Jazzy D's Soul Notes

The Surprise

Wed, 06 May 2026 06:08:33 GMT

The Surprise

by Jazzy D

The latch holds firm until it does not hold.
A draft without a door rearranges air.
My hands were full of yesterday’s dull weight
When something not-quite-named stepped through the frame.
No thunder, only the sound a shadow makes
Unstitching itself from the floorboards’ grain.
I did not choose to widen, yet I widened.
The world keeps its new shape inside my ribs.

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Book 31 - Lynsey Hanley "Respectable"

Tue, 05 May 2026 21:21:10 GMT

Lynsey Hanley "Respectable" (Penguin)

This is a book about the class system in the UK. It is about 'the way class builds those walls in the head.' It is a national and a personal journey through class. Lynsey Hanley grew up certain she was working-class but also certain she didn't fit in. She has now successfully made the jump across the class divide and is now certainly middle-class. She writes about the working class life that she knew on a large council estate in the West Midlands and this gives the book a strength as well as limitations.

There are many other working class stories that are different and varied versions of the respectability these groups seek. Lynsey Hanley dismisses interventions such as Sure Start as a middle-class judgement that people in poverty make poor parents. She seems to argue that a more level play-ground economically would be a good start for society, while arguing that for working-class young people there is also safety in conforming and not trying to have aspirations, be too clever and try and jump the class divide. There is plenty of interesting detail here, and a good springboard for readers who want to discover more of theb class system.

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Book 30 - Derek Wall "Climate Strike"

Tue, 05 May 2026 06:30:29 GMT

Derek Wall "Climate Strike" (Martin Press)

Derek is a long-standing and committed environmental activist who, for many years, held leading positions within the Green Party of England and Wales (GPEW), first as Principal Speaker and then as International Co-ordinator. My review copy of his book arrived just as I’d finished the 5C chapter Mark Lynas’s Our Final Warning: Six Degrees of Climate Emergency - which makes painfully clear why drastic climate action is needed right now.

And that is precisely what Derek’s book also does in its first two chapters - but what makes Climate Strike so timely and useful is that, in the remaining eight chapters, it also analyses various attempts to build pressure for change, and suggests practical ways in which, via open debate, analysis and increased co-operation, we can try to achieve those changes.

Before moving on to examine some of the important issues raised and examined by the book, one general strength should be pointed out early on: other than Alan Thornett’s comprehensive Facing the Apocalypse: Arguments for Ecosocialism (2019), you will not find another book on the current Climate Emergency that introduces you to so many valuable thinkers and positive initiatives on all the most critical issues. It is this aspect makes Derek’s latest book such an incredibly rich - and important - book to read.

As a companion piece to it, I would also highly recommend reading his Elinor Ostrom’s Rules For Radicals (2017) - particularly useful for considering possible ways in which to organise a post-capitalist future that is based on co-operation, and doesn’t depend on either markets or state structures.

As the book makes clear, the central dilemma for climate and environmental organisations and activists today is that we need both immediate emergency action to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stop the ecological devastation of the natural world, along with a longer-term strategy to create a world that is ecologically sustainable.

One problem for environmental movements, explored in Chapter 8, is the difficulty in persuading enough people of the seriousness of the Climate Crisis, because of the ability of many individuals to banish worrying or unpleasant things - including the Climate Crisis - from their minds. Derek cites George Marshall’s Don’t Even Think About It (2014), which deals with this phenomenon of cognitive dissonance.

Another book which explores this is Stanley Cohen’s States of Denial (2001), which explains how not acknowledging (as opposed to simply knowing) a threat or an injustice allows people to avoid the need to take action.

Although Derek argues that the ever-worsening Climate Emergency the planet is facing stems from capitalism’s entire economic and social system - based on unsustainable continuous and ever-increasing production, consumption and capital accumulation - he does so in way that is free from any narrow dogmatism.

What this book does do, exceptionally well, is to analyse, in a balanced way, where we are now, and how successful/unsuccessful the various climate campaigns and organisations have been so far. In particular, as regards the UK, there are useful examinations of the roles of the GPEW, the trade union/labour movement, and of social movements like Extinction Rebellion and the YouthStrike4Climate.

