I don't normally post blogs so close together, but in the aftermath of the announcement today of Michael Jackson's death, I felt like I needed a bit of a rant. A word of warning: anyone who thinks highly of the late Mr. Jackson should stop here and read...

Please forgive a rather bad pun as my title. I want to draw your attention to the use of serials in literature rather than the merits of Rice Krispies, and how what at first appears to be an outmoded genre in fiction, is in fact, alive and well today....

Experience is not what happens to a man; it is what a man does with what happens to him. Aldous Huxley, Texts and Pretexts , 1932 My father used to say: "The school of experience is the finest school in the world, but its fees are the most expensive."...

My Sony E-Reader duly arrived exactly one week ago today, and first impressions straight out of the box while at work were favourable. Problems arose, however, as soon as I got home. The software that came with it on CD, steadfastly refused to install...