Ken L

Global panic is rising with the viral infection in China.

Terry Jones: Star of Monty Python. Another hero gone.

Have you bought you fireworks yet?

Artemis Fowl books are a great lightweight read but be quick because there's a movie version coming out that looks terrible and will likely spoil them forever for you if you watch it.

Yep, Clancy is very good. Of the main sequence novels, only Red Rabbit was a disappointment. Don't bother with the side projects like the Op-Center books though.

Always loved Pratchett. For fantasy stuff, George RR Martin is currently top of the tree but Raymond Fiest, David Eddings and a few others are good. I enjoyed Iain M Bank's sci-fi.

There are plenty of weird quirks of human history and apparently incongruous knowledge or technologies to be explained but my problem with the whole idea of a prehistoric global civilisation is that wherever humans go, they take their familiar plants and animals with them and if they find cool stuff on their travels, they take it home and grow it there. If people were travelling regularly between the old and new worlds before Columbus, why didn't they transfer plants, animals or for that matter diseases?

Seen some of his presentations. They're good yarns but fall flat when you look a bit deeper - and of course, a basic understanding of the Columbian exchange and human nature kills his theories dead.

You mean the ancient civilisations chap?

Had another cheapie before this one. It was tough and had a good battery life but rather annoyingly, it beeped loudly whenever a key was pressed - even in standby mode. It was not impossible to live with because my phone usually stays in my bag, rather than a pocket, but eventually , the charge control chip died and I replaced it with the one in the link. I'm actually thinking of getting one for my dad and just leaving it in his car. He's a swine for turning his phone off and it'll about the only way that anyone will be able to contact him in an emergency.

On a more positive note: BORIS JOHNSON will impose restrictions on low-skilled migrants who wish to come to the UK on the first day after the Brexit transition period ends in December, it has been reported.

Love it! I just have one of these. I top up the charge on the battery every couple of weeks, whether it needs it or not.

Christopher Tolkien: Son of Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien and author in his own right.

Sir Roger Scruton - Conservative philosopher and author.