Derek’s well-argued case is that, ultimately, we need a post-capitalist ecosocialist society. From the most recent developments - XR Scotland’s Reflection Piece, moves to create a new revolutionary Marxist organisation based on ecosocialism, and Left Unity’s recent adoption of an explicitly ecosocialist position, it seems that Derek clearly has his finger on the pulse of the environmental movement. This is most definitely a book to read, to discuss and - most of all, to act on.

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Book 29 - Esther Yi "Y/N: A Novel"

Mon, 04 May 2026 20:40:35 GMT

Esther Yi "Y/N: A Novel" (Europa Editions)

I absolutely adored this.

Y/N can definitely be categorized as a contemporary symbolist novel, verging on pure surrealism. Was it absolutely perfect? No. But it was an incredibly thoughtful and cutting look at contemporary loneliness, love, and what that looks like when it becomes obsessive and impulsive. The novel reminded me of Djuna Barnes' surreal-symbolist-nightmare take on love/obsession in her book Nightwood, and while not as polished, absolutely digs into the weeds of a destructive emotional state that leaves you high as a kite and unutterably altered for life.

Unfortunately, I also understand the poor ratings: this is not an easy book by any means to get through, and when taken seriously, is quite symbolically dense. Focusing on something as internetly troped as K-pop and then drowning it into such a heavy literary style is just not going to work for most people, and it's a damn misfortune.

Anyway, Y/N has an incredibly strong voice and Yi should be very proud of this. I recommend this to others who are, obviously, into dense literary styles and enjoy modernism, but are also happy to see this approach through a contemporary lens.

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Borthers in ...

Sun, 03 May 2026 11:17:43 GMT

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Evening Settles

Sun, 03 May 2026 11:15:34 GMT

Evening Settles

by Jazzy D

The sun dips behind the rooftops,
Turning brick and glass to warm amber.
Birds trade their last calls across fences,
And the streets grow quiet, one car at a time.

Lights click on in kitchens and living rooms.
Someone puts the kettle on. A dog stretches.
The day sets down its weight,
And evening takes its place, simple and steady.

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Loving Vinyl

Sun, 03 May 2026 11:12:59 GMT

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Mercurial Weather

Sun, 03 May 2026 11:11:11 GMT

Mercurial Weather

by Jazzy D

Sun then sudden rain
Umbrella opens, closes
Sky changes its mind
Again.

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Fake News In 4/4 (with a Blue Note)

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:23:20 GMT

Fake News In 4/4 (with a Blue Note)

by Jazzy D

Snap — Anchor grins, cue the brass,
Teleprompt lies slip right past.
“Breaking, baby, breaking fast!”
Hold the note… is that the truth at last?

Doo-bop — Headline walks the bar in heels,
Half a fact is how it deals.
Quote unquote, spin the wheels,
Footnotes dancing on banana peels.

Shh — A source says, whispers low,
“Trust me, man, I heard it so.”
But sources riff and duck and blow
Smoke rings only insiders know.

Left screen screams fire, right hums rain,
Both play loud, both stake their claim.
Ticker taps a cool refrain:
What ain’t said drives the game.

Ba-dum — Now read the rests, the empty air,
The solo hiding in the glare.
‘Cause news ain’t always what’s laid bare —
Sometimes it’s the silence that we wear.

Fade out.

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Fox In The Garden

Sun, 26 Apr 2026 20:11:52 GMT

Fox In The Garden

by Jazzy D

The beans went quiet when he came
paw over paw through the runner poles,
no rustle, just a shifting of green
like breath pulled in.

He did not look at me.
Moss on his shoulders, night in his coat,
he was counting the fallen plums
with a scholar’s tilt of the head.

My trowel sat in the dirt, useless.
What is a garden but a table set
for someone hungrier than you?

He took one fruit, the wasp-marked one
I’d meant to throw. No thanks, no theft—
just the old agreement, renewed.
Then through the gap in the hawthorn,
where the light gives out,
he poured himself back into twilight.

After, the blackbirds started again,
and the beans remembered how to nod.
I left the rest of the plums
exactly where they were.

(Inspired by seeing Charlie the fox in my brother's garden)

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Book 28 - Jon Savage "Teenage"

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:25:30 GMT

Jon Savage "Teenage" (Faber & Faber)

Savage's detailed work takes us through the development of youth culture in Britain, America, France and Germany into the powerful consumer group now known as 'teenagers'. He details the impact of key events on young people (prohibition, 1929 crash, world wars) and shows how young people are seen to carry the hopes of a nation, only to disappoint their elders with their wayward behaviour. It will come as no surprise that the concept of an influential youth 'movement' has always concerned older generations, with the regular appearence of moral panics about youth delinquency and degeneracy in the four countries discussed across a period of 70 years.

