The book I read to research this post was Tribute to the Deltics by Tom Heavyside which is very good and which I bought from a secondhand bookshop. British Rail first placed an order for Class 55 Deltic Trains in 1958 and they were introduced in 1962. Initially they were tested on the London to Midlands and the early ones had some minor problems which were ironed out. When they went into service properly they were used mostly on the long distance routes especially the London to Scotland routes. They had two 1650 hp diesel engines which gave a total of 3300 hp and they were the most powerful diesel locomotives in the world. Each engine had 18 cylinders. They were initially based at 3 depots, Finsbury Park, Haymarket & Gateshead. The ones based in the north of england were named after racehorses that had won one of the 5 classic races like Saint Paddy. The ones in scotland were named after army regiments like The Black Watch. They could travel the 186.2 miles from Kings Cross to Leeds in 2 hours 28 minutes and had a maximum speed of 105 mph. They were the first trains that could maintain 100 mph over a long time. The Deltic, The Kings Own Yorkshire Light Infantry is on display at the Train Museum in York. They were retired in 1982 because they were getting too expensive to maintain. They were generally replaced by the InterCity 125 but at the time of their retirement they were the fastest and most powerful locomotive British Rail had. They are still popularly used for diesel galas.

The book I read to research this post was Mind Magic & Mentalism for Dummies by James L Clark which is a very good book which I borrowed from the library. This book is about mind magic and mentalism so is about things like hypnotism, card tricks, communicating with the dead and mind reading as opposed to conjuring which is things like sawing people in half or pulling rabbits out of hats. If a magician asks someone to choose a card as they put their hand out to choose a card he will move a particular card towards their outstretched finger which takes practise so as not make it too obvious. Another trick which was famously performed by Derren Brown the famous british magician was to be submerged into ice cold water and survive the cold temperature. One way this trick could be done is to wear a neoprene wetsuit under your clothes. If you are ever asked to choose heads or tails as someone tosses a coin, most coins land showing tales 80% of the time. This book is intended for would be magicians and the author says he wishes there had been a book like this when he started out. I think this author thinks spiritualism is a lot of nonsense, I keep an open mind although I think a lot of so called fortune tellers are frauds. Some of the tricks they use are like if someone bends a spoon and then straightens it a couple of times they can make it bend with moderate pressure. If a magician is led out of a room, something is hidden and then he is blindfolded and led back in and has to find it he can have someone in the audience can give him an idea where it is via a thumper, a vibrating device that the person activates when he is close to it. A lot of magicians change to their stage name by depoll and certainly you should play a part and be convincing, this involves acting and some extent living the part. Many magicians wear similiar clothes to what they wear on stage as normal wear. Certainly you should study acting techniques.

I have done a post on dwarf hamsters at http://oldscratbag.blogspot.com

You're all welcome to have a look.

The book I read to research this post was Rabbits by Monika Wegler which is a very good book which I bought from a secondhand shop. The Romans kept rabbits for their meat & in the sixteenth century it's known they had bred different coloured rabbits. In the early twentieth century most distinct breeds were developed. The males and the big breeds tend to be more docile than other rabbits. If you have a large breed you will need a bigger hutch. Most people keep rabbits in pairs as they are quite social or sometimes they share their cage with guinea pigs. Male rabbits will try to shag guinea pigs, if they are not neutered at an early age. If you keep a male and female together be prepared for them breeding like crazy if you don't neuter the male. If you keep 2 males together fights will break out if you don't neuter them and introduce them at an early age. Rabbits love being stroked and cuddled. You can normally find proper rabbit food at your local pet shop. This sometimes takes the form of vegetation or pellets. If it's vegetation some rabbits will eat the fattening stuff and leave the rest. If this happens try them on pellets. In addition to their food you should give them fruit and vegetables which contain more nutrients if they are fresh. They also love hay which they also use for bedding. Often a greengrocer will give you a box of remnants from what he sells sometimes for free. They need lots of exercise and you should have a rabbit run outside so they can't escape. Don't forget they can dig their way out so they might need a wooden floor and you should keep an eye on them. If they exercise indoors watch they don't chew electrical wires. 

The book I am reviewing in this post is Afraid to Die by Lisa Jackson which is a very good book which I bought from Kobo. This book is the 4th inslalment in the To Die series & features the tough no nonsense female policewomen Alvarez & Pescoli. As is common in this series we have another serial killer. This time he knifes women strips them freezes them in ice, turns them into ice sculptures and dumps them somewhere. Alvarez who knows she's not the marrying kind, has sex with her boss, probably because it's a potentially dangerous relationship. That causes problems when he becomes a murder suspect and his son & wife go missing. Pescoli & Alvarez are the investigating officers. It starts off where a lady who shares the same keep fit as Alvarez goes missing and they have to find her. This is quite a gritty thriller although not quite as good as Malice which is my favourite book by Jackson. Obviously this story takes place in the winter and they have to deal with adverse conditions which helps make the story. There is a happy ending but I won't give it away. In Britain Lisa is a very under rated author and doesn't get anything like the success she gets in the United States. This post is exclusive to this site. I have several sites and often I copy and paste from one to the other. I'm going to try to do some exclusive posts to each site because the search engines look for original content when rating a website.