Naughty Nuns and Provocative Priests
I confess, there are few topic that are more likely to upset a certain group, than allegations of misbehaviour in Holy Orders. OK, I know it’s a cliche nowadays. I accept that. Since it appears that scarcely a month goes past without a story about another bad boy in the vicarage in Ireland, or America, … Read more
Ten Deadly Sins of Entering Competitions
This week, the competition run by Simon & Schuster for a Michael Jecks Detection Collection pen from Conway Stewart as been won, by Michael Chidley. Congratulations to Michael, and sorry to all those who didn’t win the pen. You’ll just have to save your pennies! Thinking of competitions, I was reminded of the old CWA … Read more
Epublishing and why not!
Like a good little author, I sat back and thought before sending out my last newsletter (if you’re interested, go and register for future ones at www.michaeljecks.co.uk on the home page). The thing was, it had been some little while since my last newsletter, and I was aware that with all this modern, new-fangled blogging … Read more
Crime Writers’ Association
The Crime Writers Association has been a group I have long enjoyed being a member of. I was inordinately proud to be elected as Chairman (and panic-stricken, I hasten to add), because it’s had such a brilliant history. Not many people have ever heard of the CWA unless they’re in the business of publishing books, … Read more
Punishments
One of the guys who tried to incite other people to riot. Nice guy. Ok, I know I’ve been muttering darkly about executions and punishment recently, but this one gets me going. Two young guys were sentenced to four years each, and suddenly the liberal press has gone into overdrive. Screams of “disproportionate” can be … Read more
To Birch or not to Birch?
Ok, this one will probably get me some irritated responses, but what the heck. When I was ten or eleven, I can clearly remember the day when it was announced that coporal punishment was to be banned from school. The reasons were obvious enough to any thinking adult. First, how can a grown up smack … Read more
Rioting and the Police
Who started the riots this week? God knows. I don’t live near London, Bristol or Manchester, so it’s all very confusing. However, there are some facts which seem pretty fixed already. The timeline was: 1. Police pursue (not at speed, only monitoring) a young man whom they suspected of some crimes, specifically firearms crimes; 2. … Read more
Ruminations on Executions and Referenda
This has been an interesting few days. Guido Fawkes, God bless ‘im, has started a petition on the UK government website. Now the idea of petitions is not new, but our revered leader has decided that he will listen to any petitions, and if more than 100,000 names are added to the petition, it will … Read more