While I did not discover anything startlingly new in terms of analysis, I did learn a lot about the various youth groupings that have arisen at different periods from flappers to jitterbuggers to the Hitler Youth. The impact of specific cultures on youth movements and the transnational comparisons and connections are really interesting - youth groups that developed in Germany in the early 20th century, for example, focused on the outdoors and healthy activities in a way that clubs in the other countries didn't.

Inevitably, this book discusses those groups that came to the attention of contemporary newspapers and social commentators and this skews the work towards those young people who garnered criticism for their apparently deviant lifestyles or who were part of large movements/clubs. I would have liked to know more about what life was like for teenagers who weren't zoot-suiters or biff boys, what my grandparents and great-grandparents lives may have been like. However, this kind of detail can often be hard to find in primary sources and its inclusion would have made what is already a 465-page, small print hard-back far too unwieldy!

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Boredom's Bleak Ballad

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:11:53 GMT

Boredom's Bleak Ballad

by Jazzy D

Barely blinking, brain begging busy breaks,
Blunt banality blankets blithe afternoons.
Bored, I browse brittle books, boredom breeds
Bland, blustering blues behind buttoned blinds.

Blank hours bumble by, banality blooms,
Bubbles of bothersome buzzing nowhere.
Blunt minutes meander, maddeningly mute,
Bleary, I battle blah’s banal barricade.

But — boredom births bizarre brilliance,
Bold brainwaves break through bleak boredom,
Brewing bright, bonkers, beautiful breaks
Before bedlam beckons back.

Boredom: boring bridge between
Blankness and bold beginnings.

(I wrote this piece during a very bleak period during being stuck at home during COVID)

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Book 27 - Simon Garfied "In Miniature"

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 17:08:27 GMT

Simon Garfied "In Miniature: How Small Things Illuminate The World" (Canongate Books)

Wasn't sure what to expect when I decided to read this, having long been fascinated with things originally large are made small. It starts with the Eiffel tower, where for the first time, from a great height, looked down on a world made small. The tower would also be the inspiration for the popularity of the souvenir.

Divided into chapters one is treated not only to some trivia but an interesting history lesson pertaining to the subject. Small villages, popular in England, some still visited during our current time. Road America in Pennsylvania, which I have visited. The exquisitely decorated and designed miniature room at the Art Institute in Chicago. The popularity of the flea circus, " They live off me, and I live off them" Prof. William Hecklers fleas at Hubert's Museum on West 42nd Street.

The reasons for some of the miniatures made, such as slave ships, made to show how terrible these ships were. Toy trains, popular with Rod Stewart and Neil Young. Young started his hobby to have something he could share with his son who was born severely disabled.

Just fascinating, this book includes so much and is wonderfully presented. Quite an interesting read.

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Night Visitors

Sat, 25 Apr 2026 04:53:21 GMT

Night Visitors

by Jazzy D

A cipher of copper cracks the hedge—
sigil with smoke for breath.
The snail scripts silver, slow and sure,
the blackbird guards a coin of earth.

Mossed stones keep the riddles.
Whiskers read them, wingbeats write them.
Dawn returns; the garden lies
with answers tucked where nothing dies.

(This was written from a period I was living in Teynham)

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Book 26 - Naomi Alderman "Disobedience"

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 21:46:06 GMT

Naomi Alderman "Disobedience" (Penguin)

I didn't really like Naomi Alderman's novel, Disobedience.

I found it kind of annoying. But it has stayed with me for some time, near the surface, too. Maybe I don't like it because it hits oddly close to home.

The characters bothered me. I believed in them; I just wanted to smack some sense into them. The books main character is an adult woman, travelling back to her childhood home in London after her father's death. Her father was the spiritual leader of an extremely conservative sect of orthodox Jews who live apart from the world as much as they can following very strict, very rigid, gender roles. She left home after her mother's death because she could not fit herself into the role of wife and mother which was the only option her father's teachings allowed here. But because she has come to the end of a not very good relationship, hit a set of promotion roadblocks at work, and wants a final chance to make peace with her childhood ghosts, she returns to London to sort out her father's things.

