Watch Out! Vikings!

As no one has turned up at my door this morning with a suitcase of unmarked bills I thought I’d better get on with my blog. Question to self, what are unmarked bills? And if they were marked would I say that I didn’t want them?

“Sorry, please bring me some clean ones.”

Actually I am not so bothered about money. Or maybe I am. I’ve been watching Andrew Marr’s History of Modern Britain. At the end of the last episode he said, whether we like it or not, we are all Thatcher’s children. Perhaps. When she came to power I was eight years old, nineteen when she left.

I wonder if the world is a better place for her policies. Has the selling off of so many industries that were already owned by everyone (through taxes) to the few benefited me? Was the persecution of gay men under her regime a positive influence? The mass selling off of council houses? The use of war to manipulate an unwilling population?

Like last week’s Doctor Who perhaps we need to ‘Turn Left’.

Oil is in the news a lot. England had oil. What did the government do with those billions? And if energy production was state owned now would it be easier to just spend the money needed to build wind farms instead of asking the Saudis if they want to invest?

How did you get me on to this? Perhaps because I’ve been reading books of popular economics. On a purely people in coffins basis it seems clear that capitalism is a bigger killer than communism.

So, bring back the communists!

Mind you, these days Islamic Fundamentalists are the new communists. Funny that. I wonder what the next big enemy will be?

Scandinavians? The re-birth of the Viking hoards!

Anyway, what I really wanted to say is that there are some dates for your diaries. Next Saturday 28th June, I will be performing / reading at the Lowdham Book Festival. Come along if you’re in the area. There are loads of readings all day and I imagine, people who like books. I’ve never been to a book fair and I’m looking forward to it.

On July 22nd is the Me and Mickie James launch in Waterstones, Market St, Leicester.

(Some one asked me, ‘What are you expectations?’
‘I think in the bleakest possible terms, that everything about it will be a complete disaster.’
So, I might be pleasantly surprised.)

And on 13th September I will be at Stanza@LaDanza.

There is also a short but nice review of Me and Mickie James in this month’s GT.

In a strange coincidence this week also sees the release of a Jim Jarmusch box-set including the film Down By Law. The band in Me and Mickie James are called Down By Law, after the film. There is also a Jim Jarmusch film, Broken Flowers, available on the iPlayer. It’s got Bill Murry in it.

Anyway, that it. I’m off to write, as I’ve got a new story on the go.

Currently reading - Fiasco; The American Military Adventure in Iraq by Thomas Ricks

Currently listening to - In Rainbows, Radiohead