Tag: Autism

Positive Autism Awareness Conference

An account of the Positive Autism Awareness Conference staged by NAS West Norfolk yesterday at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn. Read, enjoy and please share.

INTRODUCTION

Yesterday NAS West Norfolk held a Positive Autism Awareness Conference at the Duke’s Head Hotel in King’s Lynn, and this post,which will be a major one is all about that event.

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The Dukes Head, where the Positive Autism Awareness Conference took place on April 15th. This photo was constrained by the presence of the Mart. After a fortnight in Lynn, the Mart splits in to two to go to various other places around the country – but it is only in Lynn that you get to see everything.

THE PRELIMINARIES

Some us went to the venue on Thursday evening to do a some preliminary setup work to reduce the amount that needed to be done on the day itself. Here are a few photos from that…

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Adjoining my photographic stand the other stand I would be covering on the day – the NAS stand

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My photographic stand – with a blank space for the laptop

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THE DAY ITSELF

Those of use involved in organizing the event were required to be there by 8AM so that we were ready when the guests started arriving. I arrived bright and early (given that the venue is a five minute walk from my flat so I jolly well should have done!), and got my stall up and running. Here are some photos from before the event started…

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A close ups from the NAS stalll

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An excellent acrostic

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The Speads stall – the young woman running the stall goes by the name of Carly

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Musical Keys

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The seating area, already looking satisfactorily full.

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Almost ready to start.
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Lynda Niles preparing to give the first talk of the day.
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My NAS West Norfolk lanyard.

THE FIRST SESSION

Indefatigable branch chair Karan McKerrow opened the event and explained that the day was about being positive about autism and autistic people, mentioning both myself and Callum and what we were going to be doing during the day. Then it was time for Lynda Niles’ talk. At that stage we were operating without amplification, and I was stood at the back, but I still heard every word that Lynda said. Lynda’s talk was accompanied by slides, which show you what she covered…

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THE BEANBAG INCIDENT

One of the things we had at this event was a ‘dark den’ with a beanbag inside as the floor was quite hard. The den itself survived unscathed, but the beanbag was a different story…

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That is now an ex-beanbag!

CALLUM’S POEM

Callum Brazzo, the other of two autistic adults to be on the committee of NAS West Norfolk, recited a poem he had created about autism as the next feature of the conference. I am unable to remember the exact words, but it was a splendid performance, and I sure that if you email Callum he can supply the words (perhaps you could post them in the comments section as well, Callum). Meanwhile, here he is in action…

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MEL BRUCE’S AUTISM FRIENDLY RULES

Clinical psychologist Dr Mel Bruce and a commissioner named Sharon shared the next session, but before I move on to that, Mel has learned some excellent rules for making sessions autism friendly, and here they are…

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Mel Bruce Autism Friendly Guidelines
This shows all off the ‘rules diagrams’ in one picture – a composite of the other two pictures.

MEL AND SHARON 

We had a working microphone by this point, which Mel and Sharon shared, taking it in turns to speak. They introduced the ‘bucket model’ for anxiety of which much more later, talked about their respective jobs and about quite a few other things.

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Sharon speaking, with Mel standing next to her.

LUNCH

Karan had organised food for us, which turned out to be excellent, and thus fortified we were ready for the afternoon session, which opened with the undoubted star speaker of the event…

ANNA KENNEDY OBE

Anna had arrived during lunch and expressed her admiration for my photos. Anna talked about her experiences bringing up two autistic children, going on People’s Strictly (partnered with Robin Windsor) and launching Autism’s Got Talent (and successfully facing down Mr Cowell over that suffix!). Her talk was thoroughly inspiring.

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Anna’s talk was followed by a short break, during which I took this picture…

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My photographic stall, The NAS stall and Karan’s younger son Ciaran (I took this picture at Karan’s specific request)

THE FINAL SESSION:
STAR FISH PLUS AND THE BUCKET MODEL

The last session of the day was another joint effort, by Holly and Michelle,two of Mel’s colleagues at Starfish Plus. Their presentation went into more detail about the ‘bucket model’, and was an excellent way to bring down the curtain on the event…

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MY PHOTOGRAPHIC DISPLAY AND
SOME FINAL THOUGHTS ON THE DAY

My photographic stall was very successful. The event itself was a massive success. Not counting us committee members 145 people packed out the venue, every session was interesting and informative  and the stalls were all fantastic.