Her father's community is less than thrilled.

Two of her childhood friends now married to eachother, round out the set of major players in Disobedience. The two friends both once loved her, but have since come to terms with the desires their community forbids. By suppressing their true desires, and following the rules, they have both become respected members of the community.

If you know what it is to walk away from family members who disapprove of you, maybe you can understand why I found these three so frustrating. In spite of all they'd been put through by the prejudice of their family and their community, they still seek their approval, they still seek their love. I understand that, but I also know that there comes a point when one must simply walk away. I wanted them all to just walk away.

So Disobedience was a frustrating reading experience for me. It's also an excellent book, well-written with complex characters who address serious issues in an honest manner that does not produce neat endings. Disobedience is a book that has stayed with me a long time now.

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Book 25 - Thomas Penn "Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England"

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 14:35:40 GMT

Thomas Penn "Winter King: The Dawn of Tudor England" (Penguin)

Henry Tudor: Henry VII, perhaps best known as father of Henry VIII, but Thomas Penn's compelling biography places him not only as the founder of the Tudor dynasty, but of laying the ground rules for those that would follow him. Fear, manipulation and control were the watch words and if this sounds like a model for Machiavelli's [The Prince] published in 1513 just four years after Henry's death then it would not be very wide of the mark.

When Henry Tudor by good fortune emerged victorious at the battle of Bosworth field, he grasped the opportunity on behalf of the house of Lancaster to crown himself king. The Yorkist king Richard III had been killed as had the Duke of Norfolk, while his Lancastrian supporter the Duke of Northumberland had fled. Bosworth Field was the final pitched battle of the long running feud between the noble hoses for the crown, but this was by no means a certainty when Henry was crowned king. He had the opportunity to consolidate his reign following the deaths of the leading Yorkists, but he had to come up with different modus operandi to previous rulers. The problem facing him was how to maintain his authority when other nobles still craved to be king. Traditionally a king would buy his support by rewarding his supporters with land and wealth, usually from the spoils of war and when this wasn't enough crack down harshly on any opposition. Henry VII followed this well trod path, but he added another essential ingredient, he hit both friends and enemies where it really hurt, he hit them in their pocket. Gradually he instigated a system of fines and bonds for misdemeanours against the crown: past as well as present, backing this up with intelligence gathering machinery through informants and spies that was unprecedented. He rapidly became very rich, no longer needing parliaments agreement to raise taxes and his opponents became relatively poor, eventually reduced in circumstances to an extent where putting an army in the field against the king would have been extremely difficult. Fifteenth century knights and aristocrats were well used to living in fear of death, but living in fear of not being able to live in the proper style was an added incentive not to cause trouble.

Thomas Penn's well researched biography is written in a style that would be accessible to the more general reader. Penn has made a story of their lives that is both exciting to read yet still heaped in period detail and not straying too far from accepted facts. Other historical characters come alive; Catherine of Aragon and the Kings mother Lady Margaret and his wife Elizabeth and the Kings advisers and money men, but also the artists and men of letters that hovered around the periphery of the Kings court; for example Erasmus, Stephen Hawes and John Skelton. Prince Henry who became Henry VIII threatens to take over the biography in the latter chapters, but this provides the incentive that will keep the more general readers interested until the end.I felt entertained and informed in equal measure, and would recommned the book to readers whose knowledge of this period is less informed.

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Ode To The White House Felon

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 13:09:20 GMT

Ode to the White House Felon

by Jazzy D

In marble halls where history sleeps,
A brand-new headline boldly creeps.
The Resolute Desk now sports a mugshot,
“Presidential” with a rap-sheet subplot.

He tweets at dawn in all-caps rage,
Then funds his PAC from center stage.
Subpoenas pile like unpaid rent,
Yet hairspray holds the government.

“Law and order!” roars the crook,
While lawyers bill by chapter and book.
The golf cart’s armored, just in case
The Secret Service loses face.

Indictments stack, the polls still climb,
A teflon tan that beats due time.
Orange jumpsuits? Nah, just suits of gold—
The only bars he knows are sold.

So raise a glass of Diet Coke
To irony dressed up in a yoke.
The felon in the white house grins,
“Crime doesn’t pay—unless you win.”

