Here’s a handbook that’s never far from my writer’s desk … as the buckled corners on this copy show.  Everyday Fashions of the 20th Century is a Shire Paperback, less than 150 pages, but crammed with hard facts about the fashions of the general public. Essential for anyone thinking of writing historical fiction of the era.  Avril Lansdell (whose talents go much further than this book, but that’s another story) shows an interpretation of old photographs isn’t only detailed (picking up points that an ordinary bloke like me would never notice) but she lends a lifetime’s learning to her analysis, so we can see how people were adapting their hand-me-downs and which parts of high fashion they were accepting or turning up their noses at. Thanks to her informative approach (this is not a chatty book) we are left with an insight to social manners and social change.  The highest praise is to say that we trust what she says.  No, the highest praise is to say that I wouldn’t think of working without it.

Thank goodness she didn’t write one of those heavy bulky books.

What else is going on at my writer’s desk?  I’m writing my letter to Father Christmas. What else would a good boy do in November?

This evening, will upload my latest You Tube talk about a Crime Fiction Classic. Take a look.

(I think anyone with chocolate bars on their desk should post them immediately!)