My photographic stand – with a blank space for the laptop
Adjoining my photographic stand the other stand I would be covering on the day – the NAS stand

All the Bs (And a Follow Up on Autism Awareness Day)

A follow up to my Autism Awareness post, combined with some new photographs.

INTRODUCTION

The first part of my title refers to the fact that as well as birds I have a bee and some butterflies among my camera captures for the day, while the second refers to the fact that today is Autism Awareness Day and gives a nod in this direction.

MORE ON AUTISM AWARENESS DAY

I have some infographics spotted on the internet to share with you and a few links including an important petition. I will start with the petition, launched on change.org by my friend and fellow NAS West Norfolk committee member Callum Brazzo calling for greater representation of non-verbal autistics on TV and in Employment. Please follow this link to sign and share the petition, and let’s build it big!

My next link is to a splendid article posted on indepedent.co.uk which tallies very closely with my own views on autism.

Now to a link and an infographic. The link is to the website of the wonderful Anna Kennedy OBE (who will be at our Positive Autism Awareness Conference on April 15th) and the infographic is her Autism Awareness infographic:

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Another link and infographic pairing, this time to the National Autistic Society’s TMI campaign, raising awareness of sensory issues:

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The bright light at the south-eastern corner of The Wash is me putting myself on this map.

My remaining infographics come without links, and I present them in pairs, first these two general ones:

I finish this section with two warning infographics for our American friends about an organisation who are widely condemned in the autistic community:

A straightforward but devastatingly revealing breakdown of expenditure.
The pie-chart version.

BIRDS, BEES, BUTTERFLIES

In reverse alphabetical order, I start with some butterfly pictures…

A Peacock Buterfly (this was about 200 metres from Bawsey Drain which is known as place where they live). I have already shared this on twitter and my timeline is going crazy with responses.
Bawsey Drain’s information board about wildlife – the only species on it I have never seen there is a coot.
A super close-up of the Peacock Butterfly.

Now we have the bee (yay!)…

The loose pebble behind it gives it scale!

Now for the rest of my pictures, which mainly feature the other B I mentioned, birds…

 

Autism Awareness Day

This is a post created for Autism Awareness Day. Read, enjoy and please share.

INTRODUCTION

Today is Autism Awareness day. Therefore there will be a lot about autism, some from autistic people, some from autism advocates etc. This is my first offering of the day, and I shall start with…

AUTISM AND ME – A TIMELINE

Of course, since I have written about all these things before many of my readers already know a good deal of this. Autism is lifelong, but not always diagnosed as early as it should be (indeed there are still problems in my part of the world with people waiting literally years for a diagnosis). Thus although I am a forty year old autistic person my timeline spans less than ten of those years…

  • Late 2006 – Diagnosed at Cambridge Lifespan Asperger Support Services
  • 2007 became involved with Asperger East Anglia
  • 2007 took part in a research project relating to autism for the first time (I still do so on a regular basis)
  • 2008-9 Worked with Asperger East Anglia full-timers and some local volunteers to establish a support group in King’s Lynn
  • 2011 was appointed group leader of the King’s Lynn support group and coincidental with that launched this blog.
  • 2012 Funding cuts forced the King’s Lynn support group to go it alone, which we did to the best of our abilities
  • 2013 The group had a meeting room at the local football club, though the most significant event of this year for me personally was in April when I got the first paid job I had since being diagnosed (the same job I am still in today).
  • 2014 the King’s Lynn Asperger Support Society as the group was by then known lost its meeting room and made do with meeting where we could. On October 24th of that year I launched a personal twitter account, @aspitweets, which now has just over 3,500 followers.
  • 2015 After months of falling attendances, I finally conceded defeat over KLASS, which when I finally held up my hands had survived on no funding of any kind for 34 months. Subsequently I found out about an awareness event that the West Norfolk branch of the National Autistic Society were holding within walking distance of my home and went along to learn more, joined the group and was subsequently given a place on the committee.
  • 2016 Will be helping to run NAS West Norfolk’s Positive Autism Awareness Conference on April 15th, at which I will also be putting on a photographic display. Also, having attended and enjoyed AutismCon 2016 and given them detailed feedback, my blog post on the subject will be used for publicity purposes for AutismCon 2017, at which I may well get to put on another photographic display.

