• Fri, 12:56: RT @green_grainger: So there was a MYSTERY at the library today. A wee old women came in and said “I’ve a question. Why does page 7 in all…
• Fri, 16:05: Dinosaur Discovered In Scotland Would Have Had Thick Accent, Scientists Confirm https://t.co/FW3wg8x4xr LOL. Probab… https://t.co/ux55eW5fdE
• Fri, 18:49: The Man Who Spoke Snakish, by Andrus Kivir�hk https://t.co/iatzrRCpcn
• Fri, 20:48: Morbid Monday : Kissed to Death https://t.co/8QGimZGYvq Bizarre sexual office politics, New York, 1909.
• Fri, 21:42: RT @peprally: Has anyone else noticed when time travelers grab you buy your shoulders and ask what year it is and you tell them, they don’t…
• Sat, 09:52: RT @DanKaszeta: Gloves. The answer you are looking for is gloves. https://t.co/UXkzrJ2AKR
• Sat, 10:45: The Massive Prize Luring Miners to the Stars https://t.co/OMqWiZZIU9 Exploiting asteroids.

Second paragraph of third chapter:

Ettepanek tundus ülimalt ohtlik, juba paljalt sellele mõtlemine pani südame taguma. Ega Pärtelgi kuigi vapper välja näinud, ta vahtis mulle otsa sellise ilmega, justkui ootaks, et ma pead raputaks ja keelduks – küllap oli tal oma sõnade pärast hirm. Mina ei raputanud pead, vaid ütlesin hoopis: “Lähme siis.”

The suggestion seemed extremely dangerous; the very thought of it made my heart race. Nor did Pärtel look all that brave; he looked at me with an expression that expected me to shake my head and refuse; his words had indicated his dread. I didn’t shake my head; I just said: “Let’s go then.”

Someone recommended this to me on Facebook, but of course I cannot now find who it was. It's a great adult fairy-tale covering the shift from ancient paganism to early modernity in Estonia, through the life of Leemet, a child of the forest who speaks Snakish and thus can communicate with all animals, not only snakes. But the Christians come and succeed in imposing their lifestyle on most of the people of the forest and in killing many of the animals. Leemet loves and loses, and loves and loses, and the world is never going to be the same again. I really liked it. You can get it here.

Amused by the reviewer who bought this as a bedtime story for her young son. Erm, no.

• Thu, 12:56: How *not* to fix the Irish border problem https://t.co/2zx6IfXu8o @Hayward_Katy writes.
• Thu, 16:05: RT @JenniferMerode: The Home Office has done its own dear Deidre case-studies on EU citizens’ rights. The last one is about a German natio…
• Thu, 20:27: The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver https://t.co/wkbZBXytSQ
• Thu, 20:48: ‘Pics or it Didn’t Happen’: Instagram’s New Rules for Life https://t.co/c8uKUwBh8C Good piece.
• Fri, 10:45: Lessons from My Math Degree That Have Nothing to Do with Math https://t.co/XSr13INvhD Useful life lessons.

Second paragraph of third chapter:

It was the second day of the new year. I had stayed on at the Broken Arrow through most of the holidays, earning some money changing beds. The older woman with the shakes, whose name was Mrs. Hoge, was determined I should stay awhile. She said they could use the extra help during the Christmas season, especially since her daughter-in-law’s ankles were giving her trouble. Which is no wonder. A human ankle is not designed to hold up two hundred and fifty pounds. If we were meant to weigh that much we would have big round ankles like an elephant or a hippopotamus.

This was Kingsolver’s first novel, but the fourth that I had read (after The Poisonwood Bible, The Lacuna and Prodigal Summer). I was charmed by this as I was by the others. It’s a lovely story of a young woman from Kentucky who leaves home, and by the time she reaches Tucson, Arizona, she has acquired someone else’s baby. There’s a nicely depicted gradual maturing of the narrator, and a sentimental ending involving two Guatemalan refugees which successfully pulled at my heartstrings. Very sweet and powerful book which you can get here.

This happened to reach the top of two of my lists simultaneously, unread books by women and unread books that are fiction but not sf. Next in order on those lists respectively are Moominvalley in November, by Tove Jansson, and Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett.

• Wed, 12:52: RT @hayward_katy: How *not* to fix the Irish border problem. https://t.co/QWWDnFmXhP A long read on @UKandEU in response to Shanker Singha…
• Wed, 12:56: I Dream of Pop-Tarts https://t.co/CTKV4T0en1 Me too. (Did I say that out loud?)
• Wed, 16:05: RT @WilOfTheKremlin: @LeaveEUOfficial @tradegovuk UK EU trade £235bn UK AUS trade £4.5bn Spot the problem?… Then there’s this… https…
• Wed, 18:13: 826 km measured directly on a great circle. Roughly 1160 km by road, tunnel and ferry. https://t.co/2ACt0iA3Cz
• Wed, 18:36: This year’s Hugos and Retro Hugos – dramatic presentation categories https://t.co/K3AAnX7baC
• Wed, 20:48: RT @qikipedia: In 1990, the satirical magazine, SPY, sent cheques for 13 cents to some of the world’s richest people. Only two cashed them,…
• Thu, 09:24: The three legal paths to stop Brexit are blocked https://t.co/BSmQfzujSs @DavidAllenGreen is realistic.
• Thu, 10:45: The EU Remains Unprepared for the Next Migration Crisis https://t.co/GjDzH5ZEk1 @StefanLehne warns.
• Thu, 11:40: Red London: Labour is poised to take the capital https://t.co/uviJNH8A8N Says the @Spectator!

Listed by length, title links for Amazon (UK) DVDs, other links where I have found them online.

164 min: Blade Runner 2049 (BDP LF 2018)

152 min: Star Wars: The Last Jedi (BDP LF 2018)

141 min: Wonder Woman (BDP LF 2018)

130 min: Thor: Ragnarok (BDP LF 2018)

123 min: The Shape of Water (BDP LF 2018)

108 min: Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Youtube Whole thing on Internet Archive

104 min: Get Out (BDP LF 2018)

81 min: Invisible Agent (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Internet Archive

77 min: I Married a Witch (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Internet Archive

76 min: Black Mirror: “USS Callister,” (BDP SF 2018)

73 min: Cat People (BDP SF 1943)

70 min: Bambi (BDP SF 1943) Whole thing on Internet Archive

67 min: The Ghost of Frankenstein (BDP SF 1943)

60 min: Doctor Who: “Twice Upon a Time,” (BDP SF 2018)

47 min: Star Trek: Discovery: “Magic to Make the Sanest Man Go Mad,” (BDP SF 2018)

25 min: The Good Place: “Michael’s Gambit,” (BDP SF 2018)

21 min: The Good Place: “The Trolley Problem,” (BDP SF 2018)

5 min: “The Deep” [song], by Clipping (BDP SF 2018) Whole thing on Youtube, lyrics here.

Happy to add more sources as people let me know about them.

