Perry Mason

This is a picture of Erle Stanley Gardner, author of more books than you can count, almost, including 82 Perry Mason (lawyer) novels.

I used to visit a friend’s house when I was in my teens and his mother had a bookshelf with a large collection of Mason novels. They were very impressive, if slim volumes. “The case of the…”

You can still get them, sometimes there is a new print of some titles, old paperbacks become available second hand and there was even a collected hardback edition some years ago. Anyway, I have read 63, so just 19 more to go. Of course, finding them gets harder, but Amazon is your friend.

Tipping down

There is a terrible day time quiz programme on ITV called Tipping Point. It is based on those shove coin machines you see in arcades at the seaside.

It’s introduced by a chap called Ben Shepard, who is a mainstay of breakfast television. He hugs people a lot, especially ladies.