Hard Boiled Crime

I hope you enjoyed last week’s pictures of the Flying Scotsman. It prompted some memories of footplate rides from the past. When I was a kid, we were lucky enough to have a heritage steam centre in the town I lived in. The centre’s long gone, but I guess there will still be hundreds of people with fond memories of afternoon’s spent watching, and riding on, those fantastic engines.

This Friday I’m reviewing the classic American crime novel The Maltese Falcon, by Dashiell Hammett. I first learned about this book through watching the Humphrey Bogart film of the same name. The film is one of my all-time favourites, and the book is as good as the film. If you like smart, fast-paced thrillers, you’ll like this one.

I’ve started work in earnest on researching my family’s history, and it’s fun learning some new skills. I’ve dabbled with our family history before, but what I’m learning this time is how to do it in a more systematic and organised way. I’ve spent hours reading about ascending and descending family trees, family group charts and how to access different sources of information. I also spent an evening rooting round in the loft looking for old family papers and photographs. I’ve now got six large boxes to sort through.

What all this amounts to is a large amount of research, which I’ll enjoy doing. The end result will hopefully be a source of some great stories I can share on this blog.

Next week it’s story time again, and I’ll be publishing something that fits in with the family history theme.

I hope you enjoy Friday’s review.

Regards

Dave