• Tue, 20:16: Macedonia: Ohrid, Sveti Naum, Skopje and Tetovo https://t.co/UfWlt38KIZ
• Tue, 20:48: If We Remember How Unity Feels, We Can Save Democracy https://t.co/WDyTyfUtyX @MariaFarrell’s call to arms.
• Wed, 10:45: The mystery of Jesus, the naked hippie dancer https://t.co/bXgNt7fY5o Solved.

It is almost exactly 21 years since my first trip to Macedonia, back in April 1997, when many things were different. I've been raving about it ever since to anyone who would listen, particularly my long-suffering wife and family. So when we started looking for options for an Easter weekend getaway, Anne suggested that I should take her to my favourite Balkan state. And so I did. F agreed to accompany us as well.

This is the three of us by Lake Ohrid at Sveti Naum, with the Albanian mountains behind us.

Ohrid is the old ecclesiastical capital of Macedonia (or indeed Bulgaria). This is the dramatic church of Sveti Jovan Kaneo, on a headland by the lake. We have a painting of it on the wall in our front room at home; Anne gasped in recognition as we came around the corner on a hillside path and saw the real thing.

In 1937, Rebecca West "walked on through the town by a track which followed the top of a cliff beside the lake and took us at last to a church standing on a promontory covered with pale-yellow flowers. This I remembered well, for it was the Church of Sveti Yovan, of St. John, where I had learned for the first time the peculiar quality of Eastern Christianity, that is dark and not light, and unkempt as only the lost are in the West."

We were staying in the old town, near the Church of Sveti Sofija, the Holy Wisdom.

Of this, Rebecca West wrote: "[It] was built, it is said, at the same time as the Hagia Sophia of Constantinople and was restored by the Nemanyas. It is a glorious building, the size, I should think, of Steeple Ashton parish church, a superb composition of humble, competent brickwork achieving majesty by its sound domes and arches. It is decorated with some magnificent frescoes of the Nemanya age, one showing an angry angel bending over earth in rage against the polluted substance of those who are not angels, and another showing the death of the Virgin, where sorrowing figures drip like rain down the wall behind the horizontal body of a woman who is giving herself without reserve but with astonishment to the experience of pain, knowing it to be necessary. That the building should be now Christian is a victory, since the Turks used it as a mosque for five hundred years. But the church is full of light. It is built according to the Byzantine and not according to the Serbo-Byzantine fashion, and has no iconostasis but only a low barrier to divide the congregation from the priest. A makeshift iconostasis of chintz and paper and laths has been run up, but it is of no avail. Light stands like a priest over all other priests under the vaults that were raised high to cast out shadow. And this church is unbeloved. A fierce old nun keeps it fanatically clean and would give her life to defend it."

I don't know if the lady currently in charge is a nun, but we charmed her sufficiently that she let us off the general prohibition on photography inside the church, and we were able to record some of the frescoes for ourselves. The lighting is not always fantastic, but here is the Divine Wisdom herself, above the altar.

Edward Lear, better known for his limericks, visited Ohrid in 1848, almost 90 years before Rebecca West and 170 years before us. I tried to reproduce two of his paintings in their modern setting, but without much success.

This is the Ali Pasha Mosque as Edward Lear saw it in 1848: "I drew a fine old Greek church, now turned into a mosque". (Actually he was wrong; it was built as a mosque in 1573.)

The minaret is long gone, the base of the mosque is now concealed by other buildings, and much of the rest by scaffolding:

Across the square is an ancient tree which Lear drew:

"There is a street scene below the castle, where a majestic plane shades bazaars rich with every sort of gay-coloured raiment. Through its drooping foliage gleams the bright top of a minaret, and below it are grouped every variety of picturesque human beings. To carry away a sketch of this was the work of half the morning".

The plane tree is still there, very close to the Ali Pasha mosque. The minaret in Lear's picture belongs to the Zeynel Abidin Paşa mosque on the other side of the square, and unfortunately a big support structure for the tree now prevents us getting Lear's view. The tree is now best seen from the west.

Neither Edward Lear nor Rebecca West was aware of the ancient theatre in Ohrid, now excavated and used for performances:

We stayed very economically in the Villa St Sofija hotel, near the church mentioned above. Our rooms were palatial, with no need for the communicating doors that Rebecca West mentions:

"Ochrid is a very long way from London. One gets into a train in London at two o'clock in the afternoon and all the next day one crosses Italy or Austria, and on the morning of the second day one is in Belgrade. Even if one stays in the Athens Express one cannot be in Skoplje before five that afternoon. There one must spend the night, and start early in the morning to reach Ochrid in the late afternoon. It is also a fact that not one in a million Englishmen has been to Ochrid. What happened when we arrived at the hotel on Lake Ochrid, therefore, was unfair. We found Gerda talking to a manageress, one of those strange polyglots who seem to have been brought up in some alley where several civilizations put out their ash-cans, since only bits and pieces have come their way, never the real meat. She showed some interest when she heard we were English. An Englishman had come to the hotel only the other day. Did we know Professor So-and-so? Yes, we knew that ornament of the British academic world. He had liked Ochrid trout, all the world liked Ochrid trout, we would like Ochrid trout, but first would we like a risotto of crayfish, such as the Professor had also liked? Yes, we thought we would. And were we really married, or did we want two rooms with a communicating door, like Professor So-and-so and his young secretary? 'My God,' said my husband, with deep emotion, 'if I had a son I would tell him this story several times a year.'"

We moved on to Sveti Naum, the monastic settlement beside the Albanian border, of which Rebecca West wrote at length. She describes the core ancient church thus: "We passed under an arch and were in the small square formed by the monastery buildings. They are a mixed lot, put up at various times since the fourteenth century, which are painted different colours, some white, some grey, some red, for no other reason than that the monks happened to be given these paints. At one point there are no buildings, and a terrace looks down on the wide face of the lake. The air up here is cooled by the breath of the water. In the centre of this square is the tenth-century Church of Sveti Naum. It is dark and low, its stone walls are brown save where they are plastered white, and its two cupolas, one of which is taller than the other, are of red and white brick, very old, very dim in colour; and it is roofed with red-brown tiles. In shape it is like a locomotive. It stands above the cobbles of the square on a platform of earth, walled up with stone. On one side of the church there grows a lilac tree, which bears very large purple flowers, on the other a fig tree. By the fig tree are some poles on which they dry the monastery fishing-nets." The two trees are gone, but the church remains, still shaped like a locomotive:

Most notably, the peacocks that she mentions, and which feature in some of the ancient frescoes, still patrol the monastery precincts:

Even more remarkably, there are at least two albino birds – a peahen, who evaded my photography, and a white peacock:

On the way down to Ohrid, we stopped in Tetovo to visit the famous Decorated Mosque, a beautiful example of Islamic art from the 16th century. Here's a panorama with family members (click to embiggen):

They are (justifiably) proud of the depiction of the Qa'aba, a rare example of that subject in Balkan Islam:

The sisters who funded the building of the mosque in 1438 rest outside in a türbe:

Finally, we ate really well, and economically, while in Macedonia. When we lived in Bosnia in 1997-98, the standard lunchtime snack was burek, and we tracked down a very tasty sample on a fleeting visit to Kičevo:

In summary, I think I convinced my family about Macedonia, and maybe we’ll go back for longer next time.

