VIII - Little M's review

VIII by H.M. Castor

VIII has been nominated for the Carnegie 2013 longlist. This review takes into consideration some of the judging criteria.

Hal is a boy, prince and a king. He is King Henry VIII. VIII is not a non-fiction book but it is based on the real Henry himself.  VIII is about King Henry VIII as a child growing up and all the troubles he faces.

VIII by HM Castor

Hal is a great fighter and loves to joust, all he wants is to fight and hunt. He is only young. But when his brother is claimed to be dead, he now must be King while still young. Will he be able to cope?!

I couldn’t really picture Hal as Henry VIII because I’ve only learned about Henry VIII as a grown-up king and that he was fat, had six wives and loved to play sport when he was younger. But I didn’t learn much about when he was a kid.

I did connect to Hal as Hal but when he got older in the novel, I did start to connect him to Henry VIII as I learned about him. I liked the character of Hal before he became king because he was cocky in an innocent and nice way. Hal definitely develops in the story because he becomes mean.

The language is not too difficult but it’s not too straightforward. It’s inbetween which is what I like about it because it’s not too easy to understand but the words still have meaning to me. There isn’t a lot of the action that gets you all excited. There is quite a bit of a dialogue; a good amount. The rest is Hal narrating.

The plot is fairly easy to follow but at some points it’s a little bit confusing for me. I could guess what might happen next when he was more grown up because the book is based on the history, the history is woven into the plot. I thought the characters were more important to the author than the plot. I think that because it is mainly based on King Henry VII. The novel had a very satisfying end because it didn’t leave questions unanswered.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. I would recommend it to people who like Tudor history and historical fiction readers. I think this book could be for Year 9s because they might understand more of the sub-plots.      

Publication details: 2011, Templar, Surrey UK

This copy: received from the publisher for shadowing the Carnegie longlist

This review also counts for Little M’s British Books Challenge 2013 and the Debut Author Challenge 2013 (because VIII is HM Castor’s teen debut novel).

 

The Lost Girl - M's review

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

The Lost Girl is Sangu Mandanna’s debut novel. It is a story about Amarra’s echo who comes to be known as Eva. Echoes are created by the Weavers in London as replacements for a person if/when they die. They are created for families who cannot bear to lose a loved one. Echoes look like these people, their ‘other’.  They grow up learning and practicing to be them; ready to replace them at any moment.

The Lost Girl by Sangu Mandanna

Eva, Amarra’s echo, is fifteen and lives in England. Her life is surrounded by a few people who are all employed by the Weavers. When the time comes for Eva to replace Amarra, her other, she’ll have to say goodbye to everyone in her life including her foster mother and her teenaged guardian, Sean. Her own independent life doesn’t count.

It’s interesting that echoes are a copy but it is the ‘original’ that is referred to in the novel as the ‘other’. Often, it would be the echo that would be referred to in this way, particularly if they are treated as ‘others’. In The Lost Girl, echoes are treated as others. They do not have their own names, they do not have their own independent lives. They have been created with the sole purpose of filling a gap if and when it arises.

Are they even people? Some people don’t think so and see them as a travesty. There are hunters who track them down and kill them. There are sleep orders. The family, the ‘other’ and the Weavers can sign a sleep order that kills the echo. And in India, where Amarra lives, echoes are illegal.

The whole premise of this novel appealed to me before I started reading the book. It brought to mind novels like Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go so I expected it to be right up my street. On reading the first page, the character of Eva reminded me immediately of Sonmi-451 in David Mitchell’s Cloud Atlas. Sonmi-451 is a clone who serves in a diner and is one literary character who has made a lasting impression on me. I was quickly drawn to Eva in The Lost Girl.

Stylistically, this novel is nothing like Cloud Atlas, Never Let Me Go or even any other sci-fi novels that I’ve read. The tone of The Lost Girl is soft and gentle and the story has a comforting mothering feel even when the plot is harsh and life threatening. It brought to mind Sufiya Ahmed’s Secrets of the Henna Girl and Sita Brahmachari’s Artichoke Hearts series. Perhaps this also has something to do with the south Asian cultural influences and locations in these novels?

This is a lovely read for a teen audience. I would especially recommend it to young teens who want to start exploring speculative science fiction themes of ‘genetics’ or ‘reproduction’. As with many other novels that explore these issues, a lot of romantic love elements are central for this plot’s thematic exploration of identity and being.

