The Book Shop at Lee-on-the-Solent is hosting a small literary crime festival on the 28th March 2026. There will be readings and talks by authors, and of course lots of criminally good books on sale.
I’ll be there with my Little Mallow cosy crime series, romantic crime novel Acting Like A Killer, and two collections of short crime stories.
I’m sure you’re aware that a sultana is a dried seedless raisin type thing and absolutely delicious when included in sticky buns which have been toasted and spread generously with butter and… Sorry, got distracted for a moment there.
An apochromatic lens is one which reduces spherical and chromatic aberrations. (The first part is where stuff looks a weird shape in the photo despite being fine in reality and the other bit is that weird purple haze you sometimes see round the edges of photographic subjects.)
You know how you’re aware a thing exists, but it had never occurred to you there was a specific word for it? (Or is that just me?) Well, those little strandy bits in an egg, which join the yolk to the ends of the egg, inside the shell, are known as chalaza.
Abiogenesis is the formation of living organisms from non-living substances. It sounds an unlikely thing to happen, but unless it was created from nothing at all, then this must be how life started on Earth. Unless it was brought here by aliens, in which case abiogenesis must have occurred on whichever planet they came from.
Oh, and the spontaneous generation of living forms is also called abiogenesis. Gosh, who’d have thought that explaining the creation of life would be complicated?
Here’s a fluffy, baby living organism. If you don’t know how babies are created, ask strangers on the bus. You’ll be sure to get a seat to yourself.
If something (or I suppose someone) is lactiferous, then they’re producing milk, or a milk like fluid. That makes sense as ‘lacto’ refers to milk and ‘ferous’ implies having or forming.
Euphorbias can probably be described as lactiferous as the sap of these plants looks very like milk. Don’t go drinking it though, as it’s a strong irritant.
I spotted today’s word whilst looking up last week’s. Perilymph is the liquid inside your ear which sloshes about and makes you dizzy if you spin round really fast. (Come on, I never actually said these posts wold be useful, did I?)
If you’re not already subscribed to Kindle Unlimited, the next time you attempt to buy a book included in the scheme, such as this one, or any pictured in this post, there’s a very good chance you’ll be offered a three month trial at a very low fee. I’ve just paid a total of 99p for three months! For that, as well as being able to ‘borrow’ as many of the included books as you like, you can also subscribe to up to 50 magazines.
I’ve always thought of peril as being a mild sort of trouble – the kind of thing you’d face with your chums before going home for lashings of ginger beer. The variations of perilled and perilling appeared even more benign.
I thought wrong.
Peril actually mean serious and immediate danger.
Don’t know about you, but I’d rather avoid any and all forms of perilousness.
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