• Mon, 15:43: Etymological query: presumably Proto-Germanic *paþaz (English path, Dutch pad, German Pfad) was loaned from Proto-S… https://t.co/u5O9w0BALX
• Mon, 21:03: Monday reading https://t.co/Sl23fhOuPU
• Tue, 10:45: Mud season in Russia: Putin, Rasputin https://t.co/EXfSMO2fDh Fascinating etymological discussion.

Current
Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H.P. Lovecraft and Ian Culbard
New York 2140, by Kim Stanley Robinson

Last books finished
Free Radical, by Vince Cable
The Man Who Spoke Snakish, by Andrus Kivirähk
Jade City, by Fonda Lee
No Going Back To Moldova, by Anna Robertson

Next books
Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith
Contes Fantastiques Complets, by Guy de Maupassant
Genius Loci, by Ben Aaronovitch

• Sun, 12:56: RT @IMcMillan: You say Carmina And I say Burana, You say Burana And I say Carmina, Burana, Carmina Carmina, Burana, Let’s Carl the whole…
• Sun, 15:55: RT @Dublin2019: PRICE RISE COMING Act before 00h01 Irish time on 3rd April to lock in current rates to Dublin 2019. Don’t forget that we h…
• Sun, 17:03: The Church of Sveti Jovan Kaneo by Lake Ohrid, with the Albanian mountains in the distance. @ Ohrid https://t.co/5aKEfsbW7x
• Sun, 21:57: This year’s Hugo ballot: Goodreads/LibraryThing stats https://t.co/SA9QiOE68D
• Mon, 08:22: RT @Dublin2019: The 2018 Hugo, 1943 Retro Hugo, and 2018 associated award finalists have been announced! Congratulations to all finalists a…
• Mon, 09:00: Our biggest fans this week: @BBCgmu, @JamieBrysonCPNI, @apcoworldwide. Thank you! via https://t.co/sNJePZrlDm https://t.co/r1ABCG7km2
• Mon, 10:45: It takes a special kind of courage to see a case like this through to the end https://t.co/FKS9b6uuRL #IBelieveHer

There’s a real surfeit of statistics for me this year, with not only the 2018 Hugo for Best Novel, but also the 1943 Retro Hugo for Best Novel, the 2018 Hugo for Best Related Work, and the 2018 World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Award for Best Young Adult Book all providing grist to my mill.

What mill is this? I take the ballot and compare the various finalists on Goodreads and LibraryThing, both to see how many users on each system claim to have copies of each book, and to see how much they like them. This analysis has been of rather limited success in identifying winners, but I think it does indicate something about front-runners.

2018 Hugo for Best Novel

In terms of ownership, it’s tight at the top between The Collapsing Empire and The Stone SkyRaven Stratagem.

1943 Retro Hugo for Best Novel

The outlier here is Darkness and the Light, which has a far smaller base than the other five; perhaps Stapledon fans just got organised this year? Be that as it may, Beyond This Horizon is far ahead on ownership, and Islandia far ahead on reader ratings, so I imagine that the winner will be one of them. The Heinlein is much easier to get hold of.

2018 Hugo for Best Related Work

A pretty clear front-runner here, though the data is so sparse that it may not be meaningful. Note also the exceptionally high Goodreads ratings (from an admittedly small base) for Luminscent Threads and A Lit Fuse.

2018 World Science Fiction Society (WSFS) Award for Best Young Adult Book

I have no insight into any of these books. I note only that La Belle Sauvage is way ahead on owners, and Summer in Orcus has much the highest ratings.

Anyway, that suppies a little numerical context for the vote.

• Sat, 12:56: Girls Not Brides welcomes historic drop in global number of child marriages but warns complacency is not an option… https://t.co/5VBbAbIv17
• Sat, 14:50: RT @jolisby: There was a young arsehole called Jackson, Who threatened a libellous action, The response was direct, Like a Streisand effect…
• Sat, 15:54: RT @Dublin2019: We’ll keep putting out reminders, but prices are going up on 3 April 2018, 00h01 Irish Standard Time (GMT+1). Act now to gu…
• Sat, 16:05: Harry Potter and the Battle For Gun Control https://t.co/5dCp8TAU2Y Comments not recommended.
• Sat, 18:41: March Books https://t.co/Ch5c3dAYnt
• Sat, 20:48: RT @OldRoberts953: At least two accidental Dr Who cosplayers here. https://t.co/0nhD2vXs97
• Sun, 10:45: RT @estherschindler: In 1999, I asked David Gerrold to write a “future of computing” prediction for the magazine where I was Technology Edi…

Non-fiction: 8 (YTD 16)
An Outline of the History of Pharmacy in Ireland, by William D. Moore M.B.
A History of the Universe in 100 Objects, by Steve Tribe and James Goss
Iain M. Banks, by Paul Kincaid
So, Anyway…, by John Cleese
The Road to Somewhere, by David Goodhart
After Europe, by Ivan Krastev
Free Radical, by Vince Cable
No Going Back to Moldova, by Anna Robertson

Fiction (non-sf): 3 (YTD 11)
The Bean Trees, by Barbara Kingsolver
Julian, by Gore Vidal
How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn

sf (non-Who): 9 (YTD 28)
Provenance, by Ann Leckie
Planesrunner by Ian McDonald
Uncanny Valley, by Greg Egan
The Enclave, by Anne Charnock
"Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones", by Samuel R. Delany
The Murders of Molly Southbourne, by Tade Thompson
Gulliver's Travels, by Jonathan Swift
The Man Who Spoke Snakish, by Andrus Kivirähk
Jade City, by Fonda Lee

Doctor Who, etc: 4 (YTD 10)
Doctor Who Storybook 2009, ed. Clayton Hickman
Something Changed, ed. Simon Guerrier
The Missy Chronicles, by James Goss, Cavan Scott, Paul Magrs, Peter Anghelides, Jacqueline Rayner and Richard Dinnick
The Legends of River Song, by Jenny T. Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Steve Lyons, Guy Adams and Andrew Lane

Comics: 1 (YTD 6)
Apostata 07: Niets meer dan een wolk by Ken Broeders

~6,400 pages (YTD ~19,900)
7/25 (YTD 27/72) by women (Robertson, Kingsolver, Leckie, Charnock, Lee, Rayner, Colgan/Rayner)
3/25 (YTD 6/72) by PoC (Delany, Thompson, Lee)
2/25 (YTD 6/72) reread ("Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones", Gulliver’s Travels)

Reading now
Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
The Case of Charles Dexter Ward, by H.P. Lovecraft and Ian Culbard

