Once there was an honest landlord, who even put correct details on his tax return. Then he got a tenant who refused to pay. He asked nicely. The tenant became abusive. The landlord sought help. Instead of being able to take the tenant straight to court he had to apply to another government body, which […]

Thirteen years ago Amazon’s Senior Management Team stopped using PowerPoint presentations and adopted narrative structure. Humans are conditioned to receive and respond to this structure.  Good stories have a beginning, middle and end and tell how the hero overcomes a problem. Swap hero for business, beginning for past, middle for present and end for future […]

This week a cinema in my wife’s home town of Hawera made headlines by banning customers from wearing pyjamas and onesies. At least that’s how some of the media reported it. The actual statement listed dressing gowns and dirty gumboots as the other prohibited items. It’s really about the gumboots and the mess they make. […]

This week some media outlets speculated that holograms will soon replace conference calls. It is not a new idea and the technology is not yet mainstream. That will please the companies who have not switched from audio to visual, let alone thought about virtual reality. When you can see a hologram, but it cannot see […]

Today I noticed that my morning train was less busy than usual and there were fewer cars on the road. It wasn’t until I reached our local social club this evening and saw barmaids dressed in Halloween costumes that I realised the reasons why. The notion that Friday 13th is unlucky has spawned a horror […]

This week, thanks to a post shared in a facebook group, I listened to a 1988 lecture by Professor John Pick about Jack the Ripper. It formed part of a series on Rumour, Disease and the Madness of Crowds. Given this title I expected something like the epic study of crowd psychology, by Charles Mackay […]

This week I am pleased to announce the release of my third non-fiction book, Jack the Ripper Suspects: The Definitive Guide and Encyclopedia. When I began writing it ten years ago I knew that it would be difficult to say something new about Jack the Ripper, given the plethora of books out there. Most attempt […]

In 1988 the British government decided that Britain’s blue passport should be replaced with a red one, to signify Britain’s membership of the EU. This was a voluntary, and expensive, change not one required by the EU. Croatia retained its blue passport after joining. Now as Britain prepares to leave the EU, the government has […]

Imagine that you’re a conscientious citizen, a dying breed. You’re asked to serve on a jury where the accused faces a charge of tax evasion. He is alleged to have kept his considerable wealth instead of handing the right amount over to fund hospitals, schools, and transport. You hear that he kept stacks of cash […]