Quintin Jardine's blog

What is a Justin Beiber, and why the hell should we care?

How do you know when you’re watching too much TV?

It came home to me to  me yesterday, when I was looking in on Bargain Hunt, and realised that I’d seen it before.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-25805873

Will my friend Fred in Sydney please tell me whether he is for or against this?

Miles Davis – Birth of the Cool

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10577307/Chief-Constable-faces-health-and-safety-charge-over-fatal-shooting.html

I finished reading a book last night, and now I’m trying to recall if I’ve ever enjoyed a debut crime novel more that I liked ‘The Cuckoo’s Calling‘ by Robert Galbraith. I don’t believe I have. I predict that Mr Galbraith has a big future as a mystery writer, if he isn’t taken up by other interests.

If you don’t know who Robert Galbraith is, look her up!

Back in Spain, where the ex-pat community is in a state of fear and foreboding over the imminent switch of FreeSat broadcasting to a new satellite with a  smaller footprint. There’s been a lot of misinformation, much of it circulated, it is said, by people with an interest in selling streaming devices which are probably illegal and probably don’t work, but it does seem that dark skies are looming.

That’s FreeSat, but what about Sky? It’s estimated, possibly conservatively, that there are a million ex-pat subscribers to its channels, each one paying five hundred quid a year or more through UK proxies. That raises an interesting question. Will Newscorp be prepared to watch an annual income stream of half a billion pounds vanish from its coffers? Let’s wait and see.

What I find hard to understand is why, in modern Europe, where every EU citizen can cross every EU border, a television signal may not.

Patterson Hood – Killers and Stars

You couldn’t make it up. A chauffeur-driven scooter?!?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/10564698/Francois-Hollande-faces-personal-and-political-crisis-as-claims-of-affair-with-actress-revealed.html

http://www.scottishreview.net/?utm_source=Sign-Up.to&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=8427-310122-Two+useful+lives+are+being+unjustly+ruined

Does anyone know how to get SAGA (AKA in our house as Sex And Games for the Aged) to leave you alone? For many years they have been bombarding me with unwanted mail. Although it goes straight into  the shredder and it’s starting to wear the damn thing out, they never seem to get the point..

January 2 is a milestone day for me, and for Bob Skinner. Pray for the Dying, his 23rd tale, is published in paperback format. Click on the link to http://www.campbellreadbooks.com to order a signed copy.

A nice surprise on Twitter, from Hive. Cheers, people.

http://www.hive.co.uk/author-of-the-month-january-2014-quintin-jardine?utm_content=buffer51a04&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

To all our family, friends, readers, blog visitors, indeed to every person of goodwill, Eileen and I extend our best wishes for a happy and prosperous new year.

I have to give all credit to Lee Child. He has the priceless gift of keeping the reader engaged, and that’s what it’s all about. I’m halfway through the new Reacher, and last night I only put it down because I couldn’t focus on the page any longer.

And I never thought of Tom Cruise; not once.

To one and all, the merriest of Christmases!

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/tv/s213/ripper-street/news/a537546/ripper-street-to-get-third-series-as-part-of-co-production-deal.html

Watch this space.

There is now a Facebook petition to save ‘Ripper Street‘ from the BBC’s ill-considered and indefensible axe. Like and share, please.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Petition-for-Series-3-of-Ripper-Street/769738846373840?fref=ts