Coming soon (perhaps):
Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith
Contes Fantastiques Complets, by Guy de Maupassant
Something Like Normal, by Trish Doller
The God Instinct, by Jesse Bering
Dark Matter, by Blake Crouch
The Road to Middlemarch, by Rebecca Mead
Looking For JJ, by Anne Cassidy
Politically Correct Bedtime Stories, by James Finn Garner
Moominvalley in November, by Tove Jansson
Gemini, by Dorothy Dunnett
Virgins, Weeders and Queens, by Twigs Way
Robot Visions by Isaac Asimov
Le Mariage de Figaro, by Pierre-Augustin Caron de Beaumarchais
Your Code Name is Jonah, by Edward Packard
“Slow Sculpture”, by Theodore Sturgeon
The Aeneid, by Virgil
Rose de Paris, by Gilles Schlesser
The Flood, by Scott Gray and Gareth Roberts
Anno Mortis, by Rebecca Levene
Weapons of Mass Diplomacy, by Abel Lanzac
Genius Loci, by Ben Aaronovitch

• Fri, 12:22: RT @APCOBXLInsider: Your Easter weekend read is ready: with only 12 months to go until the #UK leaves the #EU, we give you the latest on #B…
• Fri, 12:56: The Rise in Self-Proclaimed Time Travelers https://t.co/Em51q5Syy2 All fake, of course!
• Fri, 16:05: British ‘exceptionalism’ drove Brexit, but EU media aren’t buying it https://t.co/z67n7C5MWM The view from EU27.
• Fri, 20:08: If I was us, I wouldn’t start from here: Damian Gorman, Good Friday Agreement +20years https://t.co/ERakiklt2d
• Fri, 20:48: I Tried to Befriend Nikolas Cruz. He Still Killed My Friends. https://t.co/ANXpuSTQHS Heart-rending.
• Fri, 20:59: RT @TJFKerstens: Spice up your Easter weekend! https://t.co/P2IRxgM1Rz
• Fri, 21:00: RT @BorderIrish: Good Friday is a solemn day. A day to reflect. A day to remember the past. A day to remember the dead. A day to look forwa…
• Fri, 21:17: I think the other #Mastermind contestants have simply given up now.
• Sat, 10:45: Must-read thread. https://t.co/9BTFwUcShS
• Sat, 11:16: #IBelieveHer https://t.co/am8IfivXqs

The punctuation may be incorrect; I’ve transcribed it from the video.

• Thu, 12:56: 11 Brexit promises the government quietly dropped https://t.co/DYNCsdpLZC “Promises” aka “lies”.
• Thu, 16:05: RT @IsabelHardman: A small personal post responding to the misogyny I’ve been receiving as a result of my personal life https://t.co/EUzAtO…
• Thu, 19:12: 12 months to go… https://t.co/jrDRAEbZJI
• Thu, 19:46: Gulliver’s Travels, by Jonathan Swift https://t.co/gHv0m7AO8s
• Fri, 10:45: FACT CHECK: Is There a Point in the Ocean Where the Closest Human Could Be an Astronaut? https://t.co/ZNmbY1RgEI Yes.
• Fri, 10:58: The latest monthly APCO Brexit Bites webzine https://t.co/jrDRAEbZJI featuring @AlderdiceLord @AlexBigland and anal… https://t.co/ldCqFpi8aw

There has been a lot of discussion in the last few days about the ideal time of publishing the Hugo final ballot (as we now call it) with respect to the Christian holiday of Easter.

Below, I present the actual statistics since 1990, taken from The Long List Of Worldcons, TheHugoAwards.org, and elsewhere, showing the date of the Worldcon, total membership, the date on which the final ballot was announced, its relationship to Easter (using my own cultural references of Holy Thursday – Good Friday – Easter Saturday – Easter Sunday – Easter Monday), the number of nominating ballots and the number of final votes.

What jumps out is of course that the seven highest vote totals ever, in either stage, have been in the last seven years, and on four of those years the final ballot was announced on Easter Saturday. There is therefore little empirical evidence to suggest that participation in the Hugos suffers from an Easter Saturday announcement.

The two highest ever votes on the final ballot, in 2014 and 2015, both followed Easter Saturday anouncements. One of those years was the year that a widely cited piece criticising the Easter Saturday publication was published; in fact that year saw a record level of participation.

NB: Missing off the end of the table: the pre-2011 record of final votes was set at NorEasCon 2 in 1980, with 1788 voters. The next highest was 1595 for MidAmeriCon in 1976. The highest number of nominating votes before 1990 was at ConStellation in 1983, with 660. The second highest was the previous year's L.A.Con IV, the biggest Worldcon ever, with 648.

Easter is late next year, as it was last year, and Dublin 2019 will announce the final ballot earlier in April, as Worldcon 75 did last year. But my personal feeling is that announcing the ballot to a fannish audience at conventions over Easter weekend appeals to the core Hugo voting community and does no demonstrable harm to the awards; so it would be my preferred option, if the date of Easter itself is suitable and other things are equal.

I first read this at about the age of eight or nine; I’m pretty sure it was the Cassell edition with illustrations by Thomas Morten, because a) the scatological bits have been bowdlerised out and b) I remember my grandfather, in what may well have been the last conversation I ever had with him, teasing me for not knowing Gulliver’s first name; it does not appear in the Cassell edition, which omits the two introductory letters where he is introduced as Lemuel Gulliver.

In case you don’t know, the story is of a normal English naval surgeon who finds himself on four adventures: first, he goes to a country where everyone is very small; then he goes to a country where everyone is very big; then he goes to a country where everyone is a mad scientist (or at least pursuing peculiar paths of knowledge); and finally he goes to a country where horses are intelligent and humans are primitive brutes. They deserve separate treatment, though they are coherent parts of a whole. The illustrations below are Morten’s from the Cassell edition; the text is from the Penguin edition with footnotes by Robert DeMaria.

Part I: A Voyage to Lilliput

Second paragraph of third chapter:

This Diversion [rope-dancing] is only practised by those Persons who are Candidates for great Employments, and high Favour, at Court. They are trained in this Art from their Youth, and are not always of noble Birth, or liberal Education. When a great Office is vacant either by Death or Disgrace (which often happens) five or six of those Candidates petition the Emperor to entertain his Majesty and the Court with a Dance on the Rope, and whoever jumps the highest without falling, succeeds in the Office. Very often the Chief Ministers themselves are commanded to show their Skill, and to convince the Emperor that they have not lost their Faculty. Flimnap, the Treasurer,³⁸ is allowed to cut a Caper on the strait Rope, at least an Inch higher than any other Lord in the whole Empire. I have seen him do the Summerset³⁹ several times together upon a Trencher⁴⁰ fixed on the Rope, which is no thicker than a common Packthread in England. My Friend Reldresal,⁴¹ Principal Secretary for private Affairs, is, in my opinion, if I am not partial, the second after the Treasurer; the rest of the great Officers are much upon a Par.
³⁸ Flimnap: Thought to represent Robert Walpole, the powerful Whig minister.
³⁹ Summerset: Somersault.
⁴⁰ Trencher: ‘A piece of wood upon which meat is cut at table’ (Johnson).
⁴¹ Reldresal: Perhaps Lord Carteret, a friend of Swift’s, who, as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, offered a reward for the identification of the author of Swift’s anti-government pamphlets called The Drapier’s Letters.

