Jane Wharam on......

The 13th Tablet. A Cracking Book For The Beach?

I'm not doubting that it's a cracking book, just wondering about reading it on a beach, for reasons whch will become clear as you get into it!

This is respected academic, Dr Alexandre Mitchell's first novel, which weaves his scholarly understanding of the ancient world into a fast-paced thriller, featuring the feisty Mina Osman, an American archeologist of Iraqi descent.  And boy, is she feisty!

The story starts in 2004 in Iraq, where the War on Terror is raging and looters are ransacking the country's museums. Mina is appalled at the loss of her parents’ heritage and heads to the University of Mosul to play a role in securing the precious antiquities. While reprimanding one of her students for conspiring with the looters, a cuneiform tablet dating back three thousand years is handed over for restitution. But the tablet holds within it a profound secret about the primordial flood described in the Gilgamesh epic.

What starts as a straightforward translation of an ancient text triggers a series of disruptive and life-threatening events, with shadowy and ruthless enemies pursuing our heroine at every turn. Soon Mina, and Jack, a handsome ex-US army Major, are on a dangerous path from Mosul to Jerusalem and from Cambridge to Phuket, in the midst of the tsunami cataclysm...

Making a remarkably smooth transition from academic to thriller writing, Alex has created a real page turner in The 13th Tablet which is the first of the Mina Osman trilogy.  I can only wonder where this intrepid and headstrong young woman will go next.  It won't be anywhere tame, that's for sure!

To buy the book, go to Haus Publishing's site.

The Power of Cheap Music

As 'my friend' Colin Blunstone  would say,"when I'm old and wise", I'll remember all these things.  At the moment, I don't.  But that's not what I'm writing about.  At lunch today, a friend who shall remain nameless, suggested that we all offer up our Desert Island Discs list of records.

Now whereas my peers all talked about Satie, Mozart and Verdi, my list was a little more eclectic.  I chose Robert Palmer, Malcolm McDonald, Bonnie Raitt and, of course Blunstone.  Just to appease the traditionalsts, there was also some Vaughan Williams, and, of course, some Tom Jones.  I doubt that Kirsty would have been impressed.  But does that matter?

We were talking about the reasoning behind the selections and the consensus was that each song should be evocative of a certain period in a  person's life.  For me, the songs I chose bring back an important time in my life, from my early teens to my life now and they all move me to feel something - which may be alien to some people, but feeling is what life is all about. Isn't it?

Feeling is what drives us, not thinking.  Yes, I think about a lot of things on a daily basis but feeling is what impels me to do things, from writing to cooking to cleaning.

Cleaning, I hear you ask?  Yes, cleaning.  I clean, therefore, I am.  Well, perhaps not but no-one ever 'thought' their house cleaner.

I rest my case. Buy lest you should think that I've moved back to thinking only, here's a selection of music that just makes me feel:  'Minute by Minute', Doobie Bros, 'You've Got A Friend', sung by James Taylor and 'Loving You' 'by Minnie Ripperton.  If they don't 'move you', perhaps there's no hope...  But then, we're all different.  What makes your heart sing?