I always find it hard to find the perfect gift for people, but this selection is both functional, well-designed and fun. Anything that enhances life while also being cool is a must-have.
This is so handy. You will quickly not be able to live without it. The Connex Cable Adaptor Hub is the perfect solution for the frustration of carrying multiple tangled and damaged charging cables. In today’s gadget-hungry world, many of us own an endless list of tech products, from smartphones and smartwatches to iPads and cameras. While the industry is shifting toward universal connectors like USB-C, most consumers still rely on a variety of connections. The Connex hub offers a compact solution with standard charging, PD charging, and data transfer capabilities all in one device making it easier to keep devices connected and charged without the mess of tangled cables. No more missing connections or damaged wires!
This is such a clever snack box. The lid is flexible so you can put an apple in there. Perfect for the handbag, car, or office desk, the b.box snackbox is a secret weapon for tackling hunger on the move. With two sealed compartments, it’s ideal for keeping snacks fresh think crunchy nuts, fresh fruit, or a little treat for an afternoon pick-me-up. The easy-to-open, leak-proof design means no spills, just hassle-free snacking.
Warmies® Marshmallow Pink Slippers, £14.99 from Warmies®
These are cute and cosy. They smell great and you can warm them up in a microwave. Have some much-needed relaxation with the Warmies® Marshmallow Pink Slippers. These soft slippers are filled with natural grains and lavender, offering soothing warmth when heated in the microwave. Perfect for keeping feet cosy and relaxed after a long day.
b.box 1L insulated flip top bottle, £32.99 from Amazon
This is a great water bottle that was promptly stolen by my toddler. It is very cool and holds a lot. We are always on the go, and staying hydrated often takes a backseat. The b.box 1L insulated flip top bottle is the perfect solution. With double-walled, stainless steel insulation, it keeps drinks cold for up to 46 hours yes, really! The easy flip-top lid and carry handle make it a breeze to take anywhere, whether it’s the school run, gym, or a rare moment of relaxation. Plus, the wide opening means you can throw in ice cubes for an extra chill factor. Stylish and practical.
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.The 2025 longlists for the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime-writing genre, are announced. Created in 1955, the world-famous CWA Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century. The longlist for the prestigious Gold Dagger, which is awarded for the best crime novel of the year, includes five debut novels including Bonnie Burke-Patel’s Died at Fallow Hall, the debut whodunnit from Kristen Perrin, How to Solve Your Own Murder, and the first book from bestselling author Harriet Evans, under her penname, Harriet F Townson: D is for Death.
The debuts are up against established authors in the genre, including RJ Ellory, Tana French, and Attica Locke.
The Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, sponsored by Ian Fleming Publications Ltd, showcases the thriller of the year. The longlist for 2025 includes Chris Whitaker with All the Colours of the Dark. Whitaker has previously taken home the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger in 2017 and CWA Gold Dagger in 2021. He’s up against firm favourites including MW Craven with Nobody’s Hero, Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods, and Abir Mukherjee’s Hunted.
The much-anticipated ILP John Creasey First Novel Dagger highlights the best debut novels. Among the rising stars of 2025 is the debut set in the shadow of the Yorkshire Ripper, Katy Massey’s All of Us Are Sinners, former prison officer Claire Wilson’s assured debut, Five by Five, and the moody neo-noir love letter to New York, An Honest Living by Dwyer Murphy.
DV Bishop makes two longlists with A Divine Fury – the Gold and the Historical Dagger. The book is the fourth in the Cesare Aldo series featuring a sixteenth century detective in Florence.
The Historical Dagger is sponsored by Morgan Witzel in memory of Dr Marilyn Livingstone. The longlist also includes Clare Whitfield’s Poor Girls: Meet the Female Peaky Blinders, which exposes the criminal underbelly of 1920s London, and Anna Mazzola’s The Book of Secrets set in 17th century Italy.
Maxim Jakubowski, Chair of the CWA Daggers’ committee, said: “Once again our independent and rotating judging panels have come up with surprises galore, highlighting the impressive efforts of both major authors and newcomers, with a convincing demonstration of how diverse and talented the crime, mystery and thriller field is at present. A wonderful embarrassment of outstanding titles.”
The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger, sponsored in honour of Dolores Jakubowski, features the smash-hit, Waterstones Book of the Month, Butter by Asako Yuziki, translated by Polly Barton. From France comes Artifice, a thriller with a twist from Claire Berest translated by Sophie Lewis, and the queer debut gangland thriller The Night of Baba Yaga from Japan’s Akira Otani also makes the longlist.
The ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes giants of the genre with John Grisham and Jim McCloskey’s Framed, which looks at ten wrongful convictions, Lynda La Plante’s memoir, Getting Away with Murder and Kate Summerscale’s retelling of the Christie murders, The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place.