Publication details: Definitions (Random House), 3 January 2013, paperback

This copy: received from the publisher

 

This novel counts towards M’s Debut Author Challenge 2013.

A dusty blast from the past

Last summer, we spent weeks travelling and reading children's classics with our family. This December, we chose to leave winter behind and went south (a bit like a pilgrimage) and became ensconced in some very old, boiling hot, and sometimes dusty reads.

First stop was a farm in Nieu Bethesda which is a little dorpie (village) in the South African Klein Karoo (the Little Karoo). It's surprising how booky this stop turned out to be.

Historically, the Afrikaner vootrekkers moved north from the Cape using ox-wagons. Lots of the furniture and obejcts in the farmhouse dated back many years. We found this in the dining room. I'm punning now, but if you take a look at this bible, you might not be blamed for saying that their religion sometimes weighed heavily upon life in the Karoo!

After a visit to Helen Martin's Owl House, we found Dustcovers, a little secondhand and antiquarian bookshop.

I knew exactly what I was looking for: The Beadle by Pauline Smith. The story is set in the Little Karoo and I'd read it as a setwork at high school. What better time and place to buy and re-read it than in the story's original setting!  And I was also given a copy of Athol Fugard's play, The Road To Mecca, as a gift from my parents. The thing about this play, is that it is inspired by Helen Martin and her Owl House. You can see a picture of the sculputures that adorn her garden on the front cover.

Little M also picked up some old books in Dustcovers: The Red Pony by John Steinbeck, The Green Grass of Wyoming by Mary O'Hara (the third in the Flicka trilogy), Stormy: Misty's Foal (the Stormy Breyer model has passed down a couple of generations in our family) and The Secret of Shadow Ranch which is the first Nancy Drew title by Carolyn Keene.

Next stop, was the attic housing boxes of books from my childhood. Boy was it hot up there. The kind of heat where you can hardly breathe and just being there brings on a drenching sweat. But it was worth it. Here's a small selection of what I found:

 

The Clue of the Broken Locket by Carolyn Keene (Nancy Drew). I'm not that old; this book was secondhand before I got it! What's interesting about it is I also had a paperback version of it. However, the two stories were completey different. What a mystery that was to me when I was younger. I loved that!

 

 

A selection of Lorna Hill's Sadlers Wells ballet stories. Again, all secondhand before they came to me. This copy of A Dream of Sadlers Wells was Nanny Bee's and she's still very proud of the school book prize plate that's stuck in it. This one came over in my hand luggage. Also, note our method of cooling down in the background!

 

 

I knew I had them still. The Chocolate War and After the First Death. Two of Robert Cormier's classic Young Adult/teen titles. Definitely worth a re-read. And I've always been fascinated by those cover illustrations.

 

Before we went on this trip, I jokingly said to someone that we'd do a wild booky post but that hopefully it wouldn't be deadly. Um, well....it wasn't quite deadly, but jeez Louise! We'll leave the rest of that story for a later time!

Amity & Sorrow - M's review

Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley
 

Adult fiction review

 

Tinder Press said the stories were coming. We said some of M's adult fiction reads were going to be reviewed. It's a new year, so here's the first: Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley from Tinder Press.....

Amity and Sorrow are teenage sisters. They’ve grown up in their father’s end-of-the-world religious cult that literally cut them off from any outside life or knowledge of the world. Amity and Sorrow only know what has been allowed onto their patch of land which they shared with the other wives, their half-siblings and their father at the centre.



 

Amity & Sorrow by Peggy Riley

The story starts with Amaranth, their mother, driving them away from this life into the middle of somewhere in the United States. They become stranded and end up squatting on a dusty farm inhabited by struggling farmer Bradley, Dust and a knocking sound. Amity & Sorrow arrive tied to one another at the wrists with Sorrow’s skirts caked in blood.

While unravelling the sequence of events that led to them running away (these are not pretty events!), the novel particularly explores the impact that their beliefs have on them once they are exposed to the ‘outside’ world. This is difficult when they aren’t allowed to speak to men, to stand in a field or to enter the farmhouse. Can they adapt to survive in this society or shall they return home to whatever awful fate is likely to await them there?

