Smith, thanks to a bizarre series of events, most of which were beyond his control, finds himself with the tag of Britain’s most wanted.
John Smith is the reluctant terrorist.
It's an eccentric dimwitted character book. Sort of like a set in Wales version of a Florida set Dave Barry, Carl Hiaasen, Bill Fitzhugh novels. It ends up not being a bad novel at all. ****
Last week marked 14 years since the Kindle first burst onto the scene - Back in 2007 Amazon had intended to revolutionise reading with its eReading device and here in 2021 I think it can safely be said that it is a case of mission accomplished.
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| The Rocketbook. |
It was ten years previously, in 1997, that the first true eReader was created and this was the Rocketbook. It was created by Martin Eberhard and Marc Tarpenning, voracious readers who saw a future where everyone was reading electronically.
They initially took their prototype to Jeff Bazos and for a short while it looked like Bezos and Amazon were going to run with the Rocketbook, but the fact that books had to be hard-loaded, via a USB cable, soured the deal and Bezos passed on the design.
"Bezos seemed impressed but had some reservations. To download books, a customer needed to plug the e-reader into his computer. We talked about wireless but it was crazily expensive at the time. It would add an extra four hundred dollars to each unit and the data plans were insane.” Martin Eberhard
The pair then took the device to Barnes and Noble and a deal was struck at once. In its first year the Rocketbook sold over 20,000 eReaders.
The Rocketbook, now a device largely forgotten to history, was the father of the modern eReader, and it would take another ten years before Amazon did get in on the so called future of reading when it launched the first ever Kindle device.
This time books could be loaded by wi-fi, the resolution of eInk had improved and Amazon launched the device with 90,000 eBooks available in its eBook store.
The first generation of the Kindle sold out within five and a half hours of its launch - Amazon had a massive hit on their hand.
At the same time Amazon also launched their Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) store which allowed anyone to easily publish a eBook to their platform for sale to eager Kindle readers out there, and many many writers, as well as spivs who suddenly developed a literary ambition, did.
In 2009 Amazon launched the next generation Kindle, offering some improvements on the original clunky device.
True, there have been a few missteps - The Kindle DX for one was short lived and the Kindle Voyage, a deluxe eReader never really took off in the way Amazon expected.
To be fair the Voyage was a very good eReader, but it didn't really do that much more than the Kindle Paperwhite, and maybe the timing of its launch, when tablets were starting to take off, worked against it. In the end Amazon discontinued the Voyage. The company would eventually score a success though with deluxe eReaders and the current Kindle Oasis, my own reader of choice, is a great seller despite being the most expensive eReader out there.
" My top objective was to make the Kindle disappear.We want to provide the ultimate reading experience—so a person forgets that he's using a device." Jeff Bezos
Happy Birthday, Kindle.
