Roadrunner: Radio On, Road Movies & the A4

Well, it was a long time in the writing, but my fourth book, Roadrunner, is finally out. Superficially, it’s just a slender little tome celebrating Radio On (the greatest Bristol film ever) but of course it’s about so much more than that, as the sub-title indicates (yes, it’s also about road movies in general, and roads, especially the A4 from London to Bristol, and all the things that have ever happened on it.)

Archaeology Corner: Inca Roads

Did a vehicle come from somewhere out there, just to land in the Andes? So sings George Duke on the Mothers of Invention album One Size Fits All, recorded in 1975 and perhaps the pinnacle of this, the very finest of Mothers line-ups. Well, in spite of Erich Von Daniken and Close Encounters, we can be fairly sure that the answer is no, a vehicle did not come from out there just to land in the Andes, or anywhere else. There are plenty of perfectly rational explanations for the Nazca lines, some of which also acknowledge and incorporate a relationship with the Gods/cosmos, albeit one emanating from Earth, and focusing on the entirely understandable need to believe in other worlds/higher powers, rather than entertaining the actual existence of extra-terrestrial or supernatural intelligence.