Faber & Faber

There’s a wonderful French bookseller called Gerard Collard of La Griffe Noire bookshop, who records video reviews of books. Great idea, especially when you’re such an assured and engaging performer as Monsieur Collard. Below is his review of the French edition of A Gentle Axe, which bears the French title of L’Ame Detournee. Sorry no [...]

I see that Lee Jackson has joined the twittering classes and is in fact tweeting in the character of Jacob Jones, the diarist from his new e-published novel, The Diary of a Murder. His narrative seems to suit the medium perfectly. Enjoy!

I’ve just been contacted by Lee Jackson – one of my North London Historical Crime buddies – who tells me that he is publishing his latest novel The Diary of a Murder online, for free. Lee explains his reasons for doing so here and in more detail here, via his website Victorian London. (Incidentally an [...]

I heard about it through twitter: Kirkus Reviews is to fold, along with Editor & Publisher. The story is here. Kirkus is an institution, and writers with books coming out in America await their verdict with trepidation. They are, or were, notoriously harsh and hard to please. They were snooty about The Gentle Axe, but enthusiastic [...]

My son Luke is singing with his school choir on the new Ray Davies and Chrissie Hynde Christmas single, “Postcard From London”. It’s a superior Christmas single, full of nostalgia, scarves and London buses. A bit sentimental, maybe, but hey – it’s Christmas! So, let’s get it to number one, I say. You can download [...]

I’ve been neglecting the bloody blog recently, though if anyone’s noticed I’ll be amazed. The fact is I’m trying to get somewhere with my new book, which will be the last in my quartet of Porfiry Petrovich novels. I originally set myself a fairly steep daily target of 1,000 words. But I figured that if I [...]

I’ve been booked to do a workshop on ‘Constructing the Perfect Mystery’ at the York Festival of Writing, which takes place over the weekend of 9-11 April 2010. This is from the Festival website: Welcome to the Festival of Writing, York 2010 This festival is for you, the writer. We know how hard it is to break into [...]

More from Casper’s Handbook of the Practice of Forensic Medicine (3rd Edition, 1861). This is from a section dealing with infanticide. One of the interesting things that reading these old books throws to light is how changes in vocabulary reflect changes in attitudes. The political incorrectness of former times (judged by our own standards) is [...]