AUTISM AWARENESS

While increasing autism awareness is a laudable goal, it is insufficient. In an attempt to help explaining my view of where autism awareness fits I have produced a mini flow-chart to which I will append some words of explanation:

Autism

In the UK at least, not many people are actually completely unaware of autism, although their understanding of it and what it means is often limited (sadly in some cases deliberately so). Acceptance, which is the next stage up from understanding is something that far fewer have managed. Inclusion is the final goal, and by inclusion I mean full acceptance of the autistic person complete with foibles, tics, stims et al.

SPECIAL INTERESTS

Something that autistic people are well-known for is having special interests. The word obsession with its negative connotations should be avoided in this context. My own special interests include photography, public transport (see www.londontu.be for more on this) and cricket (watching brief only – I never had any aptitude as a player).

PHOTOGRAPHS TO FINISH

Well done all of you have made to this stage, as a reward here are some pictures which between them relate to two of my listed special interests.

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All but the last two of these pictures are from a walk a took yesterday afternoon.

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I have used this once before, but wanted to include a picture showcasing one of my special interests. This one, showing both reverses and the accompanying info is an example of what the auction image should have looked like.
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Anyone who sees this last picture is a worthy recipient of the message!

A TWO DAY AUCTION

An account of James and Sons auction on March 3oth and 31st, with some other stuff at the end.

INTRODUCTION

As the main part of this post, about James and Sons’ March auction (I am also sharing a few other bits at the end) develops it will become obvious why I am doing it now as one big post, and why I have posted very little these last few days.

PART 1: THE PRELIMINARIES (TUESDAY)

With the auction scheduled for Wednesday 30th (lots 1-699) and Thursday 31st (Lots 700-1051) the setup at the venue (The Prince of Wales Suite, Fakenham Racecourse) had to be accomplished on the Tuesday. This day did not require any earlier start than a regular work day would, and although a lot of heavy lifting was involved (a thousand plus lot auction, four people fit to do serious carrying) it was less draining than the other two days.

PART TWO: DAY 1 (WEDNESDAY)

I had to be at the venue by 8AM, which meant leaving my flat at 6:30AM to be sure of catching the 6:50 bus, to make sure that the IT setup was working and to assist with the viewing the precedes the sale. A couple of technical  hitches at the start aside the day went smoothly. There were some great successes, although the flag that we had hoped would raise serious money did not attract a bid high enough to warrant selling it. The books tanked, as anyone with any experience of books at auction would have expected. Lot 466 fell to me, and lot 494, five volumes on Buildings of Scotland, found its way to East Rudham. Here are some pictures from day 1 at the venue…

This was still in the sky when I left my flat on the Wednesday morning!
Not one of ours – one the racecourse’s own pictures)
The view from the rostrum
The rostrum before the auction started.
This shell has been interestingly decorated, although it would still have looked better when it was on a turtle’s back.
The flag
A building frontage in Bridge Street, Fakenham that I had not previously noticed.

After the sale had concluded it was time to get the unsold lots from day 1 back to the shop (and they had to go on the top floor of the shop, including four plastic tubs full of back issues of Private Eye magazine). Then finally, work was done for the day.

