Crockatt and Powell Booksellers - blog

Just when you think I can't possibly be any more stupid - I am more stupid.

Ok, so here's how it went.

Today I arrive at the Fulham Road shop soaking wet after having scooted over in the rain/snow. The crew are all very cheery and seem pleased to see me. Obviously alarm bells should have started to ring right away but they didn't. I drip through into the kids room and try to open the door into the staff room. Hmm. My code does not work. I sigh and try theirs. It does not work. I can hear what sounds a little bit like sniggering from the other room. Sure enough Stuart comes through and says words to the effect of "I know you haven't got psychic powers you Southern Jessie but I thought I'd let you find out the hard way."

I fiddle around for a while longer while people stand there saying things like "Yeah, we tried that. It didn't work."

So then I go out and get a crowbar come back and smash the door open.

Geller. You win. Bas$%rd.

(But you're just a bit afraid of me now eh? Remember Scott Pack eh?)

I've got so many things to do I thought I might as well waste a bit of time blogging about my ever-increasing psychic powers...

We have a combination lock on the door to the staff area at the Fulham Road shop. Ever since we opened I have been using one code to pass through it and, I discovered recently, everyone else has been using another.

Both codes worked (that's why we've only just realised there were two) until Thursday last week. All of a sudden people were unable to get through the door to the staff area. Stuart would go off for lunch. Then he would come back through to the front room complaining about the door. I would go through, punch in my code and open it. This went on for a while. One of my colleagues would try the door and come back complaining it was broken. Then I'd go through no problem.

Somehow I have managed to make the door only accept my combination. My combination that was wrong the whole time.

So don't mess. I could probably really sc£*w you up if I put my mind to it!

Brilliant!

"This tour de force, which not everyone will welcome, outclasses all other fictions and will continue to do so for some time to come."

Anita Brookner.

I'm only 240 pages in but I think she's right. Last week Dr Rick was telling me how he'd had an argument with a friend about novels of the familiar and oft spouted "but what's the point in reading novels? I want to read the truth!" variety.

We agreed this was a ridiculous argument that misses the point about good fiction (good fiction reminds the reader that Truth cannot be recorded in full - that there are gaps in our experience and understanding) and yet I was left with the lingering suspicion that it was rather a long time since I had read a book that would have met Franz Kafka's criteria. ("A book ought to be an icepick to break up the frozen sea within us")

And then The Kindly Ones arrived in the post and my frozen seas have been well and truly smashed to bits. I can't say I like the book. But I also think it's the kind of book you just can't ignore.

You gotta love the shuffle at three in the morning with a tumbler of whiskey...

You can listen to the latest sound piece from our friend Will here.

That's a picture of one of the "instruments" (part of the heating system for Myatt’s Field estates in South London)

Have the dangers of a weekend of football, alcohol and loads of family ever been clearer?

Late on Sunday evening my lovely wife and I found we had created the dog's dangly bits of a Brio train track...

Eyes. Brains. Weird.

(Thanks to Redstone Press and their beautiful Play Box for the pic)