Hello loyal followers, and welcome to the GhostOfClayton twice-fortnightly blog. Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin.

Technology fails me again

I spent quite some time on Sunday typing out this blog, ready to publish it on Monday. Much thought went into the subtle wordplay, intelligent prose and reader-experience. I checked it over, made changes, was happy with the result. Repeated the check, made more changes, was no more or less happy with the result. I repeated the last part a few times. When Monday morning came around, the draft copy I saved had disappeared. How deeply depressing! Not becuse of the time spent, but because I know that, no matter how hard I try, the blog you are now reading will be no match for that previous incarnation.

The holistic detective

I was overjoyed to find that BBC4 were due to air a one-off (a one-off that will hopefully lead to a series) of a screen adaptation of the novel 'Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency'. I fist read Douglas Adams' excellent book at the age of about 24. Despite being a highly intelligent clever-clogs, I could never follow the chain of logic that allowed Mr Gently to solve the whodunnit during the denouement.

I re-read it when I was 10 years older (and 10 years wiser) and still couldn't see how on earth Mr. Gently had made this giant logical leap to uncover the mystery.

Third time lucky? Surely after 20 years had passed, I would have become such a towering genius of a man that the conundrum would elude me no longer! No such luck. So, I finally waved the white flag, and did what I usually do when I need to fill the gap between my actual intellect, and that which I'd like - I looked it up on Wikipedia. It turns out that, in order to understand how Dirk Gently solved the mystery, the reader must recognise that versions of 'Kubla Khan' and 'The Rime of the Ancient Mariner' stated in the book differed subtly from those that Samuel Taylor Coleridge actually penned! Curse my decision to turn down that Classical Education at Cambridge University in favour of a Higher National Diploma at Sunderland Polytechnic!

It ocurrs to me that my next blog will be after 'Dies Natalis Sol Invictus' , so may I take this opportunity to wish you all (and your families and friends) a very Merry Brumalia.

Asterix and the Eagle of the Ninth countdown will resume in the new year.