PART THREE: DAY 2 (THURSDAY)

Fortunately I was able to set off an hour later than on the first day as although I would still have to do some preliminary IT stuff there were unlikely to be many viewers present (and indeed there weren’t). The internet was still very lively however, and a number of the early commemorative and proof coins on this second day sold exceptionally well. The stamps and postal history did not shine especially brightly. Lot 920, an Isambard Kingdom Brunel £2 set, went to me. The last lot went under the hammer just before 12:00, after which it was time for the clear-up. Once we had the first van load back at the shop we stopped for lunch, before doing the unloading, heading back to the racecourse for the last bits and getting them back. At this point there was a break from heavy lifting, during which I obtained a full printed list of those who had signed up to bid via http://www.the-saleroom.com, which ran to a James and Sons record 277 (paddle numbers 400-676 inclusive). There was a little bit more lifting to do before the end of my day, as it was necessary to get some stuff ready for loading for a collectors fair on the morrow. I have some pictures from day 2 as well…

One of theirs again!
This tapestry is also theirs.
Caravans parked where on race days there would be bookies.
Golfers in action, srrounded by the racecourse (hence no golf on racedays – a mishit shot might do more than frighten the horses!)
Che Simnor auditioning for the role of security guard!
An item on display in the shop.
The Fakenham Sign

A FINAL THOUGHT ON THE AUCTION

I have not previously been involved in running a two-day auction, and it was an incredibly tiring three days. However, the auction was very successful.

LOTS 466 AND 920

These were the two lots I bid on, and I got both. Both lots attracted my attention because of my special interest (in the best autism circles we do not use the word obsession) in railways (and indeed public transport generally – check out my website www.londontu.be).

LOT 466

This was a rail atlas of Britain, dating from around 1980 (Blake Hall station was open so it is pre-1982, but that whole section of the Central line – Epping– Ongar – was already being considered for closure), and it is very detailed, showing goods and passenger lines. Here are pictures, starting with the images that were available at auction and finishing with some later shots…

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This was the image that people saw during the auction – the front cover
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The three images starting with this one were also available to internet viewers.

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A picture showing the Ongar page – and note where the Chelmsford oage continues to…
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The page from which this picture comes…
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A new post in ‘stations’ on my website will be coming soon.
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A joint pic of the images from pps 32 and 33 showing that the downright dishonourable “costs a Priti penny” Patel has nothing approaching a justification for claiming more in expenses than any other MP in the house – her constituency is hardly far-flung!

LOT 920

This was the Brunel £2 set, and I have the image that was available to auction followers, some images taken of it on display at the venue and some further images taken of it at home…

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This image was one of the few at this auction not done me, hence the rookie mistake of showing an ‘obverse’ (just a portrait of a ridiculously over-privileged old woman), when the ‘reverse’ is the key face.
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On display at the auction
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One of the reverses (still at the auction)
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A picture taken at my workstation back at the shop
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The outside of the folder
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The two obverses.
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This one, showing both reverses and the accompanying info is an example of what the auction image should have looked like.
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A close up of the ‘reverse’ showing Brunel in his top hat
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a close-up of the other ‘reverse’, a pattern based on Paddington station

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What the folder looks like closed.

HAIRPIN POINT – UNINTENTIONAL COMEDY FROM THE GOP

I have called this ‘Hairpin Point’ because it represents a switch in direction on this post away from anything connected with my work to other matters. To set the scene, here is a screen-dump from my email inbox:

LOLGOP

The Gun Obsessed Plonkers (GOP for short) have made a spectacular blunder here:

  1. As my email address surely indicates (it ends .co.uk after all) I am not American.
  2. Even I was American the odds against me ever even voting for a Republican, let alone being a registered member would be of the order of zillions to one against.

How someone came to perpetrate a bloomer on this scale I do not know, but it did provide a laugh.

A FEW LINKS TO FINISH

First up from the Daily Mirror comes this story about how putting a kiss at the end of a letter was enough for the DWP to question the professionalism of an MP.

And at the very end, a link to a piece by Mike Sivier of Vox Political about what Labour is doing to attempt to save British Steel, and a follow-up link to a petition on the same subject that has already garnered more than the 100,000 signatures needed for a debate in Parliament:

  1. Mike Sivier’s piece.
  2. The petition (please sign and share to amp up the pressure on Scameron)

 

De Niro pulls his anti-vaxxer film and explains why

What do you think about this one…

whyevolutionistrue's avatarWhy Evolution Is True

As Greg and I posted yesterday, Robert De Niro pushed to have Andrew Wakefield’s new film, ““Vaxxed: From Cover-Up to Catastrophe,” included in the Tribeca Film Festival. He and his wife have an autistic child, which might explain why he was so gung-ho on showing a film that paints Wakefield as a hero and the medical establishment as engaged in a massive coverup. Apparently De Niro wasn’t aware of Wakefield’s fraudulent studies trying to connect autism with the MMR vaccine, or of his subsequent disgrace and loss of his medical license.

