Nicks` Cabinet of Curios

Jama was a UK-based reggae record label.  De Koningh and Griffiths in their book Tighten Up ; The History of Reggae in the UK quote singer Pat Rhoden as saying that the label was begun by himself, Tito Simon and Earl Martin, the reason being that the two labels he had previously been working with, Pama and Trojan, were not recording new material at that time.  It`s said that Jama was short for Jamaica. I have always wondered if the idea was to create something that could easily be mistaken for the output of the longer-established Pama, but that`s just speculation on my part. Jama was active in the `70s and early `80s. The parent company was Jama Music and there were two or three subsidiaries, Eagle, Love and (I think) Wolf.  I have read that Earl Martin dropped out of the company later, to be replaced by Les Foster. However, that`s just from memory and I`ve not been able to check that*.  The top disc is one of Pat Rhoden`s own singles, Sweet ...

T E B Clarke - Murder at Buckingham Palace - Hale - 1981 This is the book I`m reading at the moment. Thomas Ernest Bennett Clarke, known by the nickname Tibby, was a prolific author of both fiction and non-fiction but is probably best remembered as a screenplay writer (The Blue Lamp, Passport to Pimlico, The Lavender Hill Mob and more). He is known for writing crime fiction novels disguised to seem like works of non-fiction, Murder at Buckingham Palace being a case in point. In fact, the disguise is pretty thin and I cannot imagine anyone reading this without realising it is a novel.  While I haven`t finished it yet it is thoroughly enjoyable and I`m giving serious thought to trying some of his other books.