I have to admit to a slight depression today thanks to the mail. The Union Castle Line book that Douglas in the kindness of his heart ordered for me from Amazon is I am afraid of not much use. Very interesting history of the line but I am interested in only one ship, RMS Pretoria Castle and the routines involved in sailing her and about her passengers, especially on her maiden voyage in 1948, so it’s back to the internet to see what I can find. The reason why the book is of so little use is that it is a collection of company postcards with hardly any interiors and certainly no interiors of the Pretoria. If my memory were better I could use my experience as a crew member on the Braemar Castle but it was more than fifty years ago and my memories are all of work. Still, it’s a nice little book to have so thank you, Douglas.

A nice cheque from the BBC, Doctor Who – The Sontaran Experiment - (UK Income Tax taken off at source at 20%) but the second reason for the depression was a cheque from Raider for all of £5 plus for the sale of two copies of DEAD ON TIME. Whoopee! What does one have to do to bring prospective readers’ attention to this book? I suppose 120000 to 1 in any one year of English publication are pretty long odds but we have tried to get reviews in the UK, USA, South Africa, Greece, all to no avail. As DEAD ON TIME is the first of three books featuring the private eye Thornton King and his sidekick Holly and is meant to be a fun read if nothing else, and the following two already written and waiting, I could wish with all my heart that readers would take it up. It’s had good readers’ reviews on Amazon and through my website but it is still an unknown quantity out in the big wide world. We read somewhere that you shouldn’t try to sell your book through your blog so this isn’t trying to sell it, no no, just thinking of ways and means of putting out the news that it is a great little old read!