There’s some very mild profanity.

The video was recorded ‘as live’ i.e. unedited, a straight reading with no breaks. I made mistakes, but I took a run up and did it again.

I hope you enjoy it.

Reading along or reading ahead? You can find Trespass: A Tale of Time Travel and Ancient Secrets at: books2read.com/trespass

You can find episode 1 at:

It would be great to have you along, so please subscribe to the podcast and/or this substack. I’ll really appreciate any subscriptions, likes, shares and comments.

Leave a comment

Thank you for watching, listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other book lovers, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

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Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

In this episode we see the coded message, and I realise I misread it, and there were hyphens in the text that shouldn’t be there. Here’s the text:

IO··NE·EE·B··SERNRCKGLBRNSYFOES.·YYE·OR··O·OFNS·M·RNAVOTTOTL·S··EOIN·ETAONHLAEW·MFLIBDHKO·EY·LA·

The dot that looks like a full stop is intentional.

In case you missed it, Chapter 1 is here:

If you’re enjoying these readings, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, commenting and so on.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for watching, listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other mystery fans, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

If you’d like to read along or read ahead you can find A Study in Stone: A British Mystery at: books2read.com/astudyinstone

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: michaelcampling.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

Leave a comment

Mrs C is from the town of Cheltenham Spa, the place usually abbreviated, but not by much, to Cheltenham, and that’s where we met, back in 1988 when we were young and I was instantly bowled over by her smile.

There are strong family connections for Mrs C, and for me too since one of our sons adopted the town as his own, so we visit fairly often. On this occasion, it was a beautiful spring day, and the streets, adorned with flower beds, were looking fine in the sunshine. A stroll in the park with an old friend was a great way to spend the afternoon, and it was he who pointed out to me a fact I’d never noticed despite living in Cheltenham for five years and being a frequent visitor: the statue of Gustav Holst shows that the composer of the Planet Suite was left-handed.

These days, Cheltenham is well known for its festivals of literature, jazz, science, and music, though not all at the same time. And yes, I used the Oxford or serial comma, because in this unusual case it would’ve caused confusion if I had omitted it. Although come to think of it, a science and music festival could be a lot of fun.

Some people get hot under the collar about this kind of punctuation, but in the UK we are generally taught that there is no need to separate the last two items in a list with a comma because the word ‘and’ handles the job admirably on its own. There is no confusion in the phrase ‘red, white and blue’.

In the US, I believe that the serial comma is often taught as if it were a necessity. I have no idea why this should be.

The English language is so widely used because it is almost infinitely adaptable and flexible. It is a Swiss Army knife of a language, and there are very few rules that can’t be broken or at least bent in the service of delivering an effective message or a decent story (and even an indecent story come to that).

Interestingly. American humorist James Thurber argued against having too many commas in the phrase ‘red, white, and blue.’ He said: “all those commas make the flag seem rained on. They give it a furled look. Leave them out, and Old Glory is flung to the breeze, as it should be.” But Thurber suggested there should no commas, leaving the phrase as ‘red white and blue’ and I think that looks odd.

Anyway, the point is that sentences should be clear and precise, using punctuation where it is needed to deliver meaning and to create an effect in the mind of the reader.

By the way, please don’t come back at me with some hackneyed nonsense about Oprah Winfrey and your parents, nor may you cite the one about some strippers and a president. Those exemplars are simply clumsy writing and they should never be recorded in any way. Fixing a bad sentence with a comma is like putting a sticking plaster on a gangrenous limb.

Anyway, let’s get to the photos.

Captions

From left to right, top to bottom:

Gustav Holst, apparently left-handed, was born in Cheltenham. His statue is in Imperial Gardens, a park shown in the first four photos.

The last three photos are townscapes showing some of the town’s Regency architecture, and you can see one of the war memorials in the sixth picture.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

As always, comments are nice to have, so long as they’re about the photos and not blooming commas:

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And if you’ve alighted here by chance, welcome! Please consider subscribing to get more slices of the writing life from Devon:

The daily walk for Mrs C and me continues to be a welcome break from sitting at my desk, not least because it makes us appreciate the wonderful landscape we live in, including the narrow lanes.

In a recent newsletter, one reader saw a photo of the lanes and wanted to know if cars really drive down our winding little lanes. Yes, they do - there isn’t another route. You’ll see what I mean in the photos, along with a few spring-themed pictures.

In spring, Devon comes alive, nature busying itself from the subterranean microorganisms to the buzzards floating among the clouds. Microorganisms, by the way, may not be poetic or given their due in art, literature and common discourse, but they are rather wonderful and very important. You might say they underpin our culture.

See what I did there?

I studied biology, back in the day, and I was fascinated by microbiology. I would’ve liked to take my studies further; I had the notion I could feel the world, ending poverty and rescuing the environment. I was good in the lab and in the field. I was extremely good at learning the names of things, from genera and obscure anatomical features, right down to the obscure organelles within cells.

Sadly, I hated biochemistry with a passion, and once you get to a certain level, biology comes down to complex molecules with long names. For me, those things weren’t interesting at all, so my university and I parted company.

Still, I learned one valuable lesson: when you find something hard, it’s no good hoping you can scrub around those bits. You either buckle down and work hard or you make a better choice that fits better with your abilities.

On with the photos…

Captions

From left to right, top to bottom:

Two views of the lane down to our village

Our magnolia as seen from my writing room

early bluebells beside the lane, blossoming in a patch that gets the sun.

I hope you enjoyed the photos.

As always, comments are nice to have:

Leave a comment

Please feel free to share this post:

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And if you’ve alighted here by chance, welcome! Please consider subscribing to get more slices of the writing life from Devon:

I hope you’ve had a good week and that you are looking forward to the weekend.

Here’s a quick photo from my Friday:

I seem to have been very busy with writing and editing as the feedback rolls in from the folks who kindly offered to beta read an early copy of upcoming Devonshire Crime Thriller, The Cutting.

Early reviews seem to be positive, so that’s good news.

However, with one thing and another, I only managed to record two readings this week. But I did share some photos on substack, so there are three things for your perusal today, and here are the links:

Readings:

All of these readings are available in your favourite podcast app or provider, e.g. Youtube podcasts, spotify, apple podcasts, pocketcast etc.

Photos:

That’s all for this week. I hope to be back to my full schedule of readings next week.

Thank you for your time, and I hope you have a great weekend.

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

Not a subscriber yet?

I like to see your comments; it makes this more of a conversation:

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I’m working on a new crime thriller, a British police procedural that features another outing for our redoubtable detective, Tim Spiller, along with the cast of characters from Exeter CID. If you’ve read Lawful Duty or its sequel, The Cutting, you will have met the cops before, albeit with a small change that I won’t go into for fear of creating spoilers.

This upcoming book will be set one year on from the dramatic events of The Cutting, so the story takes place in 1994.

I’ve been looking for likely locations, so here are a few of the possibilities, all taken in Exeter city centre:

I hope you enjoy this hand-picked selection from my personal photos. Perhaps you can imagine Detective Constable Spiller stalking these city streets after dark, armed with nothing but his wits.

Looking for locations like this certainly fires up my imagination.

To make sure you don’t miss out on future photos, please subscribe:

Comments are cool:

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There’s some very mild profanity.

The video was recorded ‘as live’ i.e. unedited, a straight reading with no breaks. I made mistakes, but I took a run up and did it again. The audio has been edited and enhanced, so that’s a good way to experience the story as intended.

I hope you enjoy it.

You can find Trespass: A Tale of Time Travel and Ancient Secrets at: books2read.com/trespass

You can find episode 1 at:

It would be great to have you along, so please subscribe to the podcast and/or this substack. I’ll really appreciate any subscriptions, likes, shares and comments.

Leave a comment

Thank you for watching, listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other book lovers, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

In case you missed it, Chapter 1 is here:

If you’re enjoying these readings, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, commenting and so on.

Thank you for your support.

Thank you for watching, listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other mystery fans, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

If you’d like to read along or read ahead you can find A Study in Stone: A British Mystery at: books2read.com/astudyinstone

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

Leave a comment

What a lot of stuff I’m making.

Well, I could send it all out in separate emails, but you don’t want that, so here are the links:

Readings:

All of these readings are available in your favourite podcast app or provider, e.g. Youtube podcasts, spotify, apple podcasts, pocketcast etc.

Other News:

I also posted a set of photos.

That’s all for this week, and it seems like a lot, but there might be a few things you’ll enjoy.

Thank you for sticking around. Have a great weekend. Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

Not a subscriber yet?

ICYMI Chapter 1 is here:

If you enjoy this serial, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, commenting and so on - it will help to keep this thing going.

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other SFF fans, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

If you’d like to read along or read ahead, here’s where you can find Dial G for Gravity

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or if you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

Here on substack I send out a weekly email with links to all the readings from that week, so that’s a good way to keep up with everything in one handy email - and oh look, there’s a form for exactly that:

If you’ve arrived here mid-serial, episode 1 can be found at:

If you’re enjoying Lawful Duty, you may want to know about the sequel, a darker thriller that takes DC Spiller into deeper waters as he chases down a serial killer. The book will be released in Spring 2026, so stay subscribed and you’ll be among the first to hear about it.

If you’d like to read along or read ahead, you can find Lawful Duty here.

Comments are welcome:

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening and subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other book lovers, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

The sun has been shining today, and the magnolia outside my writing room is coming nicely into bloom. Meanwhile, a chap known by everyone in the village as Badger (I’m not sure why) has been pulling down our fence - it’s OK, we asked him to do it.

A fencer by trade, we assumed he’d retired because he is by no means a young man, but when Mrs C asked him if he could recommend a good person to build us a fence, Badger said, “You’re looking at him.”

Badger, it seems, is determined to keep working for as many years as he can, and I say good luck to him. He’s been out there, taking advantage of the sunshine and ripping up the ivy and brambles which, I fear, were all that was holding our poor old fence more or less upright.

The neighbours have been peering in, of course, now that the fence has gone, and one lady clocked my newish pond and said, “You don’t want a pond. You’ll get grass snakes.”

I am happy with this, since in all my years, most of it lived in or near the countryside, I have only seen one grass snake, and that was for a fleeting second.

In the age of brick-paved driveways and plastic ‘grass’, British wildlife needs all the help it can get. Which reminds me, I must ask Badger to cut a hedgehog hole in the fence to make sure these little creatures can roam in and out, eating slugs as they go. I’ll make sure the pond is safe for them to drink from too. Now that the danger of F,R,O,S,T ought to have passed, and no, I’m not going to say it aloud, I should be able to finish the pond with artfully placed rocks and wood, then I’ll plant it and get the solar pump running. I’ll share some photos later.

That’s it for now. I hope you enjoy the photos - there will be more very soon.

Captions

From left to right, top to bottom:

Our little village nestling among the trees

A view over the Teign Valley

A nearby view over the fields

Two photos of the narrow lane, and clicking on those photos will show you the buttercups and other wild flowers by the hedgerows

Some daft bloke out for a walk.

As always, comments are nice to have:

Leave a comment

Please feel free to share this post:

Share

And if you’ve alighted here by chance, welcome! Please consider subscribing to get more slices of the writing life from Devon:

I’m reading my novel, Trespass: A Tale of Time Travel and Ancient Secrets

You can find Trespass: A Tale of Time Travel and Ancient Secrets at: books2read.com/trespass

You can find episode 1 at:

I mention that you can get the prequel to this book, Breaking Ground, free at:

michaelcampling.com/freebooks

Thank you for listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments are welcome:

Leave a comment

If this kept you entertained for a while, please share it so that other people like you will discover it:

Share

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

In case you missed it, Chapter 1 is here:

If you’re enjoying these readings, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, commenting and so on.

Thank you for your support.

This reading was recorded ‘as live’ i.e. unedited, a straight reading with no breaks.

The audio is available as a podcast.

Thank you for watching, listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other mystery fans, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

If you’d like to read along or read ahead you can find A Study in Stone: A British Mystery at: books2read.com/astudyinstone

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

Leave a comment

It’s been a busy week, but I managed to record all four of my regular readings, and I’ve started editing the audio to make it an easier listen. If I can find time, I’ll edit and reupload the audio for earlier episodes. And I’ve posted some photos too.

