Sam Redlark

Over the weekend I had cause to venture into the unnerving, multi-level attic of our home, in a search for the origin of a disconcerting line of mottled damp that had appeared along a sloping section of the ceiling, just outside the bathroom. My cursory inspection of the point where the roof of the extension joins with the old roof provided me with no insight into the root of the problem, beyond my observation that there are no visible pipes that might be causing the leak. While I was shuffling backwards towards the loft hatch, over a collage of loose wooden boards, I accidentally knelt down on a shoebox, squashing it at one end. I took it with me into the spare room to inspect the contents and to see whether it could be repaired. Inside I found several bundles of very old, miscellaneous photographs, in an assortment of proportions and small sizes, none larger in length or width than three inches. They had been wrapped-up in loosely folded sheets of brown paper that turned out to be di...

Dear British Library, Attached to this email is a file containing my eBook, 'The Missionary Dune' which was published for the Amazon Kindle on the 30th June, 2021. I hope that this will satisfy my legal obligation to deposit a copy of the book with your organisation. It is only right and proper that future generations be given the same opportunity to ignore its existence as those who are currently living. Prior to writing this email, I had been advised by a member of your Digital Processing Team that a zipped copy of my book could be downloaded from my KDP dashboard. This proved not to be the case. I have since discovered that, because the book was produced using Kindle Create, it cannot be downloaded and previewed offline. I duly contacted Amazon requesting guidance. They sent me the link to the file that you now have in your possession. You will find the relevant part of the email that Amazon sent me trowelled onto the bottom of this communication. It is my un...

We (that is Neale Venise and myself) had been trying to work out what had changed in the Ténéré – an area of sandy plains located in northern-central Sahara desert. It is within the shifting topography of this desolate region that immense storms, manifesting as curtain walls of roiling dust hundreds of feet high, lay down their foundations. Once they grow beyond a certain critical mass they untether themselves and advance approximately westwards at a walking pace, until they hit the coast, at which point they deviate north or south, entering the subtropical zones as windless monsoons that leave incongruous dunes in their wake. These storms are slow to germinate, usually building to a peak over several months. Their roots lie in the electrical charge that is generated by sand particles moving against each other. These currents form meandering v-shaped channels in the sand that can stretch for thousands of miles. Typically when a gathering storm decamps it will remain close to the ground...

image generated by Craiyon The Guardian closed the comments on this week's Notes & Queries , before I could add my well-researched, rigorously fact-checked voice to a debate, regarding what one should say to a friend who is planning on sending their child to a private school. Hence the appearance of my response here on this blog. For the record I failed my 11+ and attended an hilariously violent comprehensive school, from which I emerged with three A Levels and a lasting contempt for the education system. I sat two additional A levels at a fee paying school in London. Some of my friends attended fee paying schools almost from the get go. We all turned out alright. What’s the right response to a friend who says they are sending their child to private school? What’s the appropriate response to a friend who tells you they are sending their child to private school?  Anthony Huxley, Dunfermline It would depend very much on the private school. By way of example, if my friend wa...

  If everything goes according to plan and there are no hiccups, then my novella, The Missionary Dune, will be available as an eBook on the Amazon Kindle store, on Wednesday, 30 th June.  I regard it as a success in the sense that it is representative of the kind of story that I want to write. It has been constructed from ideas and concepts that are designed to appear as though they may have some grounding in reality, even though they don't and it's all made up. It is a work of almost pure fiction and imagination, containing only trace elements of research. It goes its own way and doesn't pander to any current literary trends. A few weeks ago, I designed a cover for the book. I am not even remotely competent as an artist, nor could I afford to engage one; in any case the point of this project is that I do everything myself. To accommodate my low level of artistic talent, the image had to be a photograph; one taken on my ancient digital camera, which was built by the Maya...

  I am preparing a novella for self-publication through Kindle Direct Publishing. It is called The Missionary Dune and, if all goes well, it will be available on June 30 th , 2021. Regardless of whether anybody wants to read the book, I have very much enjoyed the process of getting it ready, and have plans for it to be the first of many. There is something very satisfying about seeing a project through from beginning to end, and being involved in every step. The way has not been without its share of obstacles. Below are some of the challenges that I have faced so far. Two-step authentication This is really only a problem for people like myself, who don't own a mobile phone, or any kind of tablet device. Publishing on Amazon requires sharing very confidential information – things like tax identification numbers that could be used to commit identity theft. Consequently, logging in requires both a traditional password and a one-time password (OTP). The latter is either texted to ...

Late last year, while we were under lockdown, to my mild surprise I wrote a 39000-word novella. The fact that it was not my intention to produce anything near that length perhaps explains why I didn't get cold feet halfway through and abandon the project. There was no self-imposed weight of expectation pressing down on me; only the desire to build upon the foundations of an unfinished short story, penned over a decade ago. 'A couple of days work,' I thought. Having looked over the original draft, a few things were immediately apparent: The protagonist needed an overhaul. It was not enough for him to be an alienated individual. He needed to be a true outsider – an immigrant to the United Kingdom. Furthermore, he needed to originate from the same place as the antagonist - an inveterate nationalist named Yusuf Al-Makari who regards all non-Egyptians with disdain. The narrative also needed restructuring. This resulted in me dragging paragraphs between a pair of side-by-side Ope...