November Library Book Photo

 Brought home from the mobile library this week were these 11, they are all books I'd reserved on line.

10 crime and just one other.

Three of the upright hardbacks are the new books by favourite authors but I'm not sure about The Venetian Candidate which is by an author I've tried and failed with in the past. The Lost Book of Elizabeth Barton is the only one that isn't crime and was recommended by someone in blogland, then there are paperbacks of some older crime fiction and the most recent  British Library Crime Classic.

My books from 4 weeks ago were these below. I read most but didn't feel like getting into the 3 non-fiction on the right of the photo or the huge Rosamund Pilcher on the left. 

These are the details of those I read copied from the Books Read 2026 page

• Sally Spencer - Daughters of Darkness. Crime Fiction (Published 2020) Private Investigator Jennie Redhead is called in by a daughter who wants to know why her mother was killed and her head removed by an unknown person, probably someone caught on CCTV at the railway station and then never seen again. There are links to tribal customs of Papua New Guinea and back to wartime London in the blitz. 
• Tim Sullivan - The Patient. Crime Fiction (Published 2022) 3rd in the Sergeant George Cross series set in Bristol. When a young woman with a history of drug abuse is found dead it's quickly ruled a suicide. However the woman's mother is convinced her daughter had stopped taking drugs and would she have relapsed with her young daughter in the next room? She is sure it should be a murder enquiry. George Cross believes the mother but then has to convince his colleagues to reopen the case and find the murderer.
• Kate Mosse - Autumn; The Story of a Season. Non Fiction (Published 2026) In the series of 4 books of the seasons by different authors. This little book is a love story to her home and landscape and surroundings in Sussex.
• Christina Koning - Murder at Mildenhall. Crime Fiction (Published 2026) This is the 10th in the blind detective series. It is 1943 and Fred Rowlands is called by his daughter for help where she is stationed in the WRAF at Mildenhall in Suffolk. Her Polish boyfriend has been accused of murder but has escaped and is in hiding. He is in the country as a member of the Polish Special Operations Executive, stationed in Essex and flying in and out of Germany on secret missions. Both Rowlands and Anne are in danger when there is a traitor on the airbase.
• Heather Peck - The Temenos Remains. Crime Fiction. (Published 2023) The 4th in the DCI Greg Geldard series set in Norfolk. A skeleton with a silver coin in it's mouth is found on a archaeological site, but this is much more recent. Then another body is found and then another. Three seemingly ritual burials. The team need everyone to work to find the killer.
• Edited by Martin Edwards- Eat, Drink and be Murdered. Crime Fiction .Short stories (Published originally 1930- 1969. BLCC Published 2026). A collection of short crime stories, many from long lost authors, with some better known authors.
• Kate Webb - Vital Signs. Crime Fiction (Published 2026) The 4th in a series featuring DI Matt Lockyer. In 2010 The Tobins spend an afternoon with their friends for a party but by morning most of the family are dead or in a coma, including the father who it's assumed tried to commit  suicide after slaughtering his family. In 2021 Chloe Tobin, who was the only survivor and only 6 years old at the time never believed her father was guilty and now she starts to remember more. The cold case unit are brought in to find out if what she remembers is relevant to the mystery.
• Clifford Witting - Murder in Blue . Crime Fiction ( Originally Published 1937). A debut story by this author. John Rutherford is a bookseller and out for a walk in his village one dark evening when he comes across the body of a policeman and his bicycle. When Inspector Charlton is called in to find the killer he discovers the murderer will go to extreme lengths to cover his crime.

Another Thing Found..............

........when sorting prior to moving.

As well as the memory stick mentioned the other day I also found this newspaper cutting. I don't know  why on earth I'd kept it but it was so interesting to look at the prices. 

Many of the items listed were well known brands  although I'm sure supermarket own brands were available and would have been cheaper. I think the cutting must have come from a  newspaper that our neighbour used to pass onto us for fire-lighting so maybe the Telegraph, which might explain the named brands!

It made me wonder what had changed in the intervening 14 years. Had to investigate..............

Near as possible comparisons, I took the prices from the Tesco website and noted how some things had shrunk.

• Bread Warburtons 800g       £1.40                                UP
• Bananas  1kg                 £1.10                                 UP
• 1kg apples around £1.80                                           UP
• 1kg onions 95p                                                          UP 
• 1 kg carrots 75p                                                          DOWN 
• Cucumber 99p                                                           UP 
• 6 Tomatoes   69p                                                        DOWN                                                                                                                                                        
• 2.5kg potatoes £1.29                                                 DOWN
• 4 Pints semi skimmed milk £1.75                            UP 
• 12 medium free range eggs  £2.95                            UP 
• 400g Cathedral City Cheddar.................. now 350g = £3.50 (Same price?)    Different weight
• 500g Minced Beef between £3.50 and £5                UP 
• 900g Birds Eye Frozen peas................ now 800g  £2.25   UP  Different weight
• 4 cans Heinz tomato soup £3.75                                UP
• Dolmio Bolognese sauce 750g........... now 675g = £3 UP         Different weight
• 520g Branston Pickle .....now 360g.............. £2.20 UP            Different weight
• 1kg Granulated Sugar £1.09                                     UP
• 750g Kelloggs Cornflakes................. now 670g = £3.55             Different weight UP
• 500g  De Cecco Fusilli pasta  75p                       There was no branded comparison                                         
• 1kg Tilda basmati rice £5                                           UP
• 100g Nescafe Gold Blend Coffee.............now 95g £3.90 Different weight  UP
• 1Litre Princes Orange Juice ......Tesco 1Lt £1.50 No branded comparison    UP

Total in 2026  = £50.46  and 470g less total weight.

With carrots and potatoes being down in price it's probably farmers  taking that cut.

I think another list but using Aldi own brands wouldn't have seen so many price increases. If I had enough enthusiasm I would work it all out....................but I haven't!

 

St Martin's Day and Armistice Day

 Armistice day and St Martins Day or Martinmas. Appropriately St Martin is the patron saint of soldiers.

Martin was born into a Pagan family before his baptism in AD 354 which followed a vision of Christ he experienced after sharing his cloak with a beggar. He became Bishop of Tours in AD 371 and died in AD 397 when November 11th was his burial date. His cloak became a sacred relic which was stored in a special chapelle  or capela (from the Latin cappa meaning cloak). The English word Chapel comes from this.

 Many weather sayings in November are linked to St Martins Day.

Wind north-west at Martinmas, severe winter to come

If on Martinmas it is fair and cold then winter will not last long

If the wind is in the south-east at Martinmas it will remain there until after Christmas

Another spell of glorious sun

Should with St Martin's season come.

Armistice Day marked the end of the Great War from 1918 to 1939 with two minutes silence at the 11th hour on the 11th but then after WWII the main observance moved to the nearest Sunday to the 11th and called Remembrance Sunday.

 Remembrance Sunday in the 80's always seemed to be cold because those were the years we took the Cub Scouts to Bacton church for the Remembrance Service which involved standing outside, without coats, at the war memorial in the churchyard. Everyone else had coats but people in uniform didn't ........... actually maybe it was just me freezing - children never seem to feel the cold. 

London looked foggy for this years service ............. Novembers now seem much milder.

Since the mid 90's the two minutes silence on the 11th was revived and observed as well as the Sunday services in Churches and at the Cenotaph.

In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses row on row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard among the guns below.

John McCrea -'In Flanders Fields' 1915