The novel succeeds particularly well in exploring the individual difficulties that the three of them have in developing relationships with people outside of their community as they are bound by constricting beliefs and rules that have limited their knowledge of the world. They become their own worst enemies in their bid for survival – or even a return to their home.

Amity & Sorrow is fraught with tension from the first page. The pace of the novel is slow and pays attention to exquisite relationship and identity details. It is sped up only through the narrative which flips back and forth between present, past and further past and then all comes together in a faster paced ending. After a couple of chapters, once I had a handle on the characters, it became quite an absorbing read. It is a frighteningly plausible story and will resonate with many readers.

Aspects of the ending were a welcome surprise to me even if some of them are not so pretty either. Some of the tension is relieved which enables the story to carry on in your mind (although some bits you might prefer not to think about further!).

Amity & Sorrow is Peggy Riley's first novel. It contains themes of abuse, sex and religious cults.

I really enjoyed Amity & Sorrow and would highly recommend it to adults.

 

Publication details: Tinder Press, 28 March 2013, London, hardback

 This copy: uncorrected proof received for review from the publisher


This novel counts towards M's British Books Challenge 2013.

 

Ketchup Clouds - Joint Review

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

 

Ketchup Clouds is a thriller about a fifteen year old girl who has a secret to tell. She says she’s a murderer and uses the name Zoe to write to a man who is on Death Row for murdering his wife. She knows that if she tells her story to him in letters (it is an epistolary novel) it won’t actually get out into the public (not like photos taken on a phone).

Ketchup Clouds by Annabel Pitcher

Ketchup Clouds interweaves three people’s stories through Zoe’s voice: Zoe’s, Stuart’s and Dot’s. Zoe’s story is the main plot which is a thoughtful story about ‘boyfriends’ (saying much more than this will give too much away). A sub-plot is Stuart’s story about passions of crime and also raises issues around death penalties and prison conditions. But Zoe’s writing to Stuart also has what we thought were creepier undertones which slowly reveal themselves as the story progresses. A further sub-plot is (sort of ) Dot’s story which explores some similar themes of parenting and responsibilities that were also evident in My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece. Through these three interweaved tales, Ketchup Clouds explores moral questions about right and wrong, and how much blame can you really lay on someone – and for how long? Do two wrongs make a right?

Little M liked the way that suspense drove the novel: the whole way along the novel you want to know who Zoe murdered and how/why. Lots of little clues are given along the way and it’s one of those novels where you ask another reader: “Did you figure this bit out?” or “Did you think this?” and so on.

 Although a thriller, Ketchup Clouds is also a sad novel –because it is about death and/or things that have happened and cannot be undone: and we cared about the characters (some more than others). However, you may be surprised at what aspects of the plots sadden you the most.

Ketchup Clouds reminded me a little of Flip by Martyn Bedford and it is definitely a novel that is ripe for discussions. For example, Little M and I ended up talking about the death penalty and whether or not we agree with it. In the novel, Zoe comments at length about the death penalty and conditions on Death Row.  

Little M preferred Ketchup Clouds to My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece. I preferred Mantelpiece. However, tomato sauce sachets now remind both of us of Annabel Pitcher's Ketchup Clouds!

This novel is aimed at an older audience than My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece. Teenage themes and issues that the novel raises include romantic teen relationships, smartphone abuse and alcohol. Little M would recommend this to readers in Year 9 or above because the characters in the novel are that age. I’d probably agree. The plot interests will likely appeal most to older teens. Some readers might find a couple of the romantic scenes a bit cringey while others lap them up.

 

Publication details: Indigo, 27 December 2012, London, hardback

 This copy: uncorrected proof received from the publisher


This review counts towards the British Books Challenge 2013.

 

