[Last Book You Read....]

Currently reading "I'll Sleep when I'm dead" by Crystal Zevon - a biograpy of the late great Warren Zevon. A real warts and all biography - essential reading for any fans of his music - turns out some of his weirdest and most perverse songs are autobiographical.

Not a well-written thesis but an oral history made up of interviews with those that knew him & worked with him.

For those who havent discovered his music - you are missing out! For those who have listened to WZ - there are details on how and when some of the songs were written - which is a lot more interesting than how it sounds!

[Last Book You Read....]

Rubicon by Tom Holland - history - no keep reading - of the downfall of the Roman republic. A most excellent book - the history of a most crucial period in western history told in a modern voice - "contemporary sensibility" it says on the back.

If you have any interest in history, politics, or even the historical figures - Caesar, Cicero, Pompey, Crassus and Cato - have a look at it. It reads like a novel - but is very well researched. There are constant modern parallels - especially with power struggles among elites and international gun-boat diplomacy (or rather a couple of well disciplined legions diplomacy) - but he never labours them - lets you draw your own conclusions

Next book Im going to read is also by Tom Holland- "Persian Fire" - about the build up to the battle of Marathon - which he claims has a resonance in the divide between west and east down to today..

[Madeleine Mccann Missing Girl]

good it might wash some flotsum and jetsum onto the beach with vital evidence.

actually it's just flotsum thats intentially thrown into the sea ain't it...any languagologists in the area?

As far as I remember - flotsam is random stuff - jetsam is stuff that is chucked in - or jettisoned.

Donald Findlay is busy with the guy from Alva - you would need the Lisbon equivalent - Jose Beltramilho