Not Guilty after being railroaded by HP

Fifty-nine Year-old, Mike Lynch, British tech tycoon and Autonomy co-founder cleared of fraud after spending more than a decade fighting fraud accusations about making $516 million from selling his company, says he feared that he would die in prison. He could see his wife Angela,  daughters  who are now 21 and 18 return to his beloved  farm near Aldeburgh in Suffolk and greet his dogs Switch, Tappet, Pinion, Valve, Cam. Faucet was acquired to keep him company in San Francisco. Autonomy was the most valuable tech firm in Britain, employing 2, 000 people across 20 countries, including  AT&T, BNP Paribas and BlackRock.  Lynch pulled off … Continue reading Not Guilty after being railroaded by HP

Rich family’s trauma after kidnapping

In 1980, a wealthy successful businessman, a factory owner, Carl Fletcher, living with his wife Ruth and their two sons, Nathan and Bernard, on their big estate on Long Island, is kidnapped from his driveway in the nicest part of the nicest part of Long Island. He is brutalise, held for ransom and then returned to his family. Miraculously, carl, his wife and his three kids are left to move on with their lives and resume their prized places in the ongoing saga of the American dream. But nearly forty years later, when Carl’s mother dies, the trauma that has … Continue reading Rich family’s trauma after kidnapping

Poetry in Scotland

Writing about writers – with the skills only a writer knows!The novel of a Sestineer and the descendants of a Victorian novelist.Review of “Lettersgait” – her new novel by Sally Evans. Published byFiction Direct – a new branch of Diehard Callender press (established 1990). £8 in person, £10 posted. http://www.readfictiondirect.co.uk for this and other books. Sally Evans – now with a PHD in Literature follows up her very popular novel“Wild Goose” with new novel – “Lettersgait”, and so this is Sally’s secondnovel focussing on the environment of a literary world. The likeable and wellportrayed characters engross us in a story … Continue reading Poetry in Scotland

Short Story: The Octopus Curry

The Octopus Curry  – A Short Story by Penny Nair Price Liz and Roger worked together and were great comrades in the office – Roger had had his eye on her for some time but he was strapped for cash and when  Friday evening came,  another colleague – Chris invited him to eat locally to the office as a treat. Liz said her goodbyes and went on her way for the weekend.  The chosen restaurant was on the first floor.  Roger took his rucksack with him, found a space for it,  and the two colleagues sat down to a wonderful … Continue reading Short Story: The Octopus Curry

Alice Munro, master of short story and Nobel Prize winner dies aged 92

Alice Munro known for mastery of short stories and depictions of womanhood in rural settings, has died in Ontario, Canada aged 92. Born in 1931 in Wingham, Ontario, Munro grew up in a fox and mink farm, in the most disreputable part of the town. Munro found an escape in reading as a child and her favourite writers like Emily Bronte, Charles Dickens, and Lucy Maud Montgomery guided her in appreciating literature beyond her age. “Books seem to me to be magic, and I wanted to be part of the magic, Books are far more important to me than life”  … Continue reading Alice Munro, master of short story and Nobel Prize winner dies aged 92

On the Brink of fear & disaster

Philip Notman, an acclaimed medieval history professor whose fondness for Emerson’s scariest quote “ I  am glad to be on the brink of fear”, attends a conference in Bergen, Norway. On his return to London, and to his wife and son, something unexpected and inexplicable happens to him, and he is unable to settle back into his normal life. Seeking answers, he flies to Cadiz to see Inés, a Spanish academic, with whom he shared a connection at the conference, but his journey doesn’t end there. A chance encounter with a wealthy, elderly couple sends him to a house on … Continue reading On the Brink of fear & disaster

Short Story: An Innocent Woman

AN INNOCENT WOMAN – A Short Story by Penny Nair PriceWould anyone ever discover his deep secret? It seemed he had committed the perfect crime and he had got away with it – his most hated enemy was now ten feet under – and all because she was a cheating swine. He walked away from her grave, reminiscing deeply about their married life together, and as he did so, the sun started to shine and the clouds cleared. “Til death do us part” Ha! That was the joke. He remembered how she had begged with him for a ring he … Continue reading Short Story: An Innocent Woman

Wales school stabbing leaving shocked teacher seriously hurt

Police and  two air ambulances were called out to Ysgol Dyffryn Amman Valley School  a Welsh secondary school, in Ammanford, Carmarthenshire, after Liz Hopkin (53), a special needs teacher was stabbed in the neck four times by a female pupil during an attack is seriously ill but has been sent home to recuperate. Three people and a  pupil were injure in the attack at around 11:!5am on Wednesday. Worried parents waited for several hours at the gates of the school, which was “in lockdown”, before being tearfully reunited with their children as the school day ended. A teenage girl has … Continue reading Wales school stabbing leaving shocked teacher seriously hurt

Passionate, Visionary writers discover recovery to sexual, political awakening instilling their creative flourishing

In Rural Hours, Harriet Baker reveals the perceptive, eloquent stories of three very different diverse women, each of whom moved to the countryside and was forever changed by it. We encounter them at quite moments – pausing to look at an insect on the windowsill; jotting down a recipe; or digging for potatoes, dirt beneath their nails. Slowly but surely, we start to see transformations unfold: Virginia Woolf, Sylvia Townsend Warner, and Rosamond Lehman emerge before us as the passionate, visionary writers we know them to be. Following long periods of creative uncertainty and prorate disappointment, each of Baker’s subjects … Continue reading Passionate, Visionary writers discover recovery to sexual, political awakening instilling their creative flourishing

Culture no longer weapon against human morality

Oliver Roy, a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, says “ Our world is flattened as linguistic diversity is replaced by Basic English, expression by emoticons, culture  by identity-markers”. Roy draws on his long experience in both academia and public life, but with provocativeness  and tackles the issue of the culture wars explaining today’s fractures via the extension of individual political and sexual freedoms from the 1960s. For Roy, traditional political protest from class, region or ethnicity, fashioning an identity premised on repudiation rather than inheritance of shared history or values, illuminating, if home is a place that … Continue reading Culture no longer weapon against human morality