Have always been a keen reader and still think back to my favourite books but some years ago I stopped and can't get it back I've tried potboilers and newly listed for the Booker prize ones and old favourites - I've got a copy of Solomon Gursky was Here by Mordecai Richler which you probably know because it is about Canada and I read it in my 30's and could not stop laughing it was so interesting and humorous - I had wanted to reread it for ages and here it is I've read 2 chapters and that's it.  There's a good joke to be had in this because here I am writing a novel myself but there you are - it's a distant memory when I'd be looking forward to when I could get back to a book - the last book I really enjoyed was The Book Thief by Marcus Zusak.

I hardly ever watch a movie either - dunno why, I think maybe I've been given so many cock and bull stories in real life I'm a bit ptsd over the suspension of disbelief bit that is needed to immerse in the story telling, be it fiction or non-fiction.

anyway I enjoyed reading those excerpts you typed in, I do enjoy a bit of Conan-Doyle, this is the style of prose I grew up on.  

As far as I can tell everything we feared would happen in the 50's has happened.  Nuclear reactors, poisons and methods of warfare have proliferated and so has the population - 2 billion to 7 billion.  

And I hate to say this but don't you think we are as a species in a degenerative state?   no clean broom sweep is going to fix that, Hitler gave it a good go, and all we saw happening in that was the best and the brightest die first.

Okay so I have just signed myself up for next month's writing camp.     I feel this is an act of bravery and foolhardiness and yet necessary for my own happiness and peace of mind.