For some reason or other this time of the year, and only of course for a very short time, my study is alive with butterflies, brown fritillaries with yellow spots. There are other species of butterflies in the garden that don’t come inside. I don’t know which particular fritillary these are as they don’t appear in the British book of butterflies where fritillaries, of which there are quite a few, all have darker spots rather than yellow, so maybe these are native to the Mediterranean. I leave the window wide open so they can escape though of course, large as it is, it seems like most flying insects they can never find it, and physically getting them out is difficult as they are so fragile the slightest wrong handling does irreparable damage. So I just let them be.

I have just finished a new novel; my third (apart from the Thornton King books). No come to think of it it’s the fourth as I forgot to mention ‘The Museum Mysteries’ my attempt at a horror story. That one is more of a novella really so Douglass intends publishing it prefaced with half a dozen short stories to flesh it out. The new novel is called ‘Torque’ and was originally a screenplay called ‘Speed’ as it involves motor racing. It was written in the early seventies so I have kept the novel to the same period. The film was never made so waste not, want not, and is turned it into a book. Of course it had to be that sooner or later a film titled ‘Speed’ did come out. I would have liked to have called the screenplay ‘Torque’ as well but people on hearing it would just think ‘talk’ and that is rather confusing, like Grease and Greece.

The first Thornton King book ‘Dead On Time’ is now on Kindle and the others will shortly follow. For anyone out there unaware of this series they are, in order of appearance as the credits would read, ‘Dead On Time,’ ‘Just In case,’ ‘Dead On Target’ and ‘The Cinelli Vases.’ All a bargain at £2.99. Number five has already been written and waiting to be published. It is set around a film studio in which there are a number of nasty goings on and is to be called ‘Celluloid And Tinsel.’ I don’t think anyone will copy or come up with that title. Too bad if they do. As I’ve said before there is no copyright in titles so repetition of many is inevitable. Take ‘Just In Case’ and ‘Dead On Time’ as prime examples, there are three of more of each, but I didn’t and wouldn’t change them because they are so apt.

There is a very very old lady here in Crete whose originally Scottish family have been associated with the island for generations and she has written their history. It is indeed fascinating stuff especially as it all took place around Souda which isn’t that far away. Unfortunately the writing isn’t all that good but she won’t hear of a single word being changed. She maintains she wrote it simply “for family” so there is a Greek translation. But, if it is confined to family, that would be a great shame as it is a little known and fascinating piece of Scottish/Cretan history that deserves a wider readership. She has called it ‘Ties That Bind.’ I may be wrong but I think a much better title would be ‘Photos In Sepia.’ A number of them illustrate the story and they are mentioned as such quite a few times and I think that title much more intriguing, romantic even, but no, she won’t have that either. ‘Ties That Bind’ it is and ‘Ties That Bind’ it stays.