The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.This year sees multiple bestselling names from the genre up for the award including Ann Cleeves, Elly Griffiths, Janice Hallet, Clare Mackintosh, Ruth Ware and Vaseem Khan.
The Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing, pits big publishing houses including Michael Joseph (Penguin Random House), Hemlock Press (HarperCollins) and Sphere (Little Brown) against independent publishers, Bitter Lemon Press and Canelo.
2025 sees the announcement of two new CWA Dagger Awards.
The Twisted Dagger celebrates psychological thrillers and dark and twisty tales that often feature unreliable narrators, disturbed emotions, a healthy dose of moral ambiguity, and a sting in the tail. Longlist titles include NJ Cracknell’s The Perfect Couple, Beautiful People by Amanda Jennings and Catherine Steadman’s Look in the Mirror.
Tracy Sierra’s Nightwatching also makes two longlists: the Twisted and the Gold Dagger.
The Whodunnit Dagger celebrates books that focus on the intellectual challenge at the heart of a good mystery. Books in this category include cosy crime, traditional crime, and Golden Age-inspired mysteries.
Longlisted authors include Tess Gerritsen with The Spy Coast, Tom Spencer with They Mystery of the Crooked Man, and Lisa Hall with The Case of the Singer and the Showgirl.
The Dagger in the Library nominee longlist is voted by librarians and library users, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. This year sees firm favourites from the genre including Richard Osman, Kate Atkinson, Robert Galbraith, and Barbara Nadel.
The Emerging Author Dagger, which has been going for over 20 years, celebrates aspiring crime novelists and is sponsored by Fiction Feedback. The competition is open to unpublished authors, and is judged on the best opening for an unpublished crime novel. The winner will gain the attention of leading agents and top editors; over two dozen past winners and shortlisted Debut Dagger authors have signed publishing deals to date.
Mick Herron by Mikael Buck.
The CWA Diamond Dagger, awarded to an author whose crime-writing career has been marked by sustained excellence, is announced in early spring and in 2025 was awarded to Mick Herron.
I love to travel light. The idea of striding off into the sunset with just a clean pair of pants and a toothbrush in my backpack is my idea of heaven. Well yes OK, passport, credit cards, medications, shampoo, deodorant, fleece, rainproof mac, plug adapters, insect repellant, portable kitchen sink etc etc too, but my heart’s in the right place and my dreams are real.
So I’m all set for my trip to La Gomera – a small island off Tenerife which involves dashing off the plane, sprinting through passport control and around the corner to leap onto a local bus, followed by a twenty minute yomp from nearest bus stop to ferry, which departs around two hours from plane touch down. Clearly with these optimistically tight timings, waiting at the luggage carousel isn’t an option – so hand-luggage it is. Which isn’t a problem except for those, oh so tiny, plastic liquids bags in which I have to squeeze all my ‘look at least ten years younger’ potions plus, and, this is most important, my perfume.
So thanks heavens for Marc Jacobs, for making DaisyEau So Fresh Parfum capsules, and Perfume Direct for selling them at a crazily competitive price.
I can tell you that Daisy Eau So Fresh (part of the Daisy collection) is a lovely light fragrance, perfect for summer, but you’d have to take my word for that. So what I love about Perfume Direct, is their clear, objective descriptions to help you make your own decision. And they tell you that Daisy Eau So Freshis a floral, fruity, fresh fragrance. A sparkling, light and sunny scent with a vibrant energy. Sweetly feminine with enticing top notes of raspberry and grapefruit, a sensual heart of wild rose and a musky, sophisticated base of warm plum and cedarwood. There, you can almost smell it now, can’t you?
The Parfum capsules are just brilliant. Tiny capsules, so the tin containing all 30 fits easily in the palm of your hand, and, more importantly, takes up almost no room in the airport liquids bag. You simply twist a capsule and more than enough perfume is released to apply to neck, wrists, temples and other pulse points.
So if you’re planning a hand-baggage only trip, or simply want a small and convenient perfume to pop in your handbag, do tryDaisy Eau So Freshby Marc Jacobs, available at Perfume Direct for just £17.99 for 30 capsules (RRP £28).
By Dr K Thompson, author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows
Note: These articles express personal views. No warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information given and you should always consult a doctor if you need medical advice.
Frank Family Butchers offers the most amazing and wide range of locally sourced meats from either Thirsk auction or their family farm (Toft Gate Farm, Greenhow). Lucky lucky us, for Frank is now in its fourth year in Thirsk and just goes on extending its range with no lowering of quality. On the contrary, Frank’s rib of beef is something out of this world, and and let’s not forget the mince, and the big fat sausages… but I mustn’t go on though it would be so easy to do so, given the quality and choice.
