‘Getting mortal’— it’s an interesting phrase, and it recurs at various junctures in Ian Rankin’s sixth John Rebus crime novel— Mortal Causes. What it seems to mean is getting inebriated, inebriated enough that one loses one’s inhibitions and the true self, the self below the facade, below the surface of the skin is revealed. Getting mortal then is in one sense, going the way of all flesh. In another sense its undressing one’s real desires and thoughts in public. It’s... Read more

Obviously there is much more to see in a botanical garden than just trees and mushrooms. There are of course all kinds of flowers, both hot house plants like orchids, and outdoor flowers like tulips, and the Durham botanic garden has lots of both. Here’s a familiar sampling. The remarkable thing about the eco-system of this area is that because the temperature normally only varies between about 35-75F all sorts of things can grow here, including sub-tropical plants. You can... Read more

When you are married to a biologist and botanist, botanical gardens become regular ports of call. We once took a trip to see a big one in St. Louis (and oh yes, to see James Taylor and Carol King as well). And so today, on our 36th wedding anniversary, I am beginning a series of three posts in Ann’s honor on the botanic garden in Durham, which did not really exist when we lived there in the late 70s. See... Read more

Some 35 years ago, during my first tour of duty in Durham, I was browsing through the Monk’s Dormitory portion of the Cathedral where ancient manuscripts and books of various sorts have been kept for who knows how long. Here, I came across the famous J.B. Lightfoot’s unpublished notebooks on the Acts of the Apostles. I alerted my mentor C.K. Barrett to their existence, but nothing happened. Then when Jimmy Dunn became Lightfoot Prof. of Divinity at Durham in the... Read more

Since I left Durham the first time, there have been some new buildings built, though surprisingly not that many in a period of 35 years. The ones that caused the most comments, both positive and negative have been the Palatine Centre and the Bill Bryson Library (yes that Bill Bryson if you are a reader of good books). Here first of all are some shots I took on a nice bright morning of the Palatine Building The Palatine Centre has... Read more

When is a cold case a hot case? When the cold case involves a fire that burned a landmark hotel to the ground. Bad enough in itself, but in the ruins was an unrecognizable charred body… who did not die from the fire, but from being shot in the head. And of course this is precisely the sort of unresolved problem bound to drive an OCD detective like John Rebus nuts… until he solved the case, a case that involves... Read more

There are lies, darn lies, and politics….. Well that’s my version of the old saying. And the fourth John Rebus tale is all about a popular, charismatic Scot named Gregor Jack is up to his kilt in you know what when his wife is found dead in a Scottish beck. This novel is different in various respects to the predecessors, not least because it involves those infernal Scots bloodhounds, known as the press. Ah the press and politicians… they deserve... Read more

[Spoiler alert for those who haven’t seen the film yet, skip paragraph three below] Gene Roddenberry, the creator of the whole Star Trek idea and series (for TV no less), was known for his cerebral plots, in an age before CG and endless shoot em up bang bang took over the film industry. He, was the proverbial hard act to follow, and so was the strong ensemble cast led by William Shatner and Leonard Nimoy. Yet still the reboot of... Read more

It’s not an easy thing to make a comeback 25 years after you first began to make a name for yourself. It’s especially not easy when the music landscape has changed almost entirely between 1988 when Turn Back the Clock produced a handful of mega-hits and now. Furthermore, it’s doubly difficult when the two main members of a group did not talk to each other for 22 years… 22 years!! Yikes. And it takes guts to say ‘this album is... Read more

It’s always a risk to attempt to ‘sample’ previous fictional literature and use one or more of it’s premises to write a new story. The danger of course is comparison—to the detriment of the later writer’s work, especially if he is ‘sampling’ a classic like Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde’. But Ian Rankin is from Edinburgh, and he loves the literary past of the city, and in this case, the sampling is not botched or obsequious or... Read more