
Dear friends,
Phil and I have embarked upon our winter retreat, on this occasion to the incredibly picturesque harbour town of Barmouth.
Yes, Barmouth. The scene of Guy N Smith’s terror double-bill of Night of the Crabs and its subsequent sidequel, Crabs Moon. Now I’m not saying we decided to commit a whole week of our annual leave allocations to visiting the site of a brace of 70s horror novels, but we may well have committed a whole week of our annual leave allocations to visiting the site of a brace of 70s horror novels.
It was a good choice though.
I’m not going to knock Smith’s literary credentials for a second, but he didn’t really sell Barmouth’s qualities. It’s a really beautiful bit of coast and the key landmarks do not disappoint, with Arthog Bridge being a particularly impressive piece of Victorian engineering. That was obviously wasted on that down-in-the-mouth train driver but not on us.

Amusingly, our digs are in Llanaber – the very site of Professor Cliff Davenport’s boarding house (and scene of his alarmingly immediate bond with Pat). We’re going all in for the authentic experience. Shell Beach awaits.
Amongst our holiday reading we have the final instalment in the Cliff Davenport triptych, CRABS ON THE RAMPAGE. Sadly it isn’t set in Barmouth, but, weirdly, it does feature some of our older holiday stomping grounds up in the highlands of Scotland that we are very familiar with.
Anyway, enough of my holiday snaps.
It’s suddenly February and 2023 is already feeling productive. We’re keeping up a decent pace with the show, I have two more in the can undergoing editing, and Phil and I will hopefully record our thoughts on The Phoenix in Obsidian AKA The Silver Warriors very soon. This month I’m scheduled to revisit the NEL story with Andrew Nette and Dave will be back to pick up the Hawkmoon saga with The Sword of the Dawn.
To add to that, if you missed it, I popped up on the Appendix N Book Club and that was a fine time all round.
In a addition to that, we passed a couple of Podbean milestones in January too…


…and I have to say Podbean, you could put a bit more effort in with your badges.
Still, it’s always good to note progress. Long may it continue. And thanks to all of you for supporting us and making it happen.
That’s all for now though, I have to go down Barmouth beach in search of crevices (I remain unconvinced).
So go steady out there and we’ll catch up again soon… On t’moonbeam roads.