Lilliput is the best known of the four books – perhaps it is the easiest to grasp and to film. In 1981 Barry Letts did an adaptation which centred much more around Lady Flimnap than Gulliver; the lead was played by Elisabeth Sladen, formerly (and future) Sarah Jane Smith.

This is the most directly satirical of the four parts, the story of Lilliput and its eternal rival Blefuscu, clearly modelled on England and France, divided also by the debate over which end of the egg to break first, and in the case of Lilliput riven by internal court intrigue into which Gulliver becomes a deeply disturbing factor. Turning the telescope around is an old satirist’s trick, and reducing the squabbles of European politicians and churchmen to a twelfth of their usual size is a good way of putting things in perspective.

This is the only one of the four books where Gulliver is forced to leave by the inhabitants (or rather to avoid their intention to kill or maim him). The precipitating moment is when he puts out a fire in the Queen’s apartments by urinating on it. (This is one of the bits that was left out of the Cassell edition.)

Part II: A Voyage to Brobdingnag

Second paragraph of third chapter:

The Queen observed my coldness, and when the Farmer was gone out of the Apartment, asked me the reason. I made bold to tell her Majesty that I owed no other Obligation to my late Master, than his not dashing out the Brains of a poor harmless Creature found by chance in his Field; which Obligation was amply recompensed by the gain he had made in showing me through half the Kingdom, and the price he had now sold me for. That the Life I had since led, was laborious enough to kill an Animal of ten times my Strength. That my Health was much impaired by the continual drudgery of entertaining the Rabble every hour of the Day, and that if my Master had not thought my Life in danger, her Majesty perhaps would not have got so cheap a bargain. But as I was out of all fear of being ill treated under the protection of so great and good an Empress, the Ornament of Nature, the Darling of the World, the Delight of her Subjects, the Phoenix of the Creation; so, I hoped my late Master’s apprehensions would appear to be groundless, for I already found my Spirits to revive by the Influence of her most August Presence.

If Lilliput is the most satirical of the four parts of the story, Brobdingnag is the most philosophical. (Also, ironically, the shortest.) The two particularly memorable aspects of the story are, first, the body horror of everything being twelve times its normal size, including lice, flies, rats, monkeys and indeed dwarves; and second, a long conversation about political theory between Gulliver and the King of Brobdingnag, in which Gulliver leads off with a naïvely idealistic description of the British constitution, and the King gently destroys every single point in a series of hypothetical questions. It is the closest we get to sæva Indignatio (though there are several other near encounters).

Incidentally, I surely can’t be alone in detecting an echo of “dashing out the Brains of a poor harmless Creature found by chance in his Field“ in “To a Mouse”.

Part III: A Voyage to Laputa, Balnibarbi, Luggnagg, Glubbdubdrib and Japan

Second paragraph of third chapter:

The Flying or Floating Island is exactly circular, its Diameter 7837 Yards, or about four Miles and an Half, and consequently contains ten Thousand Acres. It is three Hundred Yards thick. The bottom or under Surface, which appears to those who view it from below, is one even regular Plate of Adamant, shooting up to the Height of about two Hundred Yards. Above it lie the several Minerals in their usual order, and over all is a Coat of rich Mould ten or twelve Foot deep. The Declivity of the upper Surface, from the Circumference to the Centre, is the natural Cause why all the Dews and Rains which fall upon the Island, are conveyed in small Rivulets towards the middle, where they are emptied into four large Basins, each of about half a Mile in Circuit, and two Hundred Yards distant from the Centre. From these Basins the Water is continually exhaled by the Sun in the Daytime, which effectually prevents their overflowing. Besides, as it is in the Power of the Monarch to raise the Island above the Region of Clouds and Vapours, he can prevent the falling of Dews and Rains whenever he pleases. For the highest Clouds cannot rise above two Miles, as Naturalists agree, at least they were never known to do in that Country.

The third section has perhaps weathered the test of time least well of the four – though ironically it is the most sfnal, in that the first half is very much about the application of science and the second half then takes us into accessing the past (by summoning ghosts, and talking to immortals). Swift’s rejection of scientific research as a worthwhile activity, and of science as a useful tool for statecraft, is pretty startling for the modern reader. We make a mistake if we read the floating island of Laputa as a scientific endeavour; it’s essentially a magical mechanism enabling the plot to happen, and the scientists above and below are deranged idealists. Of the three books, this is the one where Gulliver travels the most, and the result is a somewhat disjointed narrative.

Part IV: A Voyage to the Land of the Houyhnhnms

Second paragraph of third chapter:

In speaking, they pronounce through the Nose and Throat, and their Language approaches nearest to the High Dutch or German, of any I know in Europe; but is much more graceful and significant.¹⁹ The Emperor Charles V made almost the same Observation, when he said, That if he were to speak to his Horse, it should be in High Dutch.^20
19 significant: ‘Expressive or representative in an eminent degree; forcible to impress the meaning’ (Johnson, sense 3).
²⁰ Emperor Charles V … High-Dutch: Holy Roman emperor and king of Spain, Charles (1500–1558) is credited with saying he would address his God in Spanish, his mistress in Italian, and his horse in German.

The fourth and final part is by far the most misanthropic story of the book. The Houyhnhnms are intelligent horses, philosopher kings who do not seem to know crime or even sin. The Yahoos (who they exploit) are degenerate humans with disgusting personal hygiene and morals. Again Gulliver attempts to explain his own society to his hosts, but now he emphasises the negatives rather than the positives. He is appalled to find himself closer physically to the Yahoos, and aspires to be one of the Houyhnhnms. (This of course makes him unbearable to his family, and vice versa, when he eventually does get home.) Again, the reversal of roles is an old satirist’s trick; it’s maybe a little less successful here because we modern readers can’t help but notice the Houyhnhnms’ exploitation of the Yahoos, and also wonder exactly how horses can develop even a modest level of technology without opposable digits. But that’s not the point; to invoke Burns again, the point is “To see oursels as ithers see us”, and the disgusting behaviour of the Yahoos should be read as disturbingly close to our own societies.

Alas, there is precisely no evidence that Swift was inspired to write about Gulliver’s capture in Lilliput by the anthropomorphic profile of Cave Hill as it overlooks Belfast. Shame; it would have been nice if it were true.

This was the top book on the shelves that I had read but not reviewed online. Next up is the Aeneid, by Virgil.

• Wed, 19:24: Parallel Lives and Something Changed: two Bernice Summerfield collections https://t.co/rrK8yOq08A
• Thu, 02:57: RT @220_d_92_20: 39 years to the hour since Jim Callaghan’s government was ousted by one vote. How very different politics seems now
• Thu, 10:45: RT @StigAbell: “And we shall illustrate this glorious moment with… a large cliff edge”. https://t.co/H4opuZnun8

Two anthologies of short fiction in the Big Finish Bernice Summerfield continuity – but they are actually very different from each other. Parallel Lives includes three novellas, all dealing with the same incident from different angles. Something Changed has sixteen short stories all set in divergent timelines. Both do share linking material by Simon Guerrier, who I guess should be credited as the editor in both cases.