Come along with me, as I need to tell you that their renovation which has just seen its first anniversary, has transformed the shop and made it so much easier for them, and us. Have a look.
Clearly a great deal of thought went into re-shaping the premises. Roll of drums: bring on the renovators: clatter clatter as everything was improved, from the tiles to the flooring, to the lighting, to the display counters, which were moved to form an L shape allowing more room for customers and making it easier for us to see ALL the pies at the end of the shop as well as ALL the meats. Honestly, it is a lesson in temptation. I can’t tell you how often I have gone in for just those big fat scrumptious sausages, and come out staggering under the weight of food I couldn’t resist.
The lack of resistance factor, sadly for my chubbiness, includes their pies. I am a sucker for crisp tasty pastry. Are you? If so, you will think you have entered a space called ‘happy’. My favourite pie is the pork and stilton. Or I think it is. It could just be the straight pork pie, or the pork with- No, I must stop. The only thing to do is to work your way from one end of the pie counter to the other. Probably take a year. No rush because you haven’t even started on the meats, and neither have you finished your conversation with Chief Honcho Simon Frank, who is serving you.
Eventually I move across to the meats, and start chatting to Jack, as I did yesterday. Don’t be fooled though, because all the while the customers are actually multi tasking. Yes, they are nodding and talking but are also eyeing the quite impossible to ignore cuts such as rib of beef, shoulder of lamb, chicken and on, and on but I’ve already mentioned the beef… I’m on a roll, you see.
One of the strengths of Frank Family Butchers is the prepared meals, and inevitably I gravitate to them because they make life so much easier. The choice is wide, so yesterday I picked out just one; the Italian Jobs. Jack had been busy earlier rustling up a few of these Italian treats and I felt sure they would be sublime. Naturally I needed to know the recipe, and how to actually make a good fist of cooking the chicken breasts. The real question was though, between you and me, could I possibly pass it off as my own work from start to finish? No? Oh, all right, you’re quite correct, my mother would be proud of you. ‘That’s fibbing, and not funny, nice or kind,’ she’d say.
However, this is what you would say, should you be tempted to claim all credit: lay out your chicken fillet , and fill with creamy mozzarella cheese, then wrap it in streaky bacon and finish with a light herby tomato marinade. And the cooking? Ah, easy peasy, just oven bake for 30 mins at 180 in the foil trays provided and enjoy with courgettes sauteed with rosemary tips, and sauteed potato, or salad. I’d suggest a glass of a decent Merlot would not go amiss. I confess I haven’t given it a go in an air fryer, but on a low heat I think it should be fine. Try it and see is the answer.
As for the Italian Jobs enjoyed yesterday evening. Honestly – perfection, and my family agreed. I cannot tell you if I fibbed or not. They could be reading this. But hooray for Frank Family Butchers. Great team and fabulous products. https://www.facebook.com/p/Frank-Family-Butchers-100083173420033/?locale=en_GB
My journey to become Catherine Yardley, author, was a tough one. It’s a known fact that writing is hard. Yes, the actual writing part can be tedious, but those who decide to go the traditional route quickly find out that writing the book was the easy part. The next part is getting a literary agent. The gatekeeper to a publishing deal. Finishing a book is a huge accomplishment in itself. When so much work goes into something, you want it to pay off. I had previously written non-fiction, and when the time came to try and get it published, I bought a copy of The Writer’s and Artist’s Yearbook. It’s embarrassing to admit now, but I thought the whole get-an-agent-thing seemed exhausting. I was already exhausted from writing the bloody book! So I did a ton of research and went straight to publishers. Even more shockingly, all the editors replied, and the book went to acquisitions. Everyone was so nice and supportive. This was in 2013. You would probably get blacklisted emailing your book to editors nowadays. I first queried my first fiction book, Ember, in 2020. It was a turbulent time in everyone’s life, and I wanted something good to happen. Yet I did not think for one second I would get an agent. Every rejection was confirmation of my belief that the book wasn’t good enough. This was just my first novel, I told myself. I will write more and query them too. In fact, I had two books: Ember and Where The Light is Hottest. I didn’t think the latter was ready yet. It took me six years to write both books simultaneously. I recommend having more than one book because an agent might like your writing but not the book you are querying. So, the first time was hard, but I wasn’t expecting success. 2020 was an incredibly traumatic year for me, and I was just trying to survive. In the end, I got two full requests from agents, signed with an agent, and also got offered two book deals. All good. Ember came out in March 2022 and did well. My agent was lovely, but we ended up parting ways. Which brings me to what I want every querying writer to know: other than losing a loved one or a traumatic event, querying was the worst thing for my mental health. The constant rejections, the full requests that might lead to all of your dreams coming true. It’s a rollercoaster of pain and elation. I got a full request immediately. Then another. Still, it took an entire year for me to sign with a new agent. I was relentless. For every rejection, I send another three queries out. I want writers to understand the physical and emotional toll querying takes on you. It is a hard thing to go through. I believe querying is harder than ever. Publishing is slow at the moment, so agents are being cautious about what they take on. The day I cancelled my premium querytracker subscription (a site with all of the agents on which lets you directly submit to them) was a brilliant one. Take care of yourself. Join up with other querying writers. Take regular mental health breaks. Know that it can happen at any moment. It only takes one yes. More than anything, know that going after your dreams is hard and you are brave.
