OUR libraries and bookshops offer an intriguing double-whammy for devotees of crime fiction. They can either select a mystery by the enduring and much revered Josephine Tey,   or they can delve into a tale of  much more recent vintage in which the same Josephine Tey is the solver of the crime. To all intents and purposes they are one and the same person. However, one is the real life much revered but long deceased author;  the other is a fictional amateur  solver of mysteries. This unusual double pleasure is the result of author Nicola Upson having boldly “borrowed” Tey… Continue reading

WHAT is it about apostrophes that is so difficult to understand? Yes, I am well aware it’s a question that has been asked hundreds of times before. But we remain none the wiser – certainly not those who scatter them hither and thither like seeds on the wind. Nor those who teach them, either, it would appear. I recently decided to have a few moments relaxing with my favourite family history magazine. But it became more irritating than relaxing as I read of events happening in the 1600’s (sic) and back to the 1500’s (sic). And to encounter a story… Continue reading