I felt that Parallel Lives was much stronger. Second paragraph of third section of first story: (“The Serpent’s Tooth”, by Rebecca Levene):

But, on the upside, the fact that in under 24 hours she was due to be married to the Emperor’s daughter did have some advantages. For a start, she’d had the chance to ride back into Portred in state, in a carriage pulled by what really did appear to be unicorns. She’d also eaten so much at her victory feast that her prostheses were in danger of popping.

Second paragraph of third story (“Jason and the Pirates”, by Dave Stone):

Shamanthra rested the palm of a hand on the palm tree under which she sat, and it obligingly dropped a coconut.

The three stories concern the aftermath of the disappearance of Clarissa, the secretary of the Braxiatel collection, with Bernice’s young son. The strongest is Rebecca Levene’s opener, with Bernice herself travelling to a world where gender roles are strongly reinforced and needing to disguise herself as a man. The middle one by Stewart Shergold is a not terribly exciting piece with regular characters Bev and Adrian trapped in a strange seaside hotel. The third piece, by Dave Stone, is fun if you like pirates (not really my thing) and also moves that overall narrative along more satidfactorily than the others.

Something Changed introduces a new regular character to the series, Doggles, who wields a History Machine which malfunctions leading to fourteen branching narratives. The third chapter is “Dead Mice”, by Joseph Lidster, and its second paragraph is:

It’s a bit like screaming as the bell continues to chime and a thousand universes and a billion and one choices force their way through him and something… no, everything changes as white light starts to explode around him but he holds it back and he makes it stop. And he buttons his jacket, looks at his reflection and, having taken control once more, he breathes in.

However all of the chapters between the first and the last are numbered “Chapter Two”; the second paragraph of the final story “After Life” by Simon Guerrier, which is actually numbered “Chapter Three”, is:

She stared down at the loose soil. Hass had encouraged her to help fill in the hole, a shovel at a time. Sweaty, tired, raw, it helped her not to think. She couldn’t even manage tears. The grave looked peaceful now. This spot, just next to the greenhouse, always got the sun. It had been a favourite place. He had loved napping here, lying right in the way of the gardeners. Hass used to trip over him. She smiled at that, and tears came.

(The grave is that of Wolsey the cat, who is dead in all iterations.)

I found it striking that the fifteen authors of the sixteen chapters (Simon Guerrier tops and tails the book) are all men. I also find it difficult to get invested in a collection of stories each of which effectively has a reset button that brings us back to the end of the first chapter, and most of which involve dealing with the death or disability of one or other of the key characters. So these are a set of character studies and “what ifs”, with some moments of vivid descriptive writing but which deliberately don’t take the overall story arc forward, and it felt a bit pointless to me.

• Tue, 16:05: 22 Ambassadors Recommend the One Book to Read Before Visiting Their Country https://t.co/m8uWja7bjV In some cases, more than one book.
• Tue, 17:55: RT @EvaMaydell: Kicking off the review event of the first half of the first #EU2018BG Presidency, hosted by my dear colleague @urutchev htt…
• Tue, 17:57: In action at the half-way mark of @EU2018BG : @LilyanaPavlova https://t.co/aOHhJLrj8f
• Tue, 18:13: RT @LilyanaPavlova: Honoured to be @Parlimag reception dedicated to Dynamic, Innovative and Entrepreneurial #Bulgaria and hosted by @urutch…
• Tue, 19:48: “Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones”, by Samuel R. Delany https://t.co/ZSeRkakkRQ
• Tue, 20:40: RT @davidallengreen: Well. https://t.co/AEpWqpkrUO
• Tue, 20:48: Repeal the Second Amendment https://t.co/MUxNCjdzYk A retired Supreme Court judge writes.
• Wed, 00:05: Fascinating that the largest political parties in two of the three biggest EU27 states do not have a pan-EU alignme… https://t.co/d03D6HZH4Q

Second paragraph of third section:

“Hey, how long have you been back?”

I don't always get on with Delany's writing, and this is a good example of a story that I admire but don't especially like. The protagonist is a professional criminal in a near-future society who goes by many different aliases, all of which have the initials H.C.E. (this is a lift from Finnegan's Wake, apparently). Two of the other characters share a name, Hawk the Singer and Arty the Hawk, a mafia don. The story is pinned by two encounters with security agent Maud Hinkle (though who knows if that is really her name). The semi-precious stones of the title are code-words among the criminal underworld, changed every month.

There is a particularly gorgeous party scene near the beginning, and later on some juicy incidental detail and innuendo about what may be really going on; it's not too difficult to read a lot of aspects of the story as reflecting the underground gay scene in the pre-Stonewall period. Delany's writing style sparkles but also has hidden depths; however, I don't see a lot of substance here – no plot, really, and little character development. Clearly he caught the Zeitgeist of the sf scene, given the story's award-winning success against strong competition.

"Time Considered as a Helix of Semi-Precious Stones" won the 1970 Hugo for Best Short Story. Other finalists were: "Passengers", by Robert Silverberg; "Not Long Before the End", by Larry Niven; "Deeper Than the Darkness", by Gregory Benford; and "Winter's King", by Ursula K. Le Guin. It also won the 1969 Nebula for Best Novelette. Other finalists were "Nine Lives", by Ursula K. Le Guin; "The Big Flash", by Norman Spinrad; and "Deeper Than the Darkness" by Gregory Benford again. I must say that I find the two Le Guin stories more to my own taste, and "Passengers" (which won a Nebula) still sends chills down my back when I think of it.

Other awards that year: The Left Hand of Darkness won both Hugo and Nebula for Best Novel (published 1969, awarded 1970) – I reread it five years ago so I'm going to skip ahead to Theodore Sturgeon's "Slow Sculpture" for my next entry in this sequence. "Ship of Shadows", by Fritz Leiber, won the Best Novella Hugo; "A Boy and his Dog", by Harlan Ellison, won the equivalent Nebula. The latter has had more staying power, I think. As mentioned above, "Passengers", by Robert Silverberg, won the Nebula for Best Short Story. (There was no Hugo for Best Short Story.)

Reprinted this century (so far) in Nebula Awards Showcase 2015, ed. Greg Bear, and the Delany collection Aye, and Gomorrah.

• Mon, 12:56: RT @jdportes: The Sun corrects – thoroughly and at length – its story on tariffs & the EU Customs Union https://t.co/Fi7uP8DJbn
• Mon, 18:14: Monday reading https://t.co/jUQca2lNsU
• Mon, 18:32: My latest submission to the Boundary Commission @BCNI2018 https://t.co/naVkpOVBEV
• Mon, 20:19: RT @BrettArends: Why does politics make so many people act crazy?

Dear Commissioners,

Thank you again for your hard work on this difficult issue. I just want to make a few final points as the consultation period closes.

