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This tale about predicting the future sounds like sci-fi, but it’s a true story, and surprisingly common, says author Sam Knight
Book of the Month: The Premonitions Bureau Listening back to my recording of this interview is a distinctly spooky experience. We are speaking two days before the Queen’s death, and Sam Knight – who has written a book about people who can see the future – asks me: “What if I had a vivid, specific premonition that something dreadful was about to happen at Balmoral?” Normally, I’d wave this off as mere coincidence (it’s the day of Liz Truss’s audience with Her Majesty, so that’s probably why it’s in his mind), but Knight’s book poses enough troubling questions...
A novel idea – 7 unexpected benefits to joining a book club
Is your new novel not exactly a page-turner? Are your fingers spending more time scrolling on screens than flicking through pages? Well, clearly a book club is for you. No, not the Book Club film about 50 Shades of Grey – but an actual book club, complete with specially selected books, the chance to discuss with other members and even an overall saving on the price. Everyone knows that book clubs help motivate you to do the reading and help you make new friends – but a good book club can be a gateway to so much more, and impact...
The Coronation of a young Queen
Coronation Day 1953 was a massive event in British public life and for the BBC – as ever, Radio Times was your essential guide… One of the biggest days in British history was a long time coming. The 25-year-old Princess Elizabeth had acceded to the throne in February 1952, following the death of her father, King George VI. She was Queen for more than a year before the detailed plans for her Coronation fell into place on Tuesday 2 June 1953: the ceremony itself in Westminster Abbey, the coach procession through central London, the public celebrations and street parties,...
What’s the secret to being content with your life and how does it involve ice cream? Over to the nation’s new agony uncle, Jack Dee
Employment news now, and the comedian Jack Dee has announced he is to take up the role of “the nation’s psychotherapist and agony uncle”. The position is, he adds, “self-appointed”. Which explains a lot. It’s certainly an interesting change of direction for the distinctively acerbic comic who is often billed as “Britain’s little ray of sleet”. “My dear friend Jeremy Hardy [the comedian, who died in 2019] coined that phrase, so I use it as a nod of respect to him,” says Dee. “And also because it’s true.” But the new gig makes (marginally) more sense when Dee explains the...
Richard Osman cracked the crime genre with his first novel, selling over a million copies – but not all the critics were happy…
I’ve caught Richard Osman in a lie (“Awkward,” he admits) and, just for a moment, I feel like a member of his Thursday Murder Club. The Club – in case you’re one of the few remaining people in Britain not to have read the Pointless presenter’s first crime novel, which has sold more than a million copies – is a quartet of 70-somethings at a Kent retirement home who solve cold cases for fun… until fresh murders start dropping on their doorstep. Osman’s untruth concerns the secret identity of the Club’s real-life inspiration. He’s previously claimed to have got...