Thank you for recommending Catherine O'Flynn's first novel 'What was Lost'. I have finally got round to reading it and thought it was wonderful on so many levels. A thriller/mystery story that gripped all the way through but so much more. Utterly believeable immersion into a 10 year old's particular world view, partly shaped by loneliness and tragedy. As a hater of shopping malls I felt a strong sympathy with the writer's dislike of these places and their concrete Kafkaesque spaces. But this shopping 'paradise'- one of the first of its kind- in the midlands, is described with the kind of detail that takes the reader on several journeys around the dark 'dead-end' corridors and artificially lit shop interiors. Yet the humanity is always present in the testimonies of those who frequent the mall over time and the characters who cope with working there. But the novel is not just a mystery and an evocation of the modern shopping experience; it is also a meditation on family and how we are shaped by our early years and family.All human life is here and I recommend this novel wholeheartedly.

I have also recently finished Family Album by Penelope Lively, a writer I have loved for many years.You recommended the book some time ago. Again the power of our earliest experiences within the family is the driving force of the novel. The matriarch of a large family, a true 'earth mother' has a lot to answer for but I did have some sympathy for her desperate desire to create a 'happy' family. I think PL also knows exactly where she comes from- that dangerous drive to keep one's children too close,exert too much control, and over protect to a degree that can damage them. Of its time, Lively perfectly captures a particular period,a place, a house and a marriage that seem so alien now....

Great to see the new map being used so well! Fiona says: we hope to go on one of these new walks the next time we visit! Daniel says: we thought the Sheriff of Nottingham comment was a lot like something from Horrible Histories! J, D & F xxxxx

This is a great site. Keep up the good works.
katrinamartin514@yahoo.com

I am the Sheriff of Nottingham…you may have heard of me because I like…the Ramblers’ review of the 2012 Cold Ashby Panto!
As a result of this quite excellent review I will be excusing the Rambler from having to pay the “Sheriffs Horribly Illegal Tax” (for those of you not at the panto…this tax is something akin to VAT…come on keep up!) and allowing him to “wear the fox hat” when out walking around Cold Ashby. Cold Ashby I hear you say…where’s that?? Mind you if I don’t collect all the taxes I need to pay off my Yebay account I’ll be in trouble with Prince John as I wont have the financial capabilities to facilitate the settlement of the outstanding debt incurred by wanton spending…well not without trimming up my hedge funds and doing a bit of quantitative easing on my current account!
Anyway thank you again Mr Rambler for your kind words but I’ve got to go now as my tea’s ready…mmmm Crab Salad…my favourite…pop round for some if you like…after all I may be many things but I’m not shellfish!

The Sheriff

Wolf men are intriguing figures of fiction. In Homer Iliad Book 10 (which some think is a later addition to the poem, a whole can of worms) we have Dolon, an ambitious, acquisitive Trojan, who vounteers for a daring night-raid and dons a wolf pelt. He is captured and killed By Odysseus and Diomedes coming the other way. He tries to get them to spare him with offers of money and by giving away information.