Greg noted yesterday that the Festival had pulled the film, but today’s New York Times gives a bit more information. You can read the article, but here’s De Niro’s take:

In a statement, Robert De Niro, a founder of the festival, wrote: “My intent in screening this film was to provide an opportunity for conversation around an issue that is…

View original post 137 more words

Gaywood & The Rookery

An account of a walk that took in Gaywood & The Rookery. Also some mentions of autism related matters to top and tail the post.

INTRODUCTION

Those of you who read my post on Wednesday about preparing for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference that NAS West Norfolk are having on April 15th will recall that I noted the entrance sign to Gaywood & The Rookery. Today I got back there for a proper look…

GETTING THERE

I followed the same route as I had on Wednesday, but this time with no time constraints. I caught a glimpse of a Muntjac (thank you Helen for the ID) but this one proved too elusive for me to photograph, although I did see a few things worth photographing…

Lonely on a rock
This is what happens if you have lined up the shot and the creature decides to move after you have clicked to take it!

GAYWOOD & THE ROOKERY

I ventured in, and was delighted by the place. I will let the photos tell the story of this amazing little piece of woodland that is within walking distance of the centre of Norfolk’s third largest town…

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HOMEWARD BOUND

I had left Gaywood & The Rookery by a different path from the one I entered it by, and now headed home by a different route, save for a very short stretch of path to the bridge over the railway, and thence through the Hardwick Estate, and ultimately on this occasion back to the town centre by way of the river (I could also have gone by way of the cemetery and the parklands).

A circle of tree stumps
Many meetings/ partings
The sole stretch of path that i walked twice.

AUTISM AWARENESS

A bit disconnected from the rest of this post I know, but I have an infographic to share to remind everyone that April 2nd – 8th 2016 is World Autism Awareness Week (courtesy of patienttalk.org)

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Preparations for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference

Preparations for the Positive Autism Awareness Conference and a post-lunch walk, therefore lots of photos.

INTRODUCTION

Although the Positive Autism Awareness Conference that we at NAS West Norfolk are holding on April 16th at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th is at the heart of this piece there are also lots of new photographs for me to share.

AN ORGANIZING MEETING

Today there was a meeting at the home of NAS West Norfolk branch chair Karan McKerrow to assemble ‘goodie bags’ for the event. As she lives out in the country and not on a regular bus route, this meant arranging a pick up for me, so my first task was to get to Churchill Park School to meet the person who would be giving me a lift. Thus before anything else I have to say a…

MEA CULPA

I was almost twenty minutes late at the meeting place because I walked and made the mistake of not sticking to a route that I knew, and lost my way at one point. I had left myself an hour in which to make the journey, which should have been ample but for the mishap. Also, although I can supposedly connect to facebook and my phone I tried twice and was unable to do so, so could not communicate my whereabouts (I had no contact numbers with me either). The confession out of the way I can now attend to the rest of…

GETTING THERE

I set off exactly when I had intended to, headed for the parkland, following roughly the line of St John’s Walk, taking these photos in the early stages…

At this point I was close to the Tennyson Road level crossing, which was in the process of closing, so I walked to the barrier and waited. The train was goods train, and worth a few more pics…

Immediately after this, at the point at which I made my first wrong move (the path forks, and one direction leads through to KES and the main road, which would have been safe but dull, the other heads in the direction of the hospital – closer to my goal, and a more interesting route) I saw something very unexpected given the proximity of a main road and the even closer proximity of the railway tracks – a brace of deer.

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Both deer in one shot

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The incipipent antlers possessed by this one combined the face confirm that it is a species of deer.