Preliminary remarks

1. As stated in my previous submission, I do not believe that there will be a parliamentary majority for the Final Proposals (and those of your fellow Commissioners in England, Scotland and Wales) when push comes to shove. It is probable that all of the opposition parties will oppose changes which generally benefit the Conservative Party, and sufficient government MPs will rebel because the proposed changes do not benefit the Conservatives enough. The position of the DUP, who have always been hostile to the abolition of Northern Ireland’s 18th seat, will then be irrelevant. However, the show must go on.

2. The Commission’s decisions to minimise disruption to existing constituencies and to invoke Rule 7 without hesitation have produced a much better map than the Provisional Proposals. Your remit has been made more difficult by the arbitrary decisions of the government before last in regard to how the process is conducted. The limitation to 5% variation has proven very difficult to implement in practice. On a process point, the previous system, which allowed local Assistant Commissioners to produce their own recommendations, was much superior.

3. It is regrettable that the political rhetoric around the Commission’s work has been inflated by a party which failed to respond substantially to the Provisional Proposals (a marked contrast to the mid-1990s, when they successfully mobilised to prevent a previous proposal to reduce Belfast to three seats). It is ridiculous that the process is being presented by some as a gerrymander in favour of the DUP, who are the only party that (according to my calculations) will actually lose Westminster representation as a result of these proposals.

Dungiven

4. Having said that, I do think that Dungiven is poorly served by the Revised Proposals. This is not the Commission’s fault – you were not responsible for the drawing of the ward boundaries of Dungiven, Altahullion and Feeny, which intersect so confusingly in the streets of the town; and you were also not responsible for the rigid 5% limits of the legislation.

5. However, the Commission’s duty is to take into account as of equal weight the current ward boundaries (which after all are of relatively recent vintage, and themselves reflect an attempt to fit numbers to maps) and the strength of local ties that might be broken by the new boundaries. (Rule 5 (1) (b) and Rule 5 (1) (d).)

6. A reasonable interpretation would be to take the wards as a starting point, but not hesitate to split them where necessary, as a previous Commission did for the Derriaghy ward in the mid-2000s and as your colleagues across the water have done in this review cycle.

7. Dungiven is a clear case where too rigid an adherence to ward boundaries violates local ties. The boundary between Dungiven ward and Feeny ward, which is also the boundary between the proposed constituencies of Mid Ulster and West Tyrone, runs along Main Street. Main Street is not actually central to the town, most of which lies to its north and east; but it is reasonable to feel that both sides of the road should be in the same parliamentary constituency.

8. To solve this problem, Feeny ward (and probably also Altahullion ward) should be divided between constituencies. The map below illustrates my proposal, the blue lines indicating my proposed new boundaries between Mid Ulster and respectively West Tyrone (to the southwest of the map) and Causeway (to the north).

9. The very small part of Feeny ward to the east of the Owenreagh River, and the Roe River north of its confluence with the Owenreagh River, should be included in the Mid Ulster constituency, and the rest of Feeny ward should remain in the proposed West Tyrone constituency. The whole of Dungiven town lies east of the Owenreagh and the Roe.

10. The Commission’s proposed West Tyrone has an electorate of 70,498, which is almost 800 more than the lower Rule 7 limit of 69,701. The number of voters in the part of Feeny ward east of the Roe and the Owenreagh may be close to 797, but I would be surprised if it is actually more. Mid Ulster, at 73,902 voters, can comfortably absorb a few hundred (or indeed a few thousand).

11. To the north, the boundary between Mid Ulster and Causeway could be made tidier by including the townland of Derryware in Mid Ulster rather than Causeway. The number of voters involved looks to be only a handful. Both Causeway and (as stated above) Mid Ulster are comfortably in the middle of the permitted range of variation of electorate, so this proposed change should not pose any further problem.

County Down

12. My other substantial remark relates to the two seats of South Down and Mid Down, as proposed by the Commission. This is a case where adhering to existing boundaries may actually be detrimental to local links. I am rather attracted by the proposal made by Pete Whitehead on the Vote UK Forum on 31 January:

13. Mr Whitehead’s proposal moves the four Banbridge wards, as well as Quilly and Dromore, from Mid Down to South Down, and in return moves Drumaness, Ballydugan, Crossgar and Killyleagh, Quoile, Cathedral, Knocknashinne, Lecale and Strangford wards from South Down to Mid Down (or East Down, as the seat might then be better described).

14. This proposal clearly respects local links much better than the Commission’s Revised Proposals, or indeed than the existing boundaries. Banbridge would be linked with Newry, 15 miles away along a main road, rather than Newtownards, 35 miles away across the countryside. Downpatrick would be united with the rest of the Strangford Lough shoreline. Both constituencies would be much more compact and less extended.

15. The Commission may however feel that this proposal, untested by public consultation, goes too far for this stage of proceedings. If so, I have an alternative proposal that goes the other way.

Loughbrickland and Ballynahinch

16. The Commission’s Mid Down regrettably excludes Loughbrickland, thus detaching it from Banbridge, which is only three miles away and is the commercial focus of most economic activity in the village. Ballynahinch however is included in Mid Down, even though its closest neighbours, Carryduff and Downpatrick, are to be in different constituencies (South Belfast and South Down respectively).

17. The two wards have comparable electorates (Loughbrickland has 3790, Ballynahinch 2884, a difference of 906). A straight swap would therefore give South Down an electorate of 76,018 and Mid Down an electorate of 78,673. Unfortunately that would put Mid Down a shade above the 78,507 upper limit.

18. This can be fixed in two possible ways. First, the new Loughbrickland ward could be divided along the current boundary between Upper Bann (briefly Newry and Armagh) and South Down, the western part going to Mid Down and the eastern part remaining in South Down. The territory west of this line, but in the new Loughbrickland ward, contains the village of Annaclone, and certainly has more than 174 voters, though probably not many more.

19. Second, turning to Ballynahinch, the western edge of the Ballynahinch ward excludes the residents of Edengrove Park and Lime Trees from the rest of the town. If the Commission is minded to look at the Ballynahinch situation, it could divide the Kilmore ward and include those hundred or so electors in South Down along with the rest of Ballynahinch; that may well make division of the Loughbrickland ward unnecessary.

20. It should be noted that the Commission’s Revised Proposals divide voters living on The Brae and The Drumlins from the rest of Ballynahinch, as they live in the ward of Ballyward. If the Commission is not minded to take my proposal to transfer Ballynahinch and Loughbrickland, it could at least look at dividing Ballyward along the Edenavaddy Road and Grove Road, in order to include those voters who live on the southwestern fringe of Ballynahinch in the same constituency as their fellow townspeople. Again, the numbers involved will be a couple of hundred at most.

21. The two maps following illustrate these proposals. My proposed Mid Down is now even more extended than the Commisson’s Revised Proposals, but if the seat is conceived as the joining of Newtownards/Comber/Ballygowan/Saintfield and Banbridge/Dromore/Loughbrickland, it makes more sense.

22. Like Mr Whitehead’s suggested map, my proposals keep Loughbrickland with Banbridge, and make the more sensible link between Ballynahinch and Downpatrick given that it loses Carryduff as a constituency neighbour.

