Latest Posts

• Bitcoin, Bart Simpson, beards, whales and the vomiting camel

  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…

• Zum Schwarzen Kameel: Review

  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…

• The Death of Stalin (Review)

  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…

• Aunts Aren’t Gentlemen – 10 Quotations

  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…

• How to read “Blood Summit”

  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…

• Stairway to Klimt 10/10

  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…

• When kissing in cafes is forbidden

  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…

• Robert Pimm: my first public reading – 16 March in Vienna

  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…

• P G Wodehouse: 5 wondrous quotations from “Thank You, Jeeves”

  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…

• “Blood Summit” Chapter 6: a mysterious Russian

  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…

• “Blood Summit” on sale here

  The book fits right in, between Ian Fleming and John le Carré.  Good company. “Blood Summit” at Shakespeare & Co in Vienna It gave me…

• Austrian cafes: the truth about 1986

  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,…

• The Laughing Halibut

  ‘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…

• Austria unfriendly? I don’t think so

  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…

• Blood Summit: the US President in the killing chair

  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…

• The Overton window and social media manipulation: how worried should we be?

  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…

• “Blood Summit” Chapter 5: Things get worse for Helen

  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.…

• 2017: 10 best blogs

  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…

• The Last Jedi 3/10: the galaxy’s most shagged-out designers?

  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…

• My thriller “Blood Summit” – Chapter 4

  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…

• “Blood Summit” now available! Read Chapter 3

  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…

• My thriller “Blood Summit”: Chapter 2

  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…

• My novel “Blood Summit”: Chapter 1

  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…

• My novel Blood Summit: prologue

  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.…

• Blood Summit: the cover. Views sought

  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.…

• How to read P G Wodehouse: a new prescription

  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…

• A new Hotel Story: The Three Heads

  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…

• From sea to shining sea – and back again. Prologue.

  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,…

• “From Sea to Shining Sea – and Back Again” – preview

    The main piece has now been published      

• Why sequels suck

  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…

• The Circle: spookily underrated 8/10

  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…

• Blood Summit – the blurb

  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…

• Best Vienna cafes – new reviews

  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…

• Short story: Moscow 1993: The Second Phial

  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…

• Body Politic? Blood Summit? Or Show Me the Head of the President?

  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…

• The one with the links to happiness

  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:…

• Central European melancholy 10/10

  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…

• How to find your way

  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…

• Jumping Jack Flash 8/10

  ‘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…

• How to increase your attention span

  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…