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I have shown these as individual images rather than a tiled mosaic in the hope that someone can identify the species of deer (anyone there at whyevolutionistrue?).

Now we come to the point at which things went pear-shaped, near this sign…

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I decided not to venture in to the woodland (ironically I would probably have saved time by doing so), but chose the wrong path, and it was in this section of the walk that I ran irretrievably late. By the time I located Gayton Road (by way of Gaywood Hall Drive) I was already ten minutes late, and as previously mentioned, could not log on to facebook. It was another ten minutes rapid walking before I arrived at the head of Winston Churchill Drive, and was spotted by the people picking me up.

THE MEETING

We had 100 Autism Awareness event packs from NAS HQ, which was not sufficient as we had sold 120 tickets for the event (and had a significant waiting list) an also wanted the people who would be running stalls to have packs. In addition to these the bags (thick brown paper with comfortable but robust handles) were to contain a balloon, a pen, various stand alone leaflets and an NAS flag (placed flag end up so a wide flag rather than a narrow stick pointed out of the bag).

In addition to this activity various timings were confirmed (some setup will be done the night before the event, and everyone who has a stand and/or will be involved in running the event will be expected to arrive for doors opening at 8AM, so that there is no overlap between us setting up for the day and people arriving for the event from about 8:45AM onwards (starts at 9AM).

Before we got started on assembling the ‘goodie bags’ I spotted a couple of interesting cushions…

THE JOURNEY HOME

Very uneventful fortunately. One of the group planned to visit her mother-in-law who lives not that far from my place, so I got a lift as far as Loke Road and had a walk of under 15 minutes to get home. After lunch, the weather remaining bright and sunny I decided it  would be foolish to remain in the flat and took myself out for…

AN AFTERNOON WALK

Since the river was one place I had not been in the morning I started by heading to the point at which the Purfleet meets the river.

From South Quay I headed past old Boal Quay to the Nar Outfall, and the structure I have dubbed Cormorant platform. Today there was only one cormorant about.

I made my way home by way of the parkland, enhancing my stock of moorhen pictures along the way.

About Autism

Various bits of autism related stuff, including an account of a talk by Mel Bruce for NAS West Norfolk, and some photographs.

INTRODUCTION

Last night I attended a talk given by Dr Mel Bruce, a clinical psychologist at Starfish Plus. There are also a few other things I will be covering in this post.

MEL BRUCE TALK

The talk was scheduled to run from 7-9PM, and I was required to be there (the scout hut on Beulah Street, as so often for NAS West Norfolk events) early to help with the setup. Mel opened proceedings with a brief account of what she and her team do, and who they work with, before taking questions from the floor. One of the things Mel mentioned when talking about communication was the use of a system of communication cards, which would work rather as the coloured badges at AutismCon did – in that case red was for “don’t talk to me unless it is an emergency”, yellow for “don’t initiate conversations but you can respond if I talk to you” and green for “I am happy to talk”, with freedom to change according to how you are feeling at any given moment (I selected a green badge and stuck with it the whole day as it happens). A great quote which showed how involved she is with the autistic community “Don’t do anything about us without us”. Another excellent point she made was about referring to special interests rather than obsessions.

Although this talk did not deal with issues that relate directly to me, because it was aimed at parents of autistic children, and therefore I maintained a purely listening brief, I enjoyed the evening, and am looking forward to meeting Mel again at the Positive Autism Awareness Conference NAS West Norfolk are holding at the Duke’s Head Hotel, King’s Lynn on April 15th. Meantime, we have connected on twitter.

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Clinical psychologist Mel Bruce introducing the session
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A decent turnout for the event.
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the first of four shots featuring posters.

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A POTENTIAL MEETING WITH
SIR HENRY BELLINGHAM MP

Just a brief mention of the fact that following a very unsatisfactory response by Sir Henry Bellingham on the subject of the cut to ESA, in which he claimed to be talking to lots of local groups moves are afoot to organize a meeting between ourselves and him. Further information about his record as an MP can be found here (warning – it makes grim reading).