Little M's List of Books Read in 2012

Books Read in 2012 - by Little M

1. Sky Hawk – Gill Lewis

2. Between Shades of Gray – Ruta Sepetys

3. Divergent #1 – Veronica Roth (read twice)

4. Maximum Ride #1 The Angel Experiment – James Patterson

5. Maximum Ride #2 School’s Out Forever – James Patterson

6. Maximum Ride #3 Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports – James Patterson

7. Maximum Ride #4 The Final Warning – James Patterson

8. The World According to Humphrey – Betty G Birney

9. The House at World’s End – Monica Dickens

10. Summer at World’s End – Monica Dickens

11. Shadow – Michael Morpurgo

12. Cool – Michael Morpurgo

13. The Silver Brumby – Elyne Mitchell

14. Samphire Song – Jill Hucklesby

15. Ruby Redfort Look Into My Eyes – Lauren Child

16. Spy Girl The Dark Side of Midnight – Carol Hedges

17. Kidnap In the Caribbean (Laura Marlin) – Lauren St John

18. Journey to the River Sea – Eva Ibbotson

19. The Star of Kazan – Eva Ibbotson
20. Dolphin Song - Lauren St John
21. Girl, Missing - Sophie McKenzie
22. Hitler's Angel - William Osborne
23. Insurgent (Divergent #2) - Veronica Roth
24. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher
25. Wonder - RJ Palacio
26. Sister, Missing - Sophie McKenzie
27. Diary of a Wimpy Kid - Jeff Kinney
28. The Hunger Games (THG #1) - Suzanne Collins
29. Catching Fire (THG #2) - Suzanne Collins
30. White Dolphin - Gill Lewis
31. Mockingjay (THG #3) - Suzanne Collins
32. Flip - Martyn Bedford
33. The One Dollar Horse - Lauren St John
34. Secrets of the Henna Girl - Sufiya Ahmed
35. Slated - Teri Terry
36. The Giver - Lois Lowry
37. A Stallion Called Midnight - Victoria Eveleigh
38. Tiger Wars - Steve Backshall
39. Insignia - SJ Kincaid
40. Uncommon Criminals (Heist Society #2) - Ally Carter
41. Codename Quicksilver #1: In the Zone - Allan Jones
42. Codename Quicksilver #2: The Tyrant King - Allan Jones
43. Emil and the Detectives - Erich Kastner
44. Follyfoot - Monica Dickens
45. The Twice-Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones - Susie Day
46. Kentucky Thriller (Laura Marlin #3) - Lauren St John
47. Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret - Judy Blume
48. Missing Me - Sophie McKenzie
49. The Medusa Project #1: The Set Up - Sophie McKenzie
50. The Medusa Project #2: Hostage - Sophie McKenzie
51. The Medusa Project #3: The Rescue - Sophie McKenzie
52. The Medusa Project #4: Hunted - Sophie McKenzie
53. The Medusa Project #5: Double-Cross - Sophie McKenzie
54. Codename Quicksilver #3: Burning Sky - Allan Jones
55. Scarlet - AC Gaughen
56. One Dog and His Boy - Eva Ibbotson
57. A Sea of Stars - Kate Maryon
58. Silverfin - Charlie Higson
59. The Medusa Project #6: Hit Squad - Sophie McKenzie
60. A Soldier's Secret - Marissa Moss
61. Ketchup Clouds - Annabel Pitcher
62. Ghost Knight - Cornelia Funke
63. Darcy Burdock - Laura Dockrill
64. A Month With April-May - Edyth Bulbring
65. Pig Heart Boy - Malorie Blackman
66. Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
67. Noughts & Crosses - Malorie Blackman
68. VIII - HM Castor
69.Soldier Dog - Sam Angus
70. Sword of Light (Pendragon Legacy #1) - Katherine Roberts
71. Lance of Truth (Pendragon Legacy #2) - Katherine Roberts
72. Raspberries on the Yangtze - Karen Wallace
73. The Secret of Shadow Ranch (Nancy Drew #1) - Carolyn Keene
74. The Red Pony - John Steinbeck
75. The Christmas Truce - Carol Ann Duffy


PS. There may be one or two more that get finished on New Year's Eve. But we're offline and away in the mountains, so.......tomorrow is another day :)

Yep, there were!

76. Medal For Leroy - Michael Morpurgo
77. Kit Hunter: South American Mission - Peter Grey

It's a Wrap: British Books Challenge 2012

We're ending the year with a wrap on our first book blogging and reading challenge. We both signed up to the British Book Challenge 2012. This was hosted on The Overflowing Library blog this year.

The aim: to read and review 12 books by British authors - or books published in Britain first.

