Nigel Gordon

Back in 1975 Yorkshire TV showed a documentary on ITV about boy prostitution in the West End of London, it was called 'Johnny Go Home'. Most of it was made in 1974, though some of it was from 1973. That was the year I left London and working as a call boy. Some of the boys I knew from that time were in the film. There was at one time a video of it available in the UK but it was taken off the market after a threat of legal action by one of the men who were referred to in the film. My understanding is that it was also distributed outside of the UK. If anyone knows if it is still possible to get a copy of the film and where it can be got from I would appreciate it if they could let me know.

I'm disappointed - had been hoping for a new Taz and Kodak the next time Rick put up a story, I'm missing the monkey! However my disappointment is more than made up for by the return of Clay and Ivan, or at least at this stage of Clay. I hope Ivan turns up somewhere along the line. Clay's return is made more interesting by the presence of Dylan, a nine year old who I have no doubt is going to be getting everywhere. The start of this story has got me captured. I cannot wait to see where Rick is going to take us. All I can be sure is that it will be somewhere interesting. You can find it here: http://awesomedude.com/rickbeck/the-gulf-of-love/index.htm It is well worth getting into. It's a Rick Beck story and they are always worth reading!!!

Some of you may know Addym's writing from the short story published on AD. He is a fine writer. This is well structured and well told story. A Science Fantasy with a gay theme. This is the story of a fifteen year old, soon to be sixteen who finds out that he is: a) Not who he thinks he is, and b) Possessed of abilities that he should not have. Some themes in the story are reminiscent of other writers. There are hints of MacCaffery's 'Brian Ship' series and even touches of Harry Potter, where Addym takes themes that arise in those works explore tackles them from his own perspective. I have really enjoyed reading this and can't wait for the second book in the series. You can get it from Amazon at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Mind-Over-Matters-Haywoods-Journey-ebook/dp/B007USWVIO/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465020504&sr=8-1&keywords=Addym+Kehris

I mad a major mistake this evening, I started reading this just gone ten on Thursday night. It is now early Friday morning. I should have known better, the same thing happened three years ago when I first read this story. It is a fantastically well written piece that takes hold of you and draws you in. At one point in the telling the author writes 'I am an author, after all, and spinning tales is what I do for a living.' This is a well spun tale and one that really deserves it place in Dude's pick. If you have not read it before I can only say you should read it now. if you have read it before you will need no encouragement to re-read it.

​This is a new feature I like, and I am pleased to see Bi_Janus gets choose first. A well deserved pick.

This is a story that I have enjoyed in the past and am pleased to see it in Dude's Picks. Without going into any depth of description Freethinker manages to give you a sense of place for a small corn belt that is somewhere beyond the middle of nowhere. He conjures up the feeling of the oppressive heat of summer. Then he builds a tale that is full of ... Well you need to read it to find out. You can find it here: http://www.awesomedude.com/freethinker/Foxwood_Chronicles/index.htm

I am not sure if it was Marion Zimmer-Bradley or Anne MacCaffrey who said it, but I remember a response to a question given at Fantasy convention: I always know exactly where my story is going to go - the problem is whenever I start to write I always find something more interesting. Maybe one day I will get down to writing the story I started off with.

Having considered the possibilities I have come to suspect that any possible translocation of Australia may be a pre-emptive move on its part to place itself in a position to bid for the vacant place in the EU if the idiots over here vote to pull out.

I suspect that might account for the recent futures price of cement increasing so much. With both Mexico and Canada buying options in case they need the supplies the price is bound to go up.

It is not the number of earthquakes you have that is important, it is the size of them. Remember both the Richter scale and the Moment Magnitude Scale are logarithmic to the base 10 and a size 4 earthquake is a 100 times more powerful than a size 2 earthquake. It is the size that matters!

The North Atlantic is where Australia actually belongs - why else do you think they are in the Eurovision Song Contest?

