A mathematical genius writes...

The heading is tongue in cheek. While I am, in fact, an arithmetical genius, the mathematical side of me took a sharp exit when letters were introduced. z = 7.3? Nope, z equals zzz when that lot of blighters were introduced. I went from top percentile in Scotland for 4th year high school Arithmetic to less than 30% for 5th year Maths. The adding, the subtracting, the dividing, the multiplying - all in the head, mind - no bother to this soldier. In short, numbers easy, latter letters of the alphabet bad. And don't get me started on cos, sin, tan. Calculus, schmalculus.

All this is ironic a tad however, when you consider my genes. No, 'genes' - the other would be a whole different article. The book in the pic was written by the brother of my paternal grandmother. A priest in the US, I only knew him as a child before his passing, and met him, I think, only twice. Known to me as 'uncle Bill', it was only after his death that I was introduced to this book. The photo is a wee cheat as it's iPhone from Amazon, but it was quite something to see it on that site. Look, I know Amazon is huge, but to know that this book, written fifty years ago and by a relative, is quite special. My aunt keeps the three family copies - I'm a million miles away from thinking about value though, just a lovely, treasured memento.

Seeing it again today has inspired me to write again. I have a marketing-ish book at the thinking stage, and I've written (but never published) a bundle of things in a past life - a screenplay, a tv sitcom pilot, a play and a whole bundle of songs (more in a future blip - I've no musical training, just lyrics and melody). You and I know though - it won't be a maths book...