And we've done it! Here are links to our reviews:

M's Review List
1. My Name is Mina - David Almond, Hodder
2. The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time - David Haddon, Vintage
3. Slated - Teri Terry, Orchard
4. My Sister Lives on the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher, Indigo
5. Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein, Electric Monkey
6. After the Snow - SD Crockett, Macmillan
7. Emma Hearts LA - Keris Stainton, Orchard
8. Changeling - Philippa Gregory, Simon & Schuster
9. Secrets of the Henna Girl - Sufiya Ahmed, Puffin
10. The Other Side of Truth - Beverley Naidoo
11. Velvet - Mary Hooper, Bloomsbury
12. All Fall Down - Sally Nicholls, Marion Lloyd (Scholastic)
13. The Seeing - Diana Hendry, Bodley Head (Random)
14. Noughts and Crosses - Marjorie Blackman, Corgi (Random)
15. Muddle and Win: The Battle of Sally Jones - John Dickinson, David Fickling
16. Raspberries On the Yangtze - Karen Wallace, Simon & Schuster
17. I Capture the Castle - Dodie Smith, Vintage
18. Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome, Vintage
19. Maggot Moon - Sally Gardner, Hot Key Books
20. Flip - Martyn Bedford, Walker
21. Silenced - Simon Packham, Piccadilly Press
22. A World Between Us - Lydia Syson, Hot Key Books
23. Katya's World - Jonathan L Howard, Strange Chemistry
24. Obsidian Mirror - Catherine Fisher, Hodder
25. The Night Sky In My Head - Sarah Hammond, OUP Childrens
26. A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness, Walker
27. Breathe - Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury
28. This Is Not Forgiveness - Celia Rees, Bloomsbury
29. Knife Edge (Noughts & Crosses #2) - Malorie Blackman, Corgi (Random)
30. Pigeon English - Stephen Kelman, Bloomsbury
31. Hold On - Alan Gibbons, Indigo
32. The Weight of Water - Sarah Crossan, Bloomsbury
33. A Boy and a Bear in a Boat - Dave Shelton, Random House Children's


Little M's Review List
1. Sky Hawk - Gill Lewis, Oxford University Press
2. Hitler's Angel - William Osborne, Chicken House
3. Dolphin Song - Lauren St John, Orion
4. White Dolphin - Gill Lewis, Oxford University Press
5. A Stallion Called Midnight - Victoria Eveleigh, Orion
6. Tiger Wars - Steve Backshall, Orion
7. Codename Quicksilver: In the Zone - Allan Jones, Orion
8. The Twice-Lived Summer of Bluebell Jones - Susie Day, Scholastic
9. Girl, Missing - Sophie McKenzie, Simon and Schuster
10. Kentucky Thriller (Laura Marlin #3) - Lauren St John, Orion
11. Missing Me - Sophie McKenzie, Simon and Schuster
12. Codename Quicksilver #3: Burning Sky - Allan Jones, Orion
13. A Sea of Stars - Kate Maryon, Harper Collins


The British Books Challenge 2013 is being hosted by Feeling Fictional. And we've both signed up. Here's a link to our Challenges page.

Our Carnegie 2012 review list

We've been blogging about the most recent Carnegie medal longlist and our following of it. Here's our look back on what we read from the 2012 nomination and short lists. Links are provided for titles that we have reviewed. The Carnegie medal is awarded to a writer who has written an outstanding book for children.

Shortlist:
A Monster Calls - Patrick Ness (winner)
My Name Is Mina - David Almond
My Sister Lives On the Mantelpiece - Annabel Pitcher
Between Shades of Gray - Ruta Sepetys (M's review , Little M's review)

Nominations:
Flip - Martyn Bedford
Sky Hawk - Gill Lewis
One Dog and His Boy - Eva Ibbotson (loved but not reviewed)
Shadow - Michael Morpurgo (loved but not reviewed)


What titles did you read?

Secret Santa came to town

Seasons greetings one and all, wherever you are!

 

Look what I got from my book blogging Secret Santa!

There's a copy of Black Heart Blue by Louisa Reid which has been nominated for the Carnegie 2013, so it's great to receive a copy of that. Earth Girl by Janet Edwards is a dystopian (which Little M has been trying to snuffle away) and Wentworth Hall by Abby Grahame looks like a period drama.

Thank you Secret Santa :)

And thank you also to Lynsey for organising the UK Young Adult Book Bloggers Secret Santa giftswaping scheme this December. I love finding and giving gifts and the added secret surprise element was irresistible.