Impressive but he forgot to mention Female on Male violence.

I keep finding myself re-reading Shute. Just got 'A Town like Alice' on my Kindle and looking forward to reading it again. Then I think I will go for 'Trustee from the Toolroom', his last novel.

Also the writers are not trying to write the great literary novel, they are writing something that can be read.

Well, this story has come to an end. I find it strange that I have been the only person to comment on it. I don't think this is one of Nicholas's best stories but it is far from being his worst. It is a good story well told and one i will probably go back and re-read, as I have re-read a lot of Nicholas Hall's work in the past. I enjoyed it, that is really all one can say.

He clearly knows a quality car!

The moment I started to read this story I started to dread the end. Without any specifics there seems to be an inevitability about it from the start but you are dragged along to it by captivating and compelling writing. The sense of a dystopian society that surrounds the events described are provided not by any description from the writer, just by the readers imagination that is triggered by a few hints and carefully constructed phrases. The frightening thing is that the possibility that Bruin envisages is feasible. Maybe not in the exact way that it is identified here but within the general concept of a scientific means of identifying a homosexual and what the consequences of that would be in an intolerant society. A story well worth reading and it can be found at: Escape by Bruin Fisher

I have read both and still have copies - though have not looked at them for ages. Have just finished a peer review of a paper on sexual behaviour in religious minorities. Had to recommend rejection as their were a number of statistical errors in the piece and some of the methodology was questionable. What was interesting though was looking at the high level of homosexual activity that was reported amongst those religious minorities that had a condemning attitude to it. ​The latest figures I saw for the general European population indicated that: 30% of males over the age of 16 have had at least one homosexual encounter in the last 12 months. ​10% of males over the age of 16 have the majority of their sexual activity with persons of the same sex. 6% of males over the age of 16 are exclusively engaged in same sex activity. ​40% of males in the age range 16 to 25 had engaged in sexual activity with a person of the opposite sex in the company of a person of the same sex. 25% of these identified that they had problems with sexual activity with the opposite sex when a person of the same sex was not present. ​ The study that these figures are derived from is still ongoing and has another five years to run. I believe they hope to publish an intermediate report at the end of next year - which will be the half-way point of an eight year project. ​

​I think Nick that was a Mark II - The E-Type Series one did not go on sale till 1961. My friend Dr Hammet had a Jaguar Mk II in the early 60s and regularly used to do over 100 mph in it, which in those days was quite a high speed.

Good Thinking

Just hope there is enough space for you. So many of my American friends are saying they are moving to Canada if Trump gets elected I fear the place might be a bit overcrowded.

None. Just over £3m has been paid out by bookies on LFC's win. Think how much they took on Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs, Manchester City, etc., to win. The only people who placed bets on LFC were local fans and there aren't that many of them.

I read the first of these books, 'In the Middle of Somewhere', some time ago. It was a good read and one I enjoyed. However, it was not something I would have gone out and recommended. There was just something that seemed unfinished about the book, too many loose ends and too many unanswered questions. Then a couple of weeks ago a friend recommended 'Out of Nowhere'. The second book of the series. When I read it, it all made sense. ​Roan Parrish successfully examines the impact of a dysfunctional family not by examining the family but by exploring the relationships that the children have and how it has shaped them. The first book is about the gay younger son who feels excluded from the family and how he finds a relationship where he did not expect to. The second, well I can't say much about that as it would spoil the first book. What I can say if you have read the first the second is well worth reading. The books are available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Roan-Parrish/e/B010RPVK7E/ref=sr_tc_2_0?qid=1461931791&sr=8-2-ent if you subscribe to Bookpub the first book in the series comes up from time to time on special offer.

It has just come up on BBC News that Julhas Mannan the Senior Editor of Bangladesh's first LGBT magazine has been hacked to death. Another man was killed in the same attack and one other seriously injured. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-36128729

A really enjoyable story which was well written and had a point.