(NB that the southern part of my proposed new boundary is the existing boundary between Loughbrickland and Mayobridge wards; it is only the eastern side that breaches current ward boundaries, though in fact it is the current constituency boundary.)

(The northern boundary of the Ballynahinch ward is shown in light blue. The potential ward division of Kilmore [if Ballynahinch is transferred to South Down] is indicated in a darker blue. The potential ward division of Ballyward [if Ballynahinch is retained in Mid Down] is indicated in bright red.)

Conclusion

23. Some may feel that I have been rather unorthodox in proposing the division of wards. But the fact is that the rigidity of the 5% limit, even with Rule 7 flexibility, combined with a narrow interpretation of the rules regarding ward boundaries, has led the Commission to propose the disruption of local ties which could be retained with a very small amount of intervention, and invoking Rule 5 (1) (d) instead of Rule 5 (1) (b) where appropriate.

24. I have concentrated here on Dungiven, because of the amount of public commentary it has engendered, and Loughbrickland, because I happen to know the area. There may well be other cases: for instance, it strikes me that in the case of North Belfast / East Antrim, the Three Mile Water is a much more natural boundary than the artificial demarcation of Carnmoney Hill, Abbey and Monkstown wards to the south and Ballyduff, Jordanstown and Rostulla wards to the north. However I have no idea how to calibrate the number of voters in that case.

25. I wish the Commissioners well in their future work, and I am grateful for the positive interaction we have had over the course of this review cycle. As I said at the beginning, even if (as I expect) this particular review never sees legislative effect, it is practice for next time.

Nicholas Whyte

Current
Free Radical, by Vince Cable
Jade City, by Fonda Lee

Last books finished
The Legends of River Song, by Jenny T. Colgan, Jacqueline Rayner, Steve Lyons, Guy Adams and Andrew Lane
Julian, by Gore Vidal
How Green Was My Valley, by Richard Llewellyn
Apostata 07: Niets meer dan een wolk, by Ken Broeders
The Road to Somewhere, by David Goodhart
After Europe, by Ivan Krastev

Next books
No Going Back To Moldova, by Anna Robertson
Spirit by Gwyneth Jones
Ammonite, by Nicola Griffith

• Sun, 13:12: RT @MrWoodo: This is a good read. Can understand why Hawking rejected the 1996 version, it definitely sounds “off”. https://t.co/dhsEcMiQ0Y
• Sun, 16:01: Breaking Bubbles and Other Stories https://t.co/90GT7FrX6u
• Sun, 16:05: How Snobbery Helped Take The Spice Out Of European Cooking https://t.co/eLsfnWLH4J Basically, we are getting it wrong.
• Sun, 18:07: RT @JolyonMaugham: Use the police to prevent the media uncovering illegality says Tory MEP. Inch by inch, Brexit moves us towards fascism.…
• Sun, 20:48: Ann Lovett: Death of a ‘strong, kick-ass girl’ https://t.co/hNdGI544zv This is still grim reading, 34 years on. Sha… https://t.co/xomfYxQcWd
• Sun, 23:12: RT @bbcdoctorwho: Patrick Troughton, the superb Second Doctor, was born 98 years ago today! #DoctorWho https://t.co/2xOpERZrO0
• Mon, 08:10: I am about to go on air with @bbcradioulster @BBCgmu https://t.co/Xm5KcnDYSi
• Mon, 08:12: RT @BBCgmu: Today is the last day for submissions to the @BCNI2018 on proposed changes for our constituencies. We look at the potential imp…
• Mon, 09:01: Our biggest fans this week: @Petrit, @catherinerusse2, @BrusselsGeek. Thank you! via https://t.co/sNJePZrlDm https://t.co/hMegfh5wCI
• Mon, 10:45: Putin 4.0: What Russia’s Election Suggests for Putin’s Next Term https://t.co/AxyjYE2qBE @glyn_c_chaney reflects.

• Mon, 11:19: RT @prweekuknews: Boris Johnson’s press secretary quits to join APCO’s Global Solutions team: https://t.co/p4EWvvHDhn #pr #comms https://t.…
• Mon, 11:59: RT @timjudah1: Interesting WB6 in graphics in FT. What difference will the western Balkans make to the EU? https://t.co/tqHgv7eNNI via @fin…

Still a great deal of catching up to do on Big Finish, but here’s a release from 2014, four half-hour stories about the Sixth Doctor and Peri by four different authors, two of whom were regular readers of this Livejournal back when Livejournal was still a thing.

Luckily their two are the best of the four. L.M. Myles’ title story, “Breaking Bubbles”, has the Tardis crew coming to the aid of a political prisoner – but it turns out that she may have been imprisoned for very good reasons, and there is a nice navigation of ethics and responsibilities on all sides.

I may be getting old, but I found Mark Ravenhill’s “Of Chaos Time The” rather difficult to follow, and I did listen to it twice.

Una McCormack’s “An Eye for Murder” takes us to the fictional St Ursula’s College in 1939 as war clouds darken the horizon. It packs a huge amount of plot into quite a short space and nicely reverses the Peri/Doctor dynamic as he is treated as her assistant by the women academics.

Finally, I am perhaps a bit too close to the subject matter of Nev Fountain’s “The Curious Incident of the Doctor in the Night-Time” to appreciate it; missing parents, fake garden gnomes and autism. Probably those with less of a stake will enjoy it more.

Three guest actors to note. Johnny Gibbon, who starred in the West End version of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time, reprises the same role adapted to the Whoniverse and does it rather well. Jemma Churchill is brilliant as the prisoner in “Breaking Bubbles” and the college principal in “An Eye for Murder”. And Andy Secombe, son of Harry (and therefore uncle of our former au pair) is reassuringly solid as the antagonist in “Breaking Bubbles” and the policeman in “An Eye for Murder”.

• Sat, 12:56: One Angry Man https://t.co/0WmaOaDBbF A review of John Bolton’s autobiography, in case you weren’t sufficiently worried.
• Sat, 15:26: How Green Was My Valley https://t.co/Kfso9EMVyy
• Sat, 16:05: 20 Years After the Shooting on the Playground https://t.co/jvNBN5DgaZ Tremendous piece.
• Sat, 19:54: RT @kevinhorourke: If Russia had not been on the agenda this would have been the big news. Good that EUCO confirmed what everyone outside t…
• Sat, 20:20: RT @Mikeggibbs: Paul McCartney: “One of my best friends was killed in gun violence. Right round here. So it’s important to me.” #MarchForO…
• Sat, 20:48: What’s in the LoveBoth leaflets https://t.co/KdOx1Sabbr For Irish friends and relatives: debunking of the pro-life arguments.
• Sun, 10:45: Exclusive: The Silicon Valley quest to preserve Stephen Hawking’s voice https://t.co/UlJ3NCaTuw Sad but fascinating.
• Sun, 12:56: RT @1NRSmith: One of the best maps I’ve seen: ‘Ephemeral states of the Russian civil war’ https://t.co/wWRRt2FVDn https://t.co/0bKArqhHCs