‘The Last Devil to Die’ by Richard Osman

The last of the Thursday Murder Club series apparently.

Nice easy read – these books are great. The characters are fab, good easy plot, you don’t have to think too hard.

Nice way to finish a year of reading.

It was a busy year on the gig front – we had challenged ourselves to a gig a month. It must go down as a success. We attended 15 gigs across the year. The only failure was in October: we had Newton Faulkner at The Waterfront booked in, but it also coincided with a mahoosive storm which meant roads were flooded and attendance impossible.

Police Dog Hogan

January. Norwich Arts Centre. January is not the best month for gigs. Having decided on attending at least one gig a month, this was one of those ‘sounded like it might be alright’ bookings. Big band, bit folky, good stagecraft.

Frank Turner

February. Ipswich Corn Exchange. The year was always going to include Frank Turner, this was a new venue for me. Good support bands: The Wilswood Buoys and Lottery Winners. Standard Frank, good support, great night.

Beans on Toast

February. Norwich Arts Centre. Beans is always on tour so it is no surprise to hear this is the first of two this year. Solid gig, sing-a-long, great entertainment.

The Lathums

March. The Waterfront, Norwich – downstairs. Great band, rowdy gig, bit short.

Badly Drawn Boy

March. Epic Studios, Norwich. Another new venue for me. Damon celebrating 25 years in music. Sit down gig, loved it, one of the best of the year.

Lottery Winners

April. Epic Studios, Norwich. Having seen Lottery Winners twice as support, this was the first headline gig. Really enjoyed it, very entertaining, in the top three gigs of the year.

Girl Scout

May. The Waterfront, Norwich – upstairs. This was one of those ‘well we need a gig for May – let’s book it’ gigs. Swedish indie band, good gig, great sound.

The High Points

June. The Waterfront, Norwich – downstairs. Local funk band. Often seen busking outside Primark. Entertaining evening.

Jack and the Giants

July. Norwich Arts Centre. Another one of those ‘sounds like it might be a good night’ booking. It was a good night. Good band.

Folk Night

August. Fisher Theatre, Bungay. August is always a notoriously difficult month for going to gigs – most bands are on the festival scene. So we were left with a folk night. Not a lot to say really, except, I loved the flute man.

Bridget Mae Power

September. Norwich Arts Centre. Sit down gig. Nice evening.

Gotts Street Park

November. Norwich Arts Centre. I love the band, but wasn’t quite sure what to expect because they do a lot of collaborations. As it turned out, didn’t have anything to worry about: great evening’s entertainment.

Beans on Toast

November. The John Peel Centre, Stowmarket. A first for me at this venue. Second beans gig of the year, and he never disappoints. A spoken word support, and Tensheds on the piano. Fab evening.

Skinny Lister

November. Norwich Arts Centre. I love seeing Skinny Lister. In the top three gigs of the year.

Billy Bragg

December. Rock City, Nottingham. Billy celebrating 40 years in music. I’ve seen Bragg a lot, this show was slightly disappointing, can’t quite put my finger on why.

What a year it has been! Seen some brilliant bands, visited some fabulous venues and really enjoyed the whole idea of trying to see at least one gig a month. As for the top three gigs of the year? Considering I am a big Frank Turner and Billy Bragg fan, you’ll notice neither make it into the top three:

1. Lottery Winners

2. Badly Drawn Boy

3. Skinny Lister

Next year we will still be going to plenty of gigs, just without the pressure of seeing one every single month. Here’s to 2024!!

‘All My Secrets’ by Sophie McKenzie

Teenage fiction: a recommendation from one of my students. She even brought the book in for me to borrow, so I had to read it.

I’ve read Sophie McKenzie books on the past, ‘Girl, Missing’ for example, great piece of teenage fiction: pretty basic plot line, tense and exciting, great for teenagers. This book was no different.

This book is aimed at female teenagers and has everything they would love:

• Evie is set to inherit a lot of money
• She has parent issues
• She gets sent to an island for troubled teens
• She falls in love with two very different boys, and can’t choose between them
• Spoiler alert: she ‘wins’ in the end

It also has everything that would drive an adult crazy:

• Evie makes ridiculous decisions
• Evie’s jumps to ridiculous conclusions
• A tree that somehow blocks an entire route to somewhere meaning they have to take an impossible route
• An evil housekeeper
• Two boys, both handsome yet flawed in completely opposite ways
• Only means of escape is through water, and she can’t swim
• Lots of stormy nights
• Evie always does exactly what you expect she would, including: chasing someone, running away, believing everyone and crying a lot

So there you have it, standard teenage fiction.