Books & Stuff (NS, No 31) - Reading in Aug 2022

 

Gene Kranz, Failure is Not an Option

Kranz's autobiographical account as his time as flight director at NASA Mission Control Center during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes.

A very good and readable narative.

Matt Pritchett, The Best of Matt 2020

Perhaps it's cheating to include this on the list, but I don't care.  I'm a big fan of Matt, and here he tackles 2020 - a year that needed and damn big injection of humour.

Deborah Harkness, A Discovery of Witches

I picked this up on a whim, quite prepared to hate it after the first chapter, but was swept along.  Witch falls in love with vampire while researching at the Bodleian (I know, I know...).

First book in the All Souls trilogy.

Richard III's Remains - Update

Back in August, I posted on the start of the archeological dig in Leicester of the supposed site of the burial of King Richard III.

There has been various press coverage since - mainly on the lines of 'We're getting there...', but now it is being reported that there is 'strong evidence' that his body has been found.

The remains found show signs of spinal abnormalities and a 'cleaved-in skull' that suggest it could be Richard III, the University of Leicester team said.

A university spokesperson said 'strong circumstantial evidence' including signs of a peri-mortem (near-death) trauma to the skull and abnormalities on the spine - severe scoliosis - were found after an initial examination of the skeleton.

DNA testing is to follow.

We are not saying today that we have found King Richard III. What we are saying the search for Richard III it has entered a new phase. The skeleton certainly has characteristics that warrant extensive, further and detailed examination.  (Richard Taylor, Director of Corporate Affairs, University of Leicester)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9537600/Strong-evidence-Richard-IIIs-body-has-been-found-with-a-curved-spine.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/history/9538546/Archaeologists-believe-they-have-found-skeleton-of-King-Richard-III.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-leicestershire-19561018

Matt

For those not familiar with Matt, he can be found at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/matt/.  There's a biog of him at the British Cartoon Archive.