Dave Shelton chat

We Sat Down For a Chat...with Dave Shelton

A Boy and a Bear in a Boat has been nominated for the CILIP Carnegie 2013 and has also been shortlisted for the 2012 Costa Children's Book Award. It is a lovely (and funny) storybook with some gorgeous illustrations and a fantastic cover. We're delighted to host its author, Dave Shelton, on our blog today. He is very funny.

****

M: I’ve heard that you have a cat whose name is too stupid to reveal in public. Is that the case for the boy and the bear in the boat too (because neither of their names are revealed)? And of course, who named your cat?

Dave: The cat was named by my partner's daughter and her dad. I never really considered giving names to the boy and the bear, I just always thought of them as "the boy" and "the bear". It wasn't a particularly thought out decision, so far as I can remember, it just felt like the right thing. The bear has done a few school visits though (including one to Australia) and a lot of schoolchildren have suggested names for him.

 

M: Like the bear in your novel, imagine you have a selection of sandwiches in your lunchbox. What would be your favourite fillings? And your worst?

Dave: Sandwiches are great aren't they? I'm a very limited cook but I like to believe I make a pretty good sandwich. I think the fishfinger sandwich is a desperately underrated landmark on the culinary landscape, so that's certainly one of my favourites. That said, you really want a fishfinger sandwich to be served up freshly made and hot, so for a lunchbox I'd maybe plump for salami and cream cheese, or ham cheese and chutney. As for worst ... I remember a fishpaste sandwich from my childhood that I really didn't get on with at all.

Dave Shelton

M: If you discovered that you were not lost in the middle of nowhere, where would you like to be?

Dave: I haven't really travelled outside of the UK very much (or very well) so all my favourite places are in this country. Happily, I like Cambridge, where I live, very much but the one thing it lacks is the sea. I love the sea. I like to swim in it when the temperature isn't absolutely life-threatening, but otherwise I just like to be near it. It's very calming. I love A L Kennedy's quote: "No one should go to church - take them all to the seaside, do them good." And my favourite bits of seaside are in North Norfolk (Holkham Beach is particularly fine), so I'd most likely go there.

M: The bear in your novel has a little ritual he likes to practice at 4 o’clock. Do you have any routine rituals?

Dave: Well, I certainly drink a great deal of tea, but that's more a compulsion than a ritual. I don't think I do have any rituals really, but maybe I do and I'm just not able to spot them. I certainly have a few habits (and most of them bad ones) but I'm a bit too disorganised to be ritualistic. Oh, apart from ... whenever I read or hear the word seal I have to do my renowned impression of a seal. And if I hear the word phenomena I have to sing do doo be-do-do, but everyone does that don't they?

M: Sure, Dave, of course they do!???

M: Have you ever found a message in a bottle?

Dave: Ah, now, yes I have. Or at least somebody in our family did back when I was ... ooh, I'm not sure how old, maybe eleven or twelve? I think either I or my younger brother found it. As I recall, all it had in it was a name and address (and I can't remember for the life of me whereabouts it had come from). It was me that wrote back. I think all I said was, hey, we found your bottle, more or less. But I got a reply anyway. All I can remember now is that the chap who had sent it described himself as "of the grandfather generation", and he had quite spindly handwriting. If I replied again then I can't have been very interesting because that was the last I heard from him. But then any more correspondence was only ever going to be a progression of disappointing normality compared to the initial thrill of finding the bottle in the first place. Hmm ... I think next time I'm at the seaside I'll have to send one in the hope that someone else can have that.

M: If you were the captain of someone’s journey, what ‘on-board entertainment’ would you offer?

Dave: Books, comics, drawing paper and pens, and Radio4. And I might talk to them (though I wouldn't claim that that's always entertaining).

 

M: Are you good at navigation?

Dave: Hah! No, I have a hopeless sense of direction and very shaky map-reading skills. It's a wonder I can find my way home.

M: Is there anything else you are bursting to tell us?

Dave: Yes, I'd like to share my philosophy for life, which is this:

 It's never too late for breakfast.

 Also, I'd like to share someone else's philosophy for life. John Finnemore is a comedy writer and performer whose Radio shows I greatly admire and in one of his programmes he summed up his guidelines for a good life as:

"Be kind. Have fun."

 

Which pretty much covers it, I think.

M: I might just have some breakfast now. Anyone want to share it :)

********

Dave Shelton is also a cartoonist, comicker and illustrator. Check him out here.