Wow. Just... wow.
I have no clue what thought process prompted me to do it, other than that I was musing on books and writing in general today, but this morning I fired up Google and typed in Dick Francis's name. I'm not even sure what I thought I was looking for, since I've got a shelf full of his books, a scribbled note somewhere of the ones that I don't possess, and knew he'd not written anything new since his wife - who did a lot of his research for him, and clearly also acted as editor and sounding board - died in 2000.
But I most certainly didn't expect to find that he had a new book ("Under Orders") and that it had been published this week.
Thus spurred to quit my Saturday morning procrastination routine and get moving, I went and visited Mr Tesco for my weekly grocery shopping and picked up a copy while I was there. And then noticed that while I was off in Paris last weekend someone had sneaked a new Bernard Cornwell Sharpe novel out onto the shelves, so I snatched that up as well.
*happy sigh*
My head is currently in a whirl of ideas relating to skullduggery in the racing world, and once I finish my between-books internet break I'm about to dive back in and rewind to the Napoleonic wars. Suffice it to say, I think this is a reading weekend.
In other news though, I see that the stolen master tapes for the new BBC Robin Hood series have been reclaimed. Good to see. Of course, the show could still be rubbish - however, although I know nothing of the lead actor, it's got some decent names as supporting cast members - but it's been over 20 years since Robin of Sherwood* graced our screens, and it's probably about time the legend got another outing.
* And yes, I know there have been other versions since. I just prefer to think of them as a bad dream. Even Alan Rickman's wonderful Sheriff of Nottingham in Prince of Thieves is really just Nickolas Grace's RoS Sheriff given a few twists further towards insanity.
But I most certainly didn't expect to find that he had a new book ("Under Orders") and that it had been published this week.
Thus spurred to quit my Saturday morning procrastination routine and get moving, I went and visited Mr Tesco for my weekly grocery shopping and picked up a copy while I was there. And then noticed that while I was off in Paris last weekend someone had sneaked a new Bernard Cornwell Sharpe novel out onto the shelves, so I snatched that up as well.
*happy sigh*
My head is currently in a whirl of ideas relating to skullduggery in the racing world, and once I finish my between-books internet break I'm about to dive back in and rewind to the Napoleonic wars. Suffice it to say, I think this is a reading weekend.
In other news though, I see that the stolen master tapes for the new BBC Robin Hood series have been reclaimed. Good to see. Of course, the show could still be rubbish - however, although I know nothing of the lead actor, it's got some decent names as supporting cast members - but it's been over 20 years since Robin of Sherwood* graced our screens, and it's probably about time the legend got another outing.
* And yes, I know there have been other versions since. I just prefer to think of them as a bad dream. Even Alan Rickman's wonderful Sheriff of Nottingham in Prince of Thieves is really just Nickolas Grace's RoS Sheriff given a few twists further towards insanity.