It's Friday - What Can Possibly Go Wrong?
A weekly newsletter from Jodi Taylor
This week we have:
Just one week to go until Jodiworld!
The Danger of Rabbits. An Historical-Fantasy Spoof (Of Sorts) - A Sands of Time Story
History Briefing: Traditional British Pubs and the Art of the Pub Crawl
Jodi Taylor Book Recommendation: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett💙📚
The Book of the Month is Bad Moon watch a new interview and extract from Jodi Taylor
There’s plenty to read this week and you can see everything new on the blog too. CLICK HERE for the blog.
Books are boxed, and bags are packed ready for Jodiworld, which starts next Friday - we can’t wait! It will be fabulous to see over 300 fans in Coventry but for those who can’t come, we are also planning some live (or liveish) videos of key events. These will be shared on Substack and via Jodi’s YouTube Channel.
As we will be away, there will be no Friday newsletter next week, but there will be an update on The Official Reading Companion to The Chronicles of St Mary’s Series, which is being launched at Jodiworld on Friday, May 23rd. This will include links to purchase the ebook and copies printed in both the USA and Canada (so no tariffs!).
The Danger of Rabbits. An Historical-Fantasy Spoof (Of Sorts) by Jennifer Newbold
It all happened because I was celebrating my divorce.
Okay, ‘celebrating’ is misleading. I was coming to terms with my divorce. Adapting to the idea of divorced-ness. Not that we didn’t both agree that it was the best solution for us, it was just that we had been married just out of school. I’d been Mrs Myles Morrison for twelve years.
Now I was merely Brigit Cuthbert again.
We’d admittedly drifted a bit from one another over the years, but I suppose somewhere we’d crossed the equator of no return. I just sort of missed the significance. I must have had my head down in some advertising copy that day. Asleep at the wheel, as they say.
One evening at dinner Myles started spouting some rubbishy nonsense about ‘tradwives’ (I originally thought he was talking about herring girls). Six months later he informed me that he was having a baby with some office intern named Chrysalis. Never mind that he’d never had a baby with me. (I’m sure that had nothing to do with me. He’d always told me he ‘wasn’t ready’. It turned out that I wasn’t ready for what he had in mind.)
All that is just a long expositional way of explaining why I was wandering around by myself in a Bronze Age monument site of standing stones in Cumbria. I was wearing my brand-new smart watch on my wrist and had visions of the new, fit, fabulous me, who would make Chrysalis look like a frumpy fishwife. Not that I intended to have anything to do with Myles anymore, but it’s the principle of the thing.
I was responding to a prompt on my new smart watch and wasn’t watching where I was going, and I tripped in a rabbit hole.
I must have hit my head on the closest monolith, because things went a bit dark, with kaleidoscopic sparks of colour blinging about the edges. And then, I found myself…
Fancy yourself a sci-fi storyteller? Here's your chance to shine.
David Sands, the much-loved character from The Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor, becomes a science fiction author. Now it’s your turn to step into his shoes.
Traditional British Pubs and the Art of the Pub Crawl
In A Perfect Storm, to celebrate the completion of repair work in Hawking following the explosion in And the Rest is History, 13 members of St. Mary’s, dressed as superheroes, leave together by minibus, become separated, and stagger back in small groups with varying degrees of success and confusion. Here we explore the traditions of British pubs and the art of the Pub Crawl.
British pubs are an enduring symbol of the nation’s culture, history, and community spirit. With their distinctive character, they serve as much more than places to enjoy a pint—they are social hubs where friendships are forged, stories are shared, and traditions are celebrated. Among these traditions, the pub crawl holds a special place, blending camaraderie with the enjoyment of diverse pub experiences.
The origins of the British pub can be traced back to Roman taverns and Anglo-Saxon alehouses. Over the centuries, pubs evolved into the heart of British towns and villages. Characterised by their cosy interiors, wooden beams, and roaring fireplaces, traditional pubs offer a welcoming atmosphere. Many also boast unique names and colourful signs, often inspired by local history, folklore, or heraldry, such as “The Red Lion,” “The Crown,” or “The White Hart.”
Jodi Taylor Book Recommendation: Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett💙📚
Guards! Guards! is the first book in the City Watch series, but you can read the Discworld novels in any order.
Have you enjoyed this book too?
The Book of the Month for May is Bad Moon
Definitely! Having started my 11 year old reading the first Chronicles of St Mary’s last week he has now started the second! Hoorah, another convert. Have also been prompting Terry Prachetts discworld series to him as well.
I’m English but lived in California for 57 years. I’m back in the U.K. now and get to go to English pubs. There is nothing like them in the U.S.! though of course they have their own thing like bar-and-grills. It makes me so sad that many of them have had to shut down, and that many of the remaining pubs are owned by breweries owned by foreign companies.