Letter from Europe

[Barbara Nadel]

Enforced bloody leisure at the moment as I have vertigo!! Apparently brought on my stress. Who knew? Anyway hope to be back to normal next week.

[Pam]

Enforced bloody leisure at the moment as I have vertigo!! Apparently brought on my stress. Who knew? Anyway hope to be back to normal next week.

I've seen vertigo listed as a possible menopause symptom. [[My apologies if you aren't "that age" yet. )

[Barbara Nadel]

I've seen vertigo listed as a possible menopause symptom. [[My apologies if you aren't "that age" yet. )

I am 'that age' and thanks for that Pam, but it's actually labyrinthitis in this case and is to do with little bits of stuff in the fluid in the canals of my ears. Whatever it's a horrible thing and I really don't like it. That said it is a bit better today, thanks.

[Barbara Nadel]

Going to be talking about 'Dead of Night' and Detroit at Blackburn Library in Lancashire tonight. Will take photos along and hopefully raise some awareness. Blackburn is an old, now defunct, cotton milling town which lost its industry back in the 1980s. There will be a lot of interest in Detroit and lots of parallels to draw too.

[Barbara Nadel]

Blackburn readers loved the talk and were very curious about Detroit. I took along photos and a lot of folk made parallels between the urban prairie and the empty lots where the mills used to be around here. They were very interested in urban farming and art projects as they are just beginning to move in that direction themselves. I think we should do a twinning - Blackburn and Detroit.

[Wheels]

Are there still "four thousand holes in Blackburn Lancashire"?

Detroit can certainly relate to that!

[Kathleen]

Blackburn readers loved the talk and were very curious about Detroit. I took along photos and a lot of folk made parallels between the urban prairie and the empty lots where the mills used to be around here. They were very interested in urban farming and art projects as they are just beginning to move in that direction themselves. I think we should do a twinning - Blackburn and Detroit.

Sister cities!!!

Glad to know that your talk went well and that the Blackburn readers want to know more about the D. Hopefully the folks there who can make things happen will look to DYes and other Detroit sites to learn more about what is happening here!

[Barbara Nadel]

Another success in Manchester last night. A LOT of interest in the D. Hopefully we can raise awareness and Kathleen I will certainly flag up DetroitYes wherever possible.

[Barbara Nadel]

Oh, blimey there are many more than four thousand holes in Blackburn these days, I can tell you! There's also joblessness and vast areas of urban prairie - although we call them waste land.

[Barbara Nadel]

Sister cities!!!

Glad to know that your talk went well and that the Blackburn readers want to know more about the D. Hopefully the folks there who can make things happen will look to DYes and other Detroit sites to learn more about what is happening here!

Will do. Also Olympic stamps on their way to you Kathleen. Now off to London.

[Wheels]

Oh, blimey there are many more than four thousand holes in Blackburn these days, I can tell you! There's also joblessness and vast areas of urban prairie - although we call them waste land.

They had to count them all!

[Kathleen]

Also Olympic stamps on their way to you Kathleen. Now off to London.

Thanks so much, Barbara!!

[Barbara Nadel]

Thanks so much, Barbara!!

You're welcome

[Barbara Nadel]

Drama and a half! We've had flooding here. A months rain fell in one day and all but the highest mountains and and hills in the Pennines [[Yorkshire, Lancashire, Cumbria) were flooded with water from burst canals and rivers as well as sewerage from the drains. Luckily we live up a hill that is almost vertical from the ground and so we were OK. But the water flowed down from the mountains like a river past our front door - it even had waves! It also lifted up the asphalt on the already pitted and pot-holed roads and my husband just had to rip up what had been lifted in order to divert the water away from the houses. Given the government cuts we're experiencing, it'll probably never been repaired so we'll all just have to drive a bit more slowly [[not natural to citizens of the UK - most of us drive like maniacs). But we were lucky, our friends Warren and Marcus who run a fabulous soap shop over the border in Yorkshire have had their business flooded and lost God alone knows how much money and stock. The loss adjuster is coming today to work out what they can be paid and they're afraid that it will be the usual insurance story where you get very little. They will also never get flood insurance again even though the last flood in that area was in 1987. This also means that the houses on the hills will increase in value while those in the valley will take yet another tumble.

[Barbara Nadel]

Oh, almost forgot, the paperback of 'Dead of Night' is out here in the UK on 5th July as if the first book in my new London series 'A Private Business'.

[Barbara Nadel]

Following DetroitYes on Twitter. Yay! No more rain, as yet, I am happy to report. Also the Olympic torch has been and gone.

[Barbara Nadel]

Off to London again tomorrow for my book launch for 'A Private Business' on the 9th and I'm on BBC Radio London on the 4th. I'm also writing a short story on the subway [[what we call the Tube) so more of all that later. Back home again on Friday 13th [[oh dear). Wish me luck. Will give Detroit a mention on the radio and hopefully get some more interest going.

