Hello everyone,

General:
For those who forgot, we only have ten challenges a season – so no challenge last time and the only challenge this time is for me to sort out next year’s calendar. But more of that later.

After all I’ve said in my piece spellin’, when I opened the aggregated challenge 10, my screen was covered in little red squiggles – spelling and grammar check was having a nervous breakdown. Then I looked and most of them were proper names and only a few from odd phrasing – or the way individual computers present certain things – especially, I’ve noticed, apostrophes. Maybe they should be banned!

I haven’t done a ‘book at bathtime’ about this but one day recently I was confined to bed after some not-as-fresh-as-it-should-have-been tuna and read ‘The Book of Lost Things’ by John Connolly. In one day! All 502 pages of it! Anyway, anyone else ventured between the covers of this one and if so, what did they think when they came out the other end? And when it comes to footnotes – this one has about 100 pages of them. What would your tutor make of that Rosemary? [subject strip lost things]

Incidentally, I see they’ve brought out an updated version of ‘Waterland’ by Graham Swift. I’m not sure what’s updated about it but hey… The reason I mention it is that it’s one of those books where the setting casts a huge spell over the entire story. Even more interesting is that, I seem to remember when I read it some years ago, there was some comment about Swift not knowing the Fenlands. He’s a city boy. It proves what research and a vivid imagination can do.

Next season:
My thanks, first of all, to those of you who have responded to my requests for outline information about next season. I’ve spoken to some but not all respondents – I will get through to everyone eventually. But the aspect I’m struggling with at the moment is the timing of the start date and, more importantly, how to avoid Christmas without running into June. Trust me, you might have to get out next year’s diary and a calculator! My current thinking is that, in order to avoid a mailing on Christmas Eve and to avoid running through to June 3rd or beyond, our season may have to start on September 3rd. And this might cause even more hair to be torn out than a mailing on Christmas Eve as it’s (in my neck of the woods at least) the first day back at school for all the kids.

Now I know that not all our activity happens on that day – we read the mailing at some stage of the 24 hour clock and have a think and start writing when the spirit finally moves us. But as the first mailing of the season, I do want everyone to make sure that the ‘starting off’ things get read and absorbed and not overwhelmed with writing names in text books, checking out sport kit, dinner money and any of those other relics of my school days that might still apply!

Best wishes

- David