The Merger

I don’t say much about my day job on this blog or my website – because fiction is all about forms of escapism - but of course it occupies my thoughts a lot, and explains why I don’t find time to achieve all I’d like to in the world of crime fiction and blogging!

Anyway, day after day for over a year now I’ve been closely involved in negotiations to merge my firm with a large national practice, and I'm delighted to say that the deal finally took effect on 1 May. So after 31 years with Mace & Jones, I’m now a partner in Weightmans LLP. And after all that time working in the same building, I will soon show a streak of adventurousness by moving to Weightmans’ office – which just happens to be next door to my old one....

April Fools

25 years ago today, I became a partner in Mace & Jones, the Liverpool law firm where I continue to work. So my elevation came on April Fool’s Day – and by an interesting coincidence, I qualified as a solicitor on April Fool’s Day, back in 1980. Perhaps that says something about my legal career.

I also got married one April day, and – much to my Dad’s amusement – insisted that the celebratory music, nearly all of which was written by my hero Burt Bacharach, should include the theme song to an unremarkable movie that I’ve never seen, called… The April Fools. A very beautiful melody, by the way.

All of which leads me to a question which I hope the knowledgeable people who glance at this blog may be able to answer. I’ve never come across a story which had, as an important element of the plot, the fact that it was set on April Fool’s Day. I have such an idea in mind, but before I start writing it down, I’d be interested to know if anyone has beaten me to it…..