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Smoke and Mirrors

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 00:13:37 GMT

Smoke and Mirrors

by Jazzy D

Chalk grins on marble, nothing said.
White gloves pass coins beneath the table.
Maps are redrawn while we are fed
Old weather wrapped in fresh new fable.

The bell tolls twelve. No hands have moved.
"The ayes have it," the chamber croons,
While empty chairs applaud, approved.
The Master of the Roll intones: "Order, order."

Names shift their coats; the shoes stay shined.
A ledger burns. The ash approved.
The quiet votes. We nod, half blind.

Knock twice on glass. The echo swears
It built the house and owns the stairs.

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Ode To Solo Time (Uncut)

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 18:24:13 GMT

Ode to Solo Time (Uncut)

by Jazzy D

Late house quiet. Lights down low.
Need prowls up your spine like a thing you know.
Fingers find you already hard, already leaking,
Mouth half open, brain gone, body speaking.

No foreplay. No permission. Just command.
Spit in your palm. Close your hand.
First stroke is a snarl. Tight. Obscene.
You hiss and set the rhythm mean.

You’re filth and liturgy at once:
Altar boy, sinner, god, and wants.
Every drag of skin peels the night back.
Pre-come strings, you work it, thick, down the track.

You think in flashes: mouths, hips, the word yes.
Your hips chase your fist in shameless excess.
Base to crown, twist at the head, again.
Grip stuttering to that edge, then back from the end.

Edges stack. Vision whites at the seams.
Thighs iron. Toes curl. Nothing redeems.
You swear, guttural, not a word they’d print.
Balls drawn up, every nerve in sprint.

Then the snap. God, the snap.
Ruin in waves. You jack it through each wet slap.
Ropes hot across your belly and hand,
Pulse after pulse you didn’t plan.

You ride it out, still stroking, mean and slow,
Milking aftershocks that won’t let go.
Chest heaving. Wrecked. Lit from within.
Come cooling, sticky, honest on skin.

After is gospel: heartbeat, breath, grin.
Blanket to mouth. Silence pouring in.
No one to thank. No one to blame.
Just you, undone, and glad you came.

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Shoreline, A Summer Dawn

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 17:49:26 GMT

Shoreline, A Summer Dawn

by Jazzy D

Bare feet learn the tide before my heart does,
each step sinking where the sand still holds last night's cool.
The beach spreads out like an unmarked page,
gulls scribbling margins, waves erasing lines.

Then you appear,
salt in your hair, sunrise caught in your collar,
as if the sea had been keeping you for me.
We don't speak at first. The ocean is loud enough.

Your hand finds mine,
fingers fitting like shells choose their pair.
We walk where water meets land and argues,
neither winning, both returning.

Somewhere past the third dune
where the world narrows to breath and gulls cry,
we let the blanket drop.
Your skin tastes like sun and brine.

The tide pulls at our ankles,
keeps time while we forget it.
We make love slowly, then not slowly,
the sand remembering us in shallow hollows
that the next wave will take without judgment.

After, we lie still,
two prints side by side,
the horizon doing its old, honest work:
holding everything up.

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Book 24 - Zadie Smith "White Teeth"

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 22:16:13 GMT

Zadie Smith "White Teeth" (Penguin)

White Teeth by Zadie Smith is an energetic and sprawling epic about class- and color-stratified Greater London. It's difficult to summarize - one reviewer (Maya Jaggi in the Guardian) explained, "Its characters embrace Jehovah's Witnesses, halal butchers, eugenicists, animal-rights activists and a group of Muslim militants who labour under the unfortunate acronym KEVIN." It centrally follows two families with roots in Jamaica and Bangladesh, the fathers of which met in the war. A scientist's genetic programming of laboratory mice sets up a clash of science, compassion and religion that affects them all.

It's astonishing that the author, half-Jamaican herself, was 24 years old when she wrote this. Its rich story and bravado would seem to have come from someone much more experienced. Is it post-racial? It struck me as more "frankly racial" than "post". It also provides glimpses into a London not often portrayed. I can see why it's received all the accolades it has.

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Book 23 - Terry Waite Taken On Trust"

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 22:02:15 GMT

Terry Waite Taken On Trust" (Hodder & Stoughton)

How interesting can it be to be kept as a prisoner in a darkened room for four years? Well, much more so than I'd expected, and he intersperses this with engaging snapshots from his life. Of course there was a happy ending for him when he was released. How he came to be held hostage and the story of those four years is a long and winding tale, but ultimately worthwhile,and I don't blame him for getting a book out of it after such an ordeal.

