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The pattern is unmistakeable. A graph shows a financial trend-line (the price of gold) going up and down a couple of times, then declining more…
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No seats. Outrageous spectacles. An enigmatic, four hundred-year-old name. What is it that makes “Zum Schwarzen Kameel” stand out? Zum Schwarzen Kameel (Bognergasse 5, 1st…
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Originally posted on Inconsistent Pacing: Do you remember the first time you watched Jaws, and you were really hyped up, but it was kind of…
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Attentive readers will know that, Wodehouse-wise, I am a slow-burn fanatic. Since 2017 I have been relishing a mouth-watering shelf-full of Wodehouse in a hand-tooled…
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Many people come to this site in order to read my thriller Blood Summit. Welcome! You can get hold of a copy of Blood Summit thus: (i) go…
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The Klimt masterpieces have been seen only twice in the last 127 years. Yet they have been on show all the time. It makes some…
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My famous Vienna Cafe Reviews note the alleged “no kissing” rule in the Cafe Malipop; and promise a story from 1986. Here it is. It concerns…
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Have you ever wondered what Robert Pimm looks like in person? Now you can find out. I will be performing my first public reading at…
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My blog How to read P G Wodehouse: a practical guide praised Plumtopia, a P G Wodehouse specialist, for its advice on precisely this subject. I thoroughly recommend…
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Here is the text of Chapter 6 of my Berlin thriller Blood Summit. “Terrorist Uli Wenger meets a mysterious Russian.” Enjoy! You can read the…
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The book fits right in, between Ian Fleming and John le Carré. Good company. “Blood Summit” at Shakespeare & Co in Vienna It gave me…
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My original Vienna Cafe Reviews story, published in March 2017, included a story about a customer having a bad experience trying to get the bill,…
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‘One of my favourite restaurants in London is the Laughing Halibut,’ I say as we eat our lunch in Vienna. ‘When I first started eating…
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I was bemused recently to see a news report headed: Austria ranked by expats as one of unfriendliest countries. I have lived in Austria for years…
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The US President, British Prime Minister, German Chancellor, Russian President and other G8 leaders are taken hostage by terrorists at a summit in Berlin. Rescue…
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I first came across the term “Overton Window” in a piece by John Lanchester in the London Review of Books in July 2016. He described…
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Here is the text of Chapter 5 of my Berlin thriller Blood Summit. “In which Helen Gale gets into even more trouble.” The Reichstag dome.…
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I shall not try to summarise 2017 (thank God, I hear you cry): every journalist on earth is doing that. Instead, I have chosen my…
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What a brilliant movie! Full of breathtaking, blow-you-away moments, unpredictable plot-twists, and unforgettable images and ideas! I speak, of course, of the original 1977 Star…
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Here is Chapter 4 of my Berlin thriller Blood Summit. The Reichstag dome. Warning: bad things happen here in “Blood Summit” How did Dieter Kremp, Deputy…
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Wonderful news and äußerst schön. My Berlin thriller Blood Summit is now up on Amazon, both as an e-book and as a paperback – I’ve seen, and…
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In the last couple of weeks I have posted the prologue and first chapter of my new thriller, Blood Summit. This week comes Chapter 2. Get…
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Last week I posted the prologue of my new novel, Blood Summit. This week, you can read the first chapter. It introduces protagonist Helen Gale, a…
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What is in my new thriller Blood Summit? Here is the prologue. The complete novel, as both paperback and e-book, should be available soon on Amazon.…
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I am working with the outstanding designers at Creative Covers on images for my new novel Blood Summit. They have sent across a few mock-ups.…
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My blog How to read P G Wodehouse: a practical guide praised Plumtopia, a P G Wodehouse specialist, for its splendidly non-prescriptive advice on precisely this subject. In…
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I recently published a new Hotel Story – the seventh in the series. The Three Heads. Like all the Hotel Stories, The Three Heads features the…
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The first thing I saw were his big butcher’s arms: broad and sheened with sweat. Next I saw tattoos; a square jaw, thick with stubble,…
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The main piece has now been published
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I am watching the sequel to a movie I adored three years ago. The sequel is so piss-poor that I feel violated and upset. How…
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There is something weird about how films are rated. Is it a conspiracy? I’m beginning to wonder. Readers of this blog will know that I…
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More complex than Dan Brown. More thrilling than Le Carré. Closer to the truth than either. Counter-terrorism expert Helen Gale has one job: to protect…
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I’ve added new reviews to my popular Vienna cafes: which are best? blog. The fifteen cafes reviewed are mostly in the town centre, but include several…
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Here is a complete short story, set in the Moscow of 1993. In the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia experienced…
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You’re shopping for a fast-paced, intelligent action thriller. You spot three books, set in Berlin, which you think might meet the bill. The Reichstag in…
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Ha! Is this absentmindedness? Or dementia? Either way it’s, er, good news. I’ve been keeping an article from a newspaper meaning to blog about it:…
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In the course of a recent quiet weekend, I dipped into the soul of central European melancholy. I watched 210 minutes of a 1964 black…
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In his story The Feeling of Power, written in 1958, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov imagines a future where computers are so ubiquitous that people have forgotten…
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‘Is it cold in here? I’m a bit cold.’ Mick Jagger, in a skin-tight stage suit displaying his gaunt chest and an ornate cross around…
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A man is writing a novel. He decides to check a fact. He consults his computer, or his phone, to find he has six new…
