News

“The small town of Erin, Ohio seems to attract characterful residents and visitors, including Professor Sebastian McCabe, BSI (magician, crime-writer) and his brother-in-law, would-be crime-writer Jeff Cody, who serves, sometimes reluctantly, as Watson to his Holmes. Erin should be used to crime by now, and when complaints about “inappropriate behaviour” at St Benignus University are followed by two murders on campus, there are plenty of clues. Too many clues, in fact, and the killer seems to be invisible… Can McCabe’s expertise in magic help him to solve the case? I hailed the first of the McCabe & Cody mysteries as...

“As in Parts VII and VIII, subtitled Eliminate the Impossible, contributors were instructed to honour Holmes’s statement: “The world is big enough for us. No ghosts need apply” — and to present him with a challenge that appears to be supernatural. The results are forty-nine atmospheric tales of darkness and dread; we may sometimes wonder whether even Sherlock Holmes can dispel the darkness and expose the truth, but of course he can and does. The authors include Mark Mower, Kelvin I Jones, Jayantika Ganguly, Paul D Gilbert, S.F. Bennett and David Marcum. There are radio scripts by Bert Coules, M.J....

“Dr Vaughan says that she’s always written with young and “casual” readers in mind. Her new book should appeal to them; it certainly appeals to me. As a dedicated veteran reader, with a special interest in dramatic and comedic presentations of Holmes and Watson, I find Cut to: Baker Street a helpful reference source, alongside Alan Barnes’s Sherlock Holmes on Screen and others (including the invaluable IMDB). The text doesn’t include full credits, but it covers the essentials, and it’s complemented by Georgia Grace Weston’s witty drawings. Exceptionally useful is the inclusion of internet-only and computer game productions, though their...

We made the most of our final day at Happy Life by setting the alarm early and getting up ahead of the kids. Breakfast for Steve was some freshly baked sweetbread from the on-site bakery with a some PB&J. Sharon opted for the more healthy cereal. The older kids start their day with their chores and its great to see them all pitching in to help the Mamas. We headed over to the Shamma house where Leah lives. Mama Mary looks after the 28 girls in the house, the oldest of whom is 15. It’s incredibly calm as they all...

It’s time to head over to the Happy Life location over in Juja Farm. As you can see from the map below, this is in theory a journey of less than an hour – barely 32km in distance. However, once you reach Juja, the final  11km stretch is on the Juja Farm road which should have been tarmacked by now. When there have been rains (like now) the team don’t like to attempt the road in the small buses so today we’re traveling in the Happy Life pickup truck – which means loading up the truck with as much as...