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Book 22 - Kang Han "We Do Not Part"

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 10:46:09 GMT

Kang Han "We Do Not Part" (Penguin)

This is a tragic tale of South Korean history. It is revealed through the friendship of two women, Inseon and Kyungha. Inseon has had a horrifying accident while engaging in carpentry and is in the hospital suffering terrible torment as her injury is being treated. She asks her friend to come to the hospital immediately and then begs her to travel to her home to care for her beloved bird. Kyungha agrees when she realizes that Ami has no other means of survival and will surely die if she does not go. However, she must leave immediately and the journey is harrowing as she is forced to travel there in the midst of a dangerous snowstorm. Once she arrives, she is haunted by memories, dreams and visions. Through these revelations the reader learns of a gruesome period of time that has been covered up and hidden.
Inseon had been researching a tragedy that had directly affected her own family, a mass murder that had resulted in thousands upon thousands of deaths throughout the country, but she concentrated her research on Jeju Island where she lived. The slaughter had been justified by the imperative to stamp out Communism. Suspected citizens and their families, the elderly and the infants, who were thought to be connected in any way to Communism, were arrested, murdered and tortured. The methods used were absolutely barbaric. One of the most difficult reveals for me was the insinuation that the United States was complicit in this horror.
The visual images of bloodstained snow juxtaposed over its feathery beauty is painful. The details of the suffering are truly distressing, and I found it to be a difficult book read. The message is dark, but it is important because it reveals a little-known part of history as it shines a light on a massacre that took place on Jeju Island, in the mid-20th century. It took place in the time of the Korean War and is a story that should see the light of day.

This novel was also about friendship and the nature of the love between a husband and wife and a parent and child. How has the horror of that massacre traveled from generation to generation? How have the survivors been able to cope with and handle the tragedy? What was it that drove Inseon to research the massacre so intensely?

There were paranormal, mystical scenes that were totally otherworldly. The movement of the story was also sometimes confusing, but the lyrical quality of the narrative made it compelling, just the same. I listened to the audio along with the print read of the book, and the narrator made it spellbinding. However, I think most readers will have to research the real back story of the Bodo League massacre, in Korea, to understand why it occurred and why there were long-term effects on society and the world.

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Book 21 - John Buchan"The Thirty-Nine Steps"

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:39:23 GMT

John Buchan"The Thirty-Nine Steps" (Polygon)

The Thirty-Nine Steps is an adventure story and is probably what John Buchan is most known for even though he was a well recognized historian, accepted a peerage as Lord Tweedsmuir and served as a governor-general of Canada. This short adventure thriller is famous for it’s “man-on-the-run” action story and for the many films it has inspired.

The story opens with Richard Hannay, an Englishman who grew up in South Africa, finding his life in London rather boring and so is very open to becoming involved in uncovering an anarchist plot when he is approached by a nervous American. This American all too soon turns up dead and left in Hannay’s apartment. Now implicated in murder, Hannay decides to travel to Scotland to hide from both the British police and a very powerful German spy ring until the appropriate authorities can be advised of the situation. The story moves quickly as Hannay relies on the help of various people that he meets in the Scottish highlands and ultimately he turns the tables on the spies by helping to hunt them down.

The Thirty-Nine Steps is a very quick read and has the hero dashing around in the heather and peat bogs of the Scottish Highlands for most of the book. Set in the weeks prior to the opening of World War I, the author captures the nationalistic feelings and the political blunders that help to set up this occurrence. Although somewhat dated, I enjoyed this story.

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Book 20 - T. A Williams "Murder In Tuscany"

Sat, 21 Mar 2026 11:11:57 GMT

T. A Williams "Murder In Tuscany" (Boldwood Books)

Recently retired London DCI Dan Armstrong was given a two week creative writing course as a retirement present by his former colleagues. The focus of the course is a surprise to him, and several times he has thought of not attending. But the location in Tuscany is a drawcard.

The fact that the writer who has initiated the course is found dead after a couple days, stabbed to the heart in his dining room while Dan is visiting the police in Florence becomes an added bonus.

The case ends up changing the direction of Dan's life.

An enjoyable cozy read.

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