Stylish Blogger Award

Kinch was determined to keep his speech short and low key...

The stylish blogger award is doing the rounds that moment, normally I'm quite suspicious of these chain letter things, but I've become quite taken with this one - mainly because it has meant that I've learned about some interesting blogs that I wouldn't otherwise have come across and secondly because I've learned a little more about some of the people I spend so much time reading*.

So without further ado.

1. Thank and link back to the person giving you the award.

Many thanks to...

Donogh of Land War in Asia - a frequent partner in crime and a man with an unwholesome obsession with Piquet. His blog, Land War in Asia, is a constant reminder of my inadequacy and has lots of nice pictures, so nice in fact, that nine times out of ten, I steal them.

Steve of just too many blogs to mention - Steve is a very community minded fellow, whose efforts to make Tabletop Teasers available to the general public is an inspiration. I only wish that he was able to game more.

Bob Cordery of Wargaming Miscellany - certainly the most profilic blogger here, Bob is a man who shares my love of hexes and grids and fast playing simple rules. Sadly he combines it with a tendency to tinker with rules like women change clothes. His blog is always worth reading.

Tim Gow of Megablitz and More - Tim is another prolific blogger with a love 1/144th scale aviation that knows neither sense nor reason. Fortunately, he is now taking in an interest in Funny Little Wars and may soon be reintroduced to polite society.

Stokes Swartz of the Duchy of Stollen - a cracking read and the whole reason I got into this blogging nonsense in the first place. He may someday be called to account for that.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

1. I learned to read from "Biggles Pioneer Air Fighter by Captain W.E. Johns". This had a significant formative influence on me, shaping my understanding of right and wrong, duty, what it is to be a man, my interest in all things military and my raging Anglophilia. Twenty four years on since I first read this book, I still say "Well, that will stop me laughing in Church."

2. I have worked in a variety of fields; for the Church of Ireland as a lay member, five years in the book trade, as a tour guide, as a picture editor for a Murdoch owned newspaper -ahem- comic and now as a policeman, though I am apparently untypical of the breed. As Mrs Kinch once delicately put it, "Conrad is rarely mistaken for a policeman."

3. I'm a practicing member of the Anglican Church in Ireland, practicing I hasten to add because I'm not very good yet. I pray three times a day, though sadly my most commonly uttered prayer is "O Lord, if at times I forget thee, please do not forget me."

4. Between the ages of seven and thirteen, I had a very odd series of nightmares - which after some prompting I eventually told my parents about. They apparently related to a murder which my mother and I witnessed while on a family holiday behind the Iron Curtain. While I remember certain sections of the incident vividly, I am to this day not entirely sure what I saw. I am somewhat skeptical of eye-witness testimony as a result.

5. Despite a life time spent devoted to a civil sort of misogyny, I am married to the beautiful, extremely talented and exceptionally patient Mrs Kinch. Mrs Kinch was one of my teachers in Secondary School. This is not as sordid as it sounds.

6. I once ran a play by email game which included Paddy Griffith as a player. As a life long admirer of the man, I am indescribably proud of this fact and only regret that I allowed the contact to lapse when I went to college. It was a privilege to know him, even if it was just by email, even more so to have him critique some writing of mine. I will never forgive myself for failing to keep in touch.

7. My mother was very keen that I not have access to toy guns and the like. I have a vivid memory of my four year old self watching her open a bagged set of Cowboys and Indians, remove the Cowboys (who were ideologically suspect) and leave the Indians (who were politically pure) and then staple the card cover over the bag. My father took a somewhat more pragmatic view and my first memory of toy soldiers was during a stay in Holles Street Hospital (I was a frequent flier and must have been a very trying child in this respect). He brought in a set of cheap toy soldiers from the hospital shop and would set them up on my tray table for me. They were copies of Matchbox British and German infantry and they were packed away at the end of every visit, accompanied by a solemn promise that I was not to tell my mother.

Words cannot express the magic of that experience.

3. Select 10-15 blogs who you think deserve this award.

There are far too many to choose from, but the chance to gush is too rare not to be availed of.

http://flanderkin.blogspot.com/ - Currently on sabbatical, John Preece's blog is a pleasure to be sipped, rather than gulped. Ruminations of the early days of the hobby, beautifully painted miniatures - magical stuff.

http://golcondarising.blogspot.com - The Great White Zulu is an unusual blogger, unusual in that his blog is tightly focused on his project to raise armies for the Seven Years War in India. Beautiful figures, nice terrain, interesting research - all in all, a real feast for the eyes.

http://tradgardland.blogspot.com/ - A fine blog written by a chap whose grace under pressure and simple pleasure in the hobby is an example to us all. More of this please.

http://gameofmonth.blogspot.com/ - Ross McFarlane's blog is always full of good things, most of which involve kicking Yankees out of Canada in 1812 and later. This and a commendable interest in the Sikh Wars makes him required reading. A devotee of the Toy Soldier school, he manages to game with a regularity that inspires envy and dismay in your correspondent.

Mrs Kinch also has designs on his cat.

http://rosbiffrog.blogspot.com/ - A wild colonial boy, Rosbif is a relatively new addition to my blogroll. He posts frequently and well and his book reviews are always worth a look. If only he could get over his Continental obsession and focus on the Peninsula, where the real fighting of the Napoleonic wars took place, his blog would be perfect.

http://saxe-bearstein.blogspot.com/ - Jeff presents a well written blog with a Colonial focus with some diversions on to the ocean blue. A short chamber Box-Henry point-four-five calibre blog.

http://soweiterleague.blogspot.com/ - Fitz-Badger writes an amusing Imagination blogs, some 18th century, some Colonial and some 18th century Colonial. A blogger that is unafraid to wear his jokes on his sleeve.

http://winterof79.blogspot.com/ - Another imagination blog, but very different to the others on this list. The author sets his games in an alternative 1979 where a Second English Civil War has broken out. An interesting idea well executed, often with personal observations (the author is a child of the seventies) that add depth to what could have very easily have been a one trick pony.

I often wonder what "Yes Minister" would have been like in this universe.

http://prometheusinaspic.blogspot.com/ - Probably one of the best blogs listed here, Foys ruminations on wargaming, life and Dandelion removing irons bought with rush money always provoke a response. Unlike me, Foy also thinks before he opens his mouth or starts typing, which makes his blog doubly unusual.

http://warcabinet.blogspot.com/ - if Donogh's blog can bring home a sense of ones inadequacy, Phil's is likely to drive any normal chap to his quarters with a bottle of brandy and a Webley. Beautifully painted figures, well planned and executed projects, engagingly written posts; there is no justice.

http://vintagewargaming.blogspot.com/ - Clive is a real benefactor to the hobby, tracking down old and interesting material from the early days and making it available to a wider audience. He also likes Command & Colours: Napoleonics, the man is a class act.

And now I really must stop, this much gushing is getting embarrassing...

4. Contact these bloggers and let them know about the award.

It has come to my attention that some of those bloggers have already been nominated; I suppose they shall have to bear the cross of being nominated twice!

*I have more gray hair than Stokes Swartz, who knew? I also never knew Bob Cordery used to work as a male Glamour Model. Nice stuff, though. Very tasteful.