Links: June 2019

The sun is my enemy. There’s a lot of burning heat, dried grass, and dehydration across Europe this summer. Not good news for anyone with the kind of aristocratic pallor that makes vampires look like George Hamilton.

I’m still working on my book about the Bonny-Lafont gang in Paris during the Second World War. The windows are open, the tower fan is humming, and ice is melting in a tall glass of orange juice and sparkling water. It’s hot as the day Satan banned beach umbrellas in Hell. If you know somewhere that snows all year round then let me know. I’ll move.

Let’s cool down with a deep dive into history, mystery, pop culture, and worse.

Links: April 2019

Hope everyone had a good Easter, whether you were worshipping, ignoring, or munching eggs. I spent my time in one of the few cafes still open, reading about old school French gangsters while scribbling notes in a cheap exercise book and lingering over a hot chocolate so thick you could stand on it to change a light bulb.

Yes, there’s another book on the way. It’s about strange alliances in wartime Paris between the underworld and the occupiers. More details when things firm up with publishers. Stay tuned and feel free to get in touch if you know something on the subject that I probably don’t.

Until then, it’s time again for another round-up of interesting links on the kind of subjects that appal most normal folk. Click, read, recoil.

Links: January 2019

Happy January, ya filthy animals. Hope this year is treating you well. For me at least, 2018 was a weird one. I had a book published, got an agent, spent six months near the Parc du cinquantenaire, saw Paris, spent some time with the head of the Polish armaments industry, and got a whole new angle on the existential angst of lonely professional diplomats.

Looks like 2019 is going to be completely different, with a considerably deeper emphasis on staring moodily out the window of a city centre apartment while holding a glass of whisky and thinking deep thoughts.

So while that’s brewing here’s some links to interesting stuff around the internet. It’s a weird and wonderful world out there. Don’t kill yourself thirty seconds before the miracle.