[Barbara Nadel]

Well back from London now and I can report that the Olympics are in chaos. The useless private security company we paid £300 million to police the games have welched on the deal and now the police and the army have to do it. Probably a lot to do with the fact that the company G4S paid minimum wage, wanted to accommodate people in leaky tin huts and routinely lose prisoners when they move then about the country [[they have a contract to move people in and out of our prisons and they can't do that!). Why were they employed? Good question, probably because the MD knows someone in the government or is someone's brother or something. Just hope the games will be safe - although with the army in control they probably will be. But our poor soldiers and police! All leave cancelled even if they've only just got back from Afghanistan!

On a happier note 'Dead of Night' is currently number 75 in the UK Amazon top 100 police procedurals. And yes I did mention the city on the radio and there was a lot of interest.

[Kathleen]

On a happier note 'Dead of Night' is currently number 75 in the UK Amazon top 100 police procedurals. And yes I did mention the city on the radio and there was a lot of interest.

Glad to hear that you cracked the top 100 in your genre!!! Congratulations, Barbara!!!

Crossing my fingers that everything falls into place for the Olympics there. Seems like this type of bad karma happens ahead of every Olympics but manages to correct and get back on track before the start.

[Barbara Nadel]

Glad to hear that you cracked the top 100 in your genre!!! Congratulations, Barbara!!!

Crossing my fingers that everything falls into place for the Olympics there. Seems like this type of bad karma happens ahead of every Olympics but manages to correct and get back on track before the start.

Let's hope so. To be honest I think that the Olympics will go well and it will all be fine. What worries me is that so many police and soldiers from all over the country will be there anything may happen outside of that cordon. A lot of people think, myself included, that if a terrorist strike happens it won't be at any of the Olympic sites but at somewhere no-one had even considered, like York or Plymouth. With no police around it can be all to easy.

[Gannon]

Let's hope so. To be honest I think that the Olympics will go well and it will all be fine. What worries me is that so many police and soldiers from all over the country will be there anything may happen outside of that cordon. A lot of people think, myself included, that if a terrorist strike happens it won't be at any of the Olympic sites but at somewhere no-one had even considered, like York or Plymouth. With no police around it can be all to easy.

Yeah, but if they are International Terrorists, they usually strike in places the rest of the world easily recognizes, unless it is an American outpost.

We're with you in Spirit, Barbara. When the news of the torch going through Manchester hit, I couldn't help but wonder if you saw it run by...


Cheers!

[Barbara Nadel]

Yeah, but if they are International Terrorists, they usually strike in places the rest of the world easily recognizes, unless it is an American outpost.

We're with you in Spirit, Barbara. When the news of the torch going through Manchester hit, I couldn't help but wonder if you saw it run by...


Cheers!

I didn't, although I just very narrowly missed it a few weeks ago when it passed through Essex. And although I wish all the athletes well and hope that it all goes off without a hitch, I am Olympiced out now. It's been hyped for years here and I'm not sure that we can take much more Olympics to he honest. It's cost a vast sum of money that we don''t really have and much of the complex is going to be demolished after the games because the govt has failed to sell it on to anyone. I'll probably watch bits of it on the news but I've got a new book to finish by November and so my summer is pretty much going to be devoted to that. But I'll still cheer for the UK!

[Barbara Nadel]

Does anyone know what Mitt Romney is on? I'm thinking some sort of drug that makes you stick your foot in your mouth whilst simultaneously erasing all notion of social skills/tact. Apparently he came here to the UK to make contacts and friends but he's done neither. He brought up our Olympic security issues at a dinner hosted by Boris Johnson the Mayor of London which had Boris, who is a bit mad admittedly, spitting with rage. He did the same to Prime Minister David Cameron, one of the most conservative people in the universe. Cameron really gave him the cold shoulder. I mean we can criticise our own Olympics as can foreign people, no problem. But if you are a visiting dignitary you just DON'T. What is wrong with him? Apart from his woeful domestic policies, as far as I can tell, he seems to be bloody useless at foreign policy too. I hope you don't get him as your next president but then I imagine you're all hoping that too!

[gazhekwe]

He really should not open his mouth at all. He LOOKS good, just can't keep from saying the wrong thing every time. I have a horrid feeling that is not hurting him in a certain segment that always wants to keep the pot boiling as long as they don't think it is giving something to someone who does not deserve it.

[Barbara Nadel]

He really should not open his mouth at all. He LOOKS good, just can't keep from saying the wrong thing every time. I have a horrid feeling that is not hurting him in a certain segment that always wants to keep the pot boiling as long as they don't think it is giving something to someone who does not deserve it.

An interesting perspective. Yes the looking good thing does fool some of the people. It worked well for our Tony Blair - but look how well [[not) that ended. And yes these people do like to keep certain pots boiling because said pots do not directly affect them or their ultimate aims. Is he that tricky or is it the people around him? He's made no friends here at all. I tremble to think how he'll be in Israel.