Priestley on Dunkirk; Sharan Newman; the Lusitania and the LOC; place and the crime novel.

• J. B. Priestley (playwright, Dangerous Corner, 1932; An Inspector Calls, 1945, among numerous other works) comments on the WWII evacuation from Dunkirk in this June 1940 BBC broadcast.

• Sharan Newman discussed her new nonfiction book The Real History of the End of the World with Fred Stella on Common Threads (part 1 here, part 2 here). 

• This invoice reveals that the Library of Congress ordered, among other items, the Psychical Research Society Journal, which was being shipped via the Lusitania in 1914. (thank you to PhiloBiblos)

• This piece for the Australian Broadcasting Co.'s Book Show discusses the importance of place in the crime novel.

About the image: Alastair Sim in An Inspector Calls (dir. Guy Hamilton, 1954)

Behind the Templars.

A recent batch of holiday mail included a note from a friend: talented author and medieval historian Sharan Newman, whose latest book (from Berkley) is The Real History Behind the Templars. Sharan, who published the earlier The Real History Behind The DaVinci Code, was nominated for an Agatha for her first mystery novel, Death Comes as Epiphany, which features legendary lovers Heloise and Abelard.