Keep at it. You will get there too. Just keep writing those books.
My children absolutely love the Creator Instant Camera. You can print pictures immediately and then colour them in. It is great for keepsakes and scrapbooks. It’s such a clever idea, and it keeps children entertained for hours. It is easy to use. Hours of fun await. Make every moment one to remember with Canal Toy’s ultimate lineup. Capture the fun with the Photo Creator Instant Camera and print your favourite snaps on the go with the Photo Creator Instant Pocket Printer.
The Creator Instant Camera is your go-to for instant memories. Snap, print, and personalise with 20+ filters, video recording, and a rechargeable battery that keeps the fun going. With a 4GB micro-SD card, paper rolls, markers, and stickers included, every photo can be a masterpiece.
The Creator Instant Camera RRP is £54.99, and it is available to buy from Amazon, Smyths, Very & Argos
Want to print straight from your phone? The Creator Instant Pocket Printer turns digital photos into real keepsakes in seconds. Customise them with stickers and markers to make them truly one of a kind. Perfect for decorating, journaling, or sharing with friends.
The Creator Instant Pocket Printer RRP is £24.99, and it is available to buy from Amazon, Smyths & Very
A Digital Hub is what every community needs, but to be able to collect a laptop from the office and sit in the comfy area with a laptop or wherever you wish within the CCA, and type the lettter, or work on the internet in safety (because all data is removed once you are finished) is quite perfect. But how did a Digital Hub and the CCA come together?
Ah well, Nicol of the Sunderland City Council visited, and asked Marion if she’d be interested in adding a Digital Hub to all that the Columbia Community Association had to offer. Naturally Marion and Red Shoes Bob, our intrepid duo who have given their all to get the CCA up and running, snatched up the offer. How wonderful to add this free facility to the Community Association.
Without further ado, the equipment started arriving: a cabinet in which to house all the laptops:
A printer and a shredder:
Paper for the use of, and on and on… plus two great lads who came to fix all the online gubbins enabling the beast to awake. (I believe you can also be helped to get started.)
So, now the Digital Hub is up and running, and of course Dick and I had to pop along to my old stamping ground of Brady Square/Columbia to catch up with the gang, which were deep into the Friday coffee, cake and bingo morning.
Bob was the caller, we each had cards and when our number was called we had to shout whatever the shout-out word was that day, and sit down. It is hysterical, and often there is time for reminiscing. Not this time, but the time before it was fascinating to catch up with the gossip and boy, did we catch up. The CCA has now started proper reminiscing sessions to make sure the area is not forgotten. I am hoping to go to them, when time permits.
My mother-in-law always used to say ‘All youth is beautiful’. As the years have slipped by I realise her wisdom. Sadly my wrinkled skin no longer qualifies for the youth category, even at a stretch, and so I need all the help I can.
A number of scientific studies suggest that taking collagen supplements can improve skin hydration and skin elasticity and more and more people are using collagen supplements for healthier skin, hair, and nails. However collagen molecules themselves are too big to be absorbed well, so one must first break down the collagen into smaller peptides to enjoy the benefits.
Thankfully TIDE is on the case. A husband and wife team, both with impressive experience of running businesses, the founders, Louise and James Gray are passionate about their collagen sparkling waters. Do check out their informative website.
Not only is the delicious raspberry drink a very enjoyable way to take collagen supplements, but each 250ml can contains 3.5g of collagen peptides, sustainably-sourced from MSC-certified wild-caught fish. The founders have perfected an enzymatic processing system and precise spray-drying for optimal absorption of this high-quality collagen and it’s great to know that the drink is free from artificial sweeteners too.
So having really enjoyed my first can, I’m excited to watch for my new radiant, wrinkle-free skin and healthy hair and nails.
You can buy this great product from the TIDEwebsite at £30 for 12 cans, or just £27 if you go for the subscribe and save option. A great healthy treat for your skin, hair and nails.
By Dr K Thompson, award-winning author of From Both Ends of the Stethoscope: Getting through breast cancer – by a doctor who knows
Note: These articles express personal views. No warranty is made as to the accuracy or completeness of information given and you should always consult a doctor if you need medical advice.
