Penny’s London launch of The Doll Makers

Yesterday morning I visited the beach again and found just an ear-ring and a 1944 halfpenny. In the afternoon we travelled up to Tower Hill, London to the HQ of ALCS which hosted the London launch of Penny’s second crime thriller ‘The Doll Makers’. ALCS is The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society, which looks after the copyright interests of writers and Penny is currently chair of ALCS. The 24 hour tube strike affected attendance but there was still a good audience for the event with family and friends attending from Hull and all over London. Penny gave a reading from the novel and outlined the history of the thriller which was many years in development. Jason Burley of  Camden Lock Books attended with copies of the The Doll Makers. Jason runs this well respected independent bookshop near Old Street Station, Islington.

signed copies of all Penny’s novels are available from Dansbarn — UK post-free
Another Hale Books author, Jan Jones, attended and blogged the event.

 

Battersea Power Station by the Thames just before we arrived at Victoria  Station

Yesterday's sunrise as I went down to the beach

This morning we awoke to a sprinkling of snow which disappeared in a few hours

The sun finally poked through and briefly gave a beautiful glow to the calm sea

Sanderlings on the beach

Sanderling

To view Slideshow, click this photo, then choose Fullscreen (top right) then Fast (top left)

The past two mornings have been icy cold, but as the tide was out I took my metal detector to the beach. This morning I found two rings, one a silver Man United signet ring, 925 fine, with the Birmingham mark of an anchor. The other is a cheap plated ring with a red ‘stone’ in the middle and one of four ‘diamonds’ left, presumably all glass. I then spotted a flock of Sanderlings feeding along the waterline as the tide came in so I returned with my camera.

Turnstones

Sanderling taking off

keep your seat belts fastened please

undercarriage up

on the run

Turnstone

Sanderling digging deep

finds food (looks like a mussel), takes it to the water & rinses it, returns,

puts it down, picks it up and swallows it

Stumpy

Stumpy running

Stumpy with his mates

Sunrise over curlews at Pagham

the lagoon at Pagham Harbour

To view Slideshow, click this photo, then choose Fullscreen (top right) then Fast (top left)

The clear sky gave another spectacular sunrise over the channel.

A stroll on the beach early this morning gave me Oyster Catchers, Turnstones and Gulls and Carrion Crows:

 Oyster Catcher

 view west

Oyster Catchers

Turnstone and below in flight

We visited Pagham Harbour this afternoon, Sue’s first visit. The light was beautiful and the highlight was a pair of Curlews:

Curlew

Eurasian Wigeon (male)

Winter has arrived!

view east to Bognor and Butlins

Turnstones landing and in flight below

Cormorant

Digging in the Maldives afterglow

 
sunrise Wednesday over the East Beach Cafe

I had a good trip back by BA on Saturday, landing at Gatwick 6:10pm, 11 hours after taking off. I arrived at the flat around 8:30pm. Roger had arrived for one night so it was good to catch up with him over a couple of bottles Chianti. We had lunch the following day at the George & Dragon at Houghton.

These are Bandos Island land shots from the last day:

 My Beach Villa

fish in middle of jetty

Bougainvillea

Indian Myna bird

dive boat dock

sailing centre

main jetty

harbour

Thanks to Lewis for the following shots which show various members of our group on land and underwater:

Tricia and Cody, Peter

Moi

Hassan, head of diving operation

Lewis

Peter

Chris from Germany, Peter and me

Adel, Tricia, Cody and Sydney

Chris, Peter, Cody & Tricia,

Me and Peter stuying manifest

Hassan and shoal at end of dive

On Sunday afternoon  I attended a club dig on pasture near Steyning and found a William III halfpenny in poor condition but with enough detail to identify. These coins were notable for the low grade copper alloy and most suffer severe corrosion. I also found an 1857 Victoria gaming token and a strange suspension hoop.

William III ((1694-1702)) halfpenny. 

above Obverse: Kings bust, laureate and draped, facing right. GVLIELMVS - (TERT)I(VS)
below Reverse: Britannia seated right with raised hand. BRITAN - NIA.

Victoria gaming token dated 1857 above and below.

 

The weather has turned icy cold and the forecasts say we are in for a freezing night. In compensation we had a lovely sunrise this morning: