Author Archives: Henry Gee

About Henry Gee

Henry Gee is an author, editor and recovering palaeontologist, who lives in Cromer, Norfolk, England, with his family and numerous pets, inasmuch as which the contents of this blog and any comments therein do not reflect the opinions of anyone but myself, as they don't know where they've been.

Clichecollisional

Posted on 14 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Headline for this story, from the Daily Telegraph‘s landing page: BORIS JOHNSON PLEDGES TO RAMP UP VACCINATION ROLL OUT The italics are mine. Perhaps I am just unusually literal-minded, or oversensitive to cliche, but this seems to mix metaphors such … Continue reading →

Posted in cliche, duckspeak, ramp up, roll out, semantic bleaching, vaccination, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Clichecollisional

Bhooq

Posted on 12 January 2021 by Henry Gee

As I am sure you both know, I have been hard at work on a book. Refractory ‘t’s have yet to be crossed and the final recalcitrant ‘i’s dotted, but time waits for no-one, and as the remorseless schedules of … Continue reading →

Posted in a very short history of life on earth, Christmas 2021, winged horses (metaphorical), Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Bhooq

Studious

Posted on 9 January 2021 by Henry Gee

As you’ll both know by now, playing live music means a lot to me. I’ve been playing live since student days — before — and at times music has been the only thing that’s kept me going. Many of my … Continue reading →

Posted in blues, D C Wilson Band, flabbey road, friendship, home recording, Music, pandemic, voodoo sheiks | Comments Off on Studious

Microeuoi

Posted on 7 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Somewhere in Neal Stephenson‘s sprawling Baroque Cycle, two men are urinating against a wall — and remark on the simple joy of such an action. Both had undergone lithotomy, an operation to remove painful calculi, in their case, bladder stones. … Continue reading →

Posted in Baroque Cycle, bladder stones, COVID-19, diabetes, golden arches, i have spoken, it is the way, jelly babies, life always feels better after a big poo, lithotomy, Neal Stephenson, pandemic, poo-phoria, Samuel Pepys, SARS-CoV2, Science Is Vital, the mandalorian, urination, vagus nerve | Comments Off on Microeuoi

Mmxxery

Posted on 3 January 2021 by Henry Gee

Being the contrarian that I am, I shall defy convention by saying that 2020 has been a year that’ll stand in the anals annals tale of years as historical and transformative. True, millions have suffered, in all sorts of ways, … Continue reading →

Posted in a very short history of life on earth, Apparitions, christmas university challenge, Domesticrox, education, Leeds University, Lockdown, pandemic, Politicrox, SARS-CoV2, Science Is Vital, Science-fiction, vaccine | Comments Off on Mmxxery

Squintlepiece

Posted on 31 December 2020 by Henry Gee

The Turkey City Lexicon is a document from the SF Writers of America that offers advice to would-be authors of science fiction, pointing out the pitfalls that snare the unwary novice. A Pitfall for the Unwary Novice: from https://www.starwars.com/databank/sarlacc A … Continue reading →

Posted in abyss, Apparitions, apple podcasts, Barnaby Kay, brian aldiss, children of the stones, chimera, christopher lee, david wingrove, giant betentacled menace, howard phillips lovecraft, indigo, jana carpenter, joanne froggatt, jonathan forbes, kraken, molluscs of mass destruction, nicola walker, nucula, nyarlathotep, origin, podcast, podcasts, romola garai, royston vasey, sarlacc, science fiction writers of america, Science-fiction, squid on the mantelpice, stone circles, storyglass, tamzin outhwaite, the harrowing, the lovecraft investigations, the piper, tracks, trillion year spree, turkey city lexicon, vincent price, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Squintlepiece

AdHederance

Posted on 27 December 2020 by Henry Gee

Over the festive period I’ve been ploughing through a volume of some vastness entitled 65 Great Tales of the Supernatural (ed. Mary Danby). I bought this grimoire secondhand a long time ago. It contains many well-anthologised old chestnuts such as … Continue reading →

Posted in Domesticrox, elizabeth walter, holly, ivy, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on AdHederance

Litreview

Posted on 20 December 2020 by Henry Gee

Yes, it’s that time again, when I list the books in the year just passed that I have most enjoyed. I’ve been doing this since 2014. That’s when I started noting authors and titles of books I’d read in a … Continue reading →

Posted in a dominant character, a suitable boy, Alexander Hamilton, american gods, anansi boys, borges, bram stoker, colour of magic, dirtyfilthysexy, discworld, dracula, entangled life, erin morgenstern, fungi, garlic, good omens, james bond, JBS Haldane, just william, kurt vonnegut, Lin-Manuel Miranda, merlin sheldrake, neil gaiman, olaf stapledon, psilocybin, Ron Chernow, samanth subramanian, scarlett thomas, slaughterhouse five, star maker, terry pratchett, the end of mr Y, The Night Circus, the starless sea, tolkien, van helsing, vietnam war, vikram seth, Writing & Reading | Comments Off on Litreview

Naturistical

Posted on 14 December 2020 by Henry Gee

Thirty-three years ago today Sgt Pepper taught the band to play I started work at Nature. I joined as a junior news reporter on a three-month contract. It’s the longest three-month contract anyone has ever had. Because I am a … Continue reading →

Posted in bacterial genomes, Electric Banana, extrasolar planets, feathered dinosaurs, hobbits, human genomes, John Maddox, journalism, long-playing records, mammoths, Motorhead, nature, new scientist, radiological protection guidelines, The Thunderer, Writing & Reading, yetis | Comments Off on Naturistical

Misterious

Posted on 10 December 2020 by Henry Gee

Yesterday I drove Mrs Gee, a student nurse at the University of East Anglia, to UEA where she had to do some necessary admin that couldn’t be done remotely. While she was doing that, Posy the Golden Retriever took me … Continue reading →

Posted in Apparitions, desert, dog, Earlham Park, fist, fog, fossils, landscape, Leakey, Lomekwi, mist, mog, navigation, norwich, palaeontology, Science Is Vital, self-similarity, Turkana, UEA | Comments Off on Misterious