Without further ado, here are all the links:

Readings:

All of these readings are available in your favourite podcast app or provider, e.g. Youtube podcasts, spotify, apple podcasts, pocketcast etc.

Other News:

I also posted a set of photos.

That’s all for this week - I hope there are a few things in there that you’ll enjoy.

Thank you for your company this week. Have a great weekend. Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

Not a subscriber yet?

ICYMI Chapter 1 is here:

If you enjoy this serial, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, commenting and so on - it will help to keep this thing going.

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other SFF fans, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

If you’d like to read along or read ahead, here’s where you can find Dial G for Gravity

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or if you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

Here on substack I send out a weekly email with links to all the readings from that week, so that’s a good way to keep up with everything in one handy email - and oh look, there’s a form for exactly that:

I upped my game with the audio, using a better mic and editing out any errors, so I hope that makes it nicer to listen to. The audio is available as a podcast.

If you’d like to read along or read ahead, you can find Lawful Duty here.

Comments are welcome:

Leave a comment

Thank you for listening and subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other book lovers, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

It’s definitely feeling as if spring is in the air in Devon, and here’s a hand-picked collection from my personal photos.

The storms seem to have finally abated, and we greet each rain-free day as if it were some kind of miracle. Some parts of the UK, I hear, have experienced 40 days of rain, so we’re a short step away from building an ark. Living as we do halfway up the side of a valley we were in no danger of flooding, but the main road to our village was out of action for a while, and the run off from the fields has played havoc with the lanes - there’s almost more pothole than tarmac.

So one way or another, we are very glad to herald the spring, and a walk in any part of the Devon countryside or coast in spring is a fine thing indeed.

I hope you enjoy the photos - there will be more very soon.

Captions

From left to right, top to bottom:

Primulas are sprouting like mad here in Devon. These were in the Parke Estate, the headquarters of the Dartmoor National Park.

Two photos taken along the seafront at Teignmouth on the Devon coast, the first to show the view, the second to show that the the sturdy stainless steel rails have been bent by recent storms (view the full photo on a computer or in the app to see properly).

Then there’s the poor old pier which now has a bit missing from the end. The front part, housing a world of flashing and bleeping machines (i.e. an amusement arcade) is still open for business.

Whole sections of the seafront have been damaged by the storms, and I assume the slabs were ripped up. The popular area for kids to use their skateboards and scooters was flooded and closed.

Mrs C and me enjoying a stroll by the sea and the spring sunshine.

That’s it for this hand-picked collection of photos.

Is it spring where you are? I’d love to know.

Leave a comment

Please feel free to share this post:

Share

And if you’ve alighted here by chance, welcome! Please consider subscribing to get more slices of the writing life from Devon:

I’m reading my novel, Trespass: A Tale of Time Travel and Ancient Secrets

You can find Trespass: A Tale of Time Travel and Ancient Secrets at: books2read.com/trespass

You can find episode 1 at:

For this episode I abandoned the video and concentrated on improving the audio, editing out the mistakes and any unwanted noises. I may have missed something, but I hope it’s reasonable.

I may actually re-record the earlier episodes with a better audio setup and aim for the a really good standard.

Thank you for watching and listening, and I hope you enjoyed it.

Comments are welcome:

Leave a comment

If this kept you entertained for a while, please share it so that other people like you will discover it:

Share

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

.

In case you missed it, Chapter 1 is here:

If you’re enjoying these readings, please consider liking, sharing, subscribing, commenting and so on.

Thank you for your support.

This reading was recorded ‘as live’ i.e. unedited, a straight reading with no breaks.

The audio is available as a podcast.

Thank you for watching, listening, subscribing, and a huge thank you if you share this with other mystery fans, and here’s a handy button if you feel so inclined:

Share

If you’d like to read along or read ahead you can find A Study in Stone: A British Mystery at: books2read.com/astudyinstone

Take care and happy reading,

Mikey

PS You can keep me doing these readings by upgrading your membership (and claiming a lifetime discount at: authormichaelcampling.substack.com/discount

or f you prefer, you can send a mug of tea at: ko-fi.com/michaelcampling

Leave a comment