ON DIAGNOSES

This section is here because it was recently brought to my attention that there are still problems with doctors being unwilling to diagnose autistic spectrum conditions (ASC for short) and in some cases unwilling to refer people for diagnosis. In the nine and a half years since I was diagnosed (25 years  later than I should have been but that is another story) my life has improved hugely in all sorts of ways.

My message to doctors faced with people seeking a diagnosis of an autistic spectrum is this: if you feel unable to do this yourself, then refer the patient to someone who can. To point blank refuse even to refer someone is unacceptable and indefensible.

HELPING THE NATIONAL AUTISTIC SOCIETY WITH A PUBLICITY CAMPAIGN

The National Autistic Society are running a Public Awareness Campaign, to which I am pleased to say I have been able to contribute. In answering the questions I was sent as part of this I referred on many occasions to things that happened before I was diagnosed, precisely because (see above), things have been so much better since I was diagnosed.

A VICTORY – #JUSTICEFORKAYLEB

Yes – a good news story to end the text section of this post. Kayleb Moon-Robinson, a 6th  grade student with autism, was facing life with a conviction for a felony offence. Following a prolonged campaign, all charges against him have been dismissed. More details are available as follows:

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New build in keeping with its surroundings
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I would have started work on this ghastly, out of place building with a wrecking ball, but I am glad to see that something is being done.

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Change point – this is the last of the daytime photos – others were taken on the way to the Mel Bruce talk.

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Book Review: The Burning Man

A review of a book in a new find of mine, the Bryant & May series, with a few other bits.

INTRODUCTION

Although the book review is the principal focus of this piece there are a few other bits that I will be sharing afterwards.

A GREAT READ WITH A MINOR QUIBBLE

Those of you who follow my London transport themed website may recall that I posted a review of a book called Off The Rails which featured a team of oddballs collectively known as the Peculiar Crimes Unit (officially the Peculiar part of the title referred to the crimes being investigated as opposed to the investigators but one might think otherwise).

Since reading that book I have taken every opportunity to deepen my acquaintance with Arthur Bryant, John May and their team of oddballs, and The Burning Man is just one of a number of their adventures that I have recently read.

The story in this book features riots provoked in part by misbehaving bankers being used as a cover for a series of murders all of which involve the use of fire. The story has many twists and turns. There are also various subplots, principally the antagonism between the PCU and Superintendent Darren “Missing” Link.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book, as I have every book I have encountered in this series, and heartily recommend it. It is in that spirit that the following is offered (and I hope will be accepted)…

A QUIBBLE

To set the stage, here is a photograph of the paragraph on page 144 that gave rise to the quibble:

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How many of you can guess without reading on where my quibble arises?

If you guessed that it was the sentence “He worked with some crazy people, borderline-autistic tech-heads who were likely to turn up at the front door, find no-one home and climb through a window.” score yourself 10 out of 10.

The phrase borderline-autistic is meaningless given that autism is a spectrum condition, and the usage of such a phrase is indicative of what Richard Dawkins terms “the tyranny of the discontinuous mind”. I also take umbrage at the notion of an autistic person responding to finding no one at home by climbing through a window. Finally, as an autistic person who is skilled in the use of computers I still object to the conflation of autism and tech-headedness – while the two traits can go together they do not always do so. Finally, I find the entire sentence lazily reinforces damaging stereotypes about autistic people. To finish this section, although in one sense every post on this blog has an automatic connection to autism, you can find more posts in which I specifically deal with autism here.

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In spite of my quibble with a paragraph on page 144 I thoroughly recommend this book.

ANOTHER FIND AT THE BUS STATION

The new information office at King’s Lynn bus station is a treasure trove. My latest find focuses specifically on West Norfolk…

The obverse in full
A close up of the map
The only section of the reverse worth reproducing

PLANS FOR KNIGHT’S HILL

I make no comment as yet on this scheme, which is still at a preliminary stage, just reproducing it in full…

POSITIVE AUTISM AWARENESS CONFERENCE REMINDER

NAS West Norfolk are holding a Positive Autism Awareness Conference at the Duke’s Head Hotel on Friday 15th April. One feature of this conference will be a photographic display by yours truly. I have mentioned this in a number of previous posts.

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