Showing 1 - 9 of 9
Supply and demand
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 22/09/2017
» During the era of the Raj, India was the leading poppy grower. It was sold worldwide as a treatment for hysteria in women and hyperactivity in children. Only China refused to have anything to do with it because it was addictive, but two opium wars taught them how to take it.
The Black Hand
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 06/06/2016
» The US has the dubious distinction of having the largest number of people behind bars than any other country in the world. It also has the greatest number of lawmen. It has long attracted organised and individual crime, especially in its big cities. Perpetrators figure that crowded metropolises are ripe for the picking.
Right vs Justice
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 09/02/2015
» It would be only a slight exaggeration to say that Detective Chief Inspector Alan Banks of the North Yorkshire Police is as well known in the UK in this day and age as London private detective Sherlock Holmes was a century ago. Less so in the US with its plethora of shamuses. But crime thriller fans the world over rate him as one of the best.
Sleuths & demons
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 25/08/2014
» A cinema buff since puberty, I would often visit neighbourhood theatres in the Big Apple that showed double features. One had A-level stars, the other B-level. Often as not, the B-level offerings were more entertaining, British as well as Hollywood. US Republic and UK Hammer studios were on about the same level.
Food for thought
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 04/11/2013
» So certain was President Obama of the success of the mission that he invited guests to watch a team of US Navy SEALs on live TV fly into Pakistan, where the arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden was hiding, to take him down. There was shooting, bin Laden's death announced, the corpse placed into a body bag and tossed into the helicopter in which the team left the scene.
A licence to kill
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 21/10/2013
» A white lie a good many people tell is that when they say that they have read a literary classic or a best-selling novel, they have only seen its celluloid adaptation. They fail to realise that in virtually every case the screenwriters have made changes _ adding and deleting characters, changing venues, often the ending of the story.
Europe in chaos
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 29/07/2013
» Born and bred in the Big Apple, my first memory of war was of a photo of a near naked native standing with a spear on the front page of a newspaper. Upon enquiry I was told that he was a soldier of Ethiopia, of which I had never heard. It was at war with Italy, of which I had.
Worth your while
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 07/01/2013
» Like every youngster _ well, some at least _ I wanted to know everything there was to know. Not that I liked school that much. With all the inventions up to that time surely, I thought, there ought to be one that could be placed on my head by a scientist and, zap, my brain would be filled.
A Washington thriller
Life, Bernard Trink, Published on 20/02/2012
» No country is free of corruption, least of all the US as stateside author David Baldacci has been reiterating in his two dozen political thrillers to date. He doesn't name names, but he names titles all the way to the top.