8157/21077
Obviously though there's nothing funny about two drunk men trying to steal a Paddington statue and in the end just having to rip it off its back so it looks like a Paddington has died on that bench and not been discovered for two years and his decomposing corpse has left a Paddington sized dent. So I am glad those hardened criminals will be behind bars for the rest of their lives and that that hardened Paddington is back where he belongs, sitting on a bench, keeping an eye on people and then dobbing them into the police if they do anything wrong.
Criminals only hope now is to take advantage of the times when Paddington is accompanying a beloved celebrity to Heaven. They're the only people looking forward to the death of David Attenborough.
The Curse of being called Richard Herring strikes again
I wouldn't like to be Richard D Herring next month (
cos he died in 2021). How many of the 26 Richard Herrings are even left? Enough of us to fulfil our destiny and save the world? Be wary my fellow Richard something Herrings.
Richard C looked pretty cool to be fair. Is it weird to feel grief for someone that you've never met who merely shares two thirds of your name (and possibly a tiny bit of DNA). I remember when I travelled across the States on my way back from Camp America, my friends and I stayed at a motel (it might have been the same one that we had to crunch our way over a car park covered in cockroaches (like a black living carpet)) and I noticed the man checking had a name badge saying that his surname was Herring. It's a rare enough last name to be remarkable when you meet someone else with it. "That's my last name too" I excitedly chirruped. Mr Herring could not have look less impressed. He snarled sarcastically and showed that not all Herrings believe they live in a brotherhood. Only the Richard Herrings can be trusted.
I think this is the quickest that I've ever gone from receiving a book to getting a Book Club podcast about it recorded. I talked to Anthony Shapland about his very impressive debut novel "A Room Above A Shop" this evening, having finished reading it about two hours before and started reading it on Monday. The podcast will be out for Plussers on Thursday and the rest of you on Friday. The book is poetic and beautiful but I was also really impressed by the economy of the writing and it's a reminder that as a writer there is power in the stuff you leave out as much as what you put in. He talked very eloquently about this. It's a book about love and prejudice and fear and escape, which conjures up the atmosphere of small town life in the 1980s - crisp packets in ash trays really took me back - and is rightly getting great reviews.
Buy it here.Anthony is also responsible for Chris Evans (not that one) gaining the courage to make the leap into starting Go Faster Stripe, so I am very grateful to him for that.
He's a man, not a boy.
RHLSTP with Chesney Hawkes is now wherever you get your pods. That's the end of series 30, dawgs, but don't worry series 31 will be with you next week.
