The Silver Pigs by Lindsey Davis

This is the first book of the series about a private informer, Didius Falco, in the Roman Empire. The background of Falco is slowly explained after the plunge into the first mystery as to why a beautiful young lady is running in the Forum being chased by some unsavoury characters. Falco rescues her and take her to his home. Soon he finds out that she is related to a senator who hires him to find out why this young lady was abducted. Slowly facts emerge that something had been hidden in the young lady’s bank vault and this was the cause of the attempted kidnap. 

Falco obtains this object, a silver pig, or ingot of lead with silver before it is extracted. This is from the silver mines in Britain and is the property of the government. So what is it doing here in the streets of Rome? It had been found and kept secretly by the senator while investigations were initiated to find out how this ingot got out of the hands of the government. But just as Falco takes up the case to keep the young lady safe she is murdered. Who killed this very pretty young lady and why had she asked Falco to meet her at a warehouse? 

It appears to tie in with the silver pig and so Falco sets out to Britain to find out how the ingots were being smuggled out from there and reaching the Roman rebels, as this much finance could only mean a plot to overthrow the emperor. The only way Falco can find out what is happening to get work in the mines by impersonating as a runaway slave. Will he succeed? How will he get out of the mines again? I need to stop giving away the plot here as this takes us well into the first part of the conspiracy uncovered by Falco. He has still a long way to go before he can identify who killed his young client. He meets the cousin of that young lady who at first is not very endearing but she grows on Falco as they spend time together.

This is a good murder mystery with a political conspiracy to thicken the plot. The way of life during those Roman Empire days are well described. The places are of course named as they were then and often require guess work particularly when they are in West Country in Britain. There is romance and friendship and tussle between republican and royalist ideology. I am going to enjoy reading the rest of the series if this first sample is anything to go by. Happy reading to all.

Personal Tutor Role in Professional Education - Allocation of Personal Tutor

Discussion of the first aspect of findings from the unpublished research –

Williams M, 1999, ‘Exploring the Role of the Personal Tutor in Nurse Education, Department of Education, University of Surrey, unpublished.

Generally, at the onset of the course, students are allocated a personal tutor. This allocation is done on the basis of tutor workload, that is, the number of personal students a tutor has and the Branch speciality chosen by the student. Majority of students and tutors indicate that there needs to be a freedom of choice given to the students regarding their personal tutor. A small group of students do identify that they were offered a choice of personal tutor, but this could be for those individuals who have made specific requests or changed their Branch program speciality. 

The tutors in favour of providing the students with this choice reason that there is a need for development of a good relationship, which will allow the student to avail support from a tutor they perceive as approachable. The tutors within nurse education are familiar with the principles of adult education (Knowles 1984) as it forms the basis or the educational philosophy and is seen to be the preferred method of teaching within the institution (as found by Akinsanya 1998). As discussed in the earlier blog, the foundation of this type of support is a good relationship, under the circumstances, it is logical that students would need to be given a choice of their personal tutor. These are the very reasons pointed out by the tutors when explaining why students may wish to change their personal tutor. This is elaborated by identifying problems like personality clash, lack of support, poor access and availability, and that the student knows and has a better relationship with another tutor. 

The students are in agreement of this. They see their need for choosing their personal tutor stemming from problems of relationship, access and availability of their personal tutor. However more tutors than students point out that age, gender, race / culture could be factors influencing the relationship between the student and the personal tutor. The lack of understanding of the student’s background can, not only hamper the forming of a relationship but can also create misunderstanding and breakdown of existing relationship (Earwaker 1992). Very few students stated that the personal tutor could be of the same gender. Tutors also indicate an awareness of need to change personal tutor when student changes Branch program, as it is beneficial to the student. This is not highlighted by the student, which is indicative of the fact, that generally there are very few students who change branch and when they do so, a change of personal tutor has been arranged.

Another point addressed by the tutors and not the students, is that the tutor should also have a choice in stating that particular student should be given another personal tutor. This may be necessary when a tutor becomes aware of the needs of the student and an existing lack of good relationship, so a change would benefit the student. This choice for the personal tutor is however not available so unless the student demands a change, nothing happens. Since the onus of seeking out the personal tutor and thereby the responsibility of forming a relationship is more on the student, they need to request a change if they want it. Nevertheless, if there are problems, the tutor needs to discuss these with the student and work out a solution, before the step of changing the personal tutor is taken. This is not always possible as the student may not visit the personal tutor or lack self-awareness regarding need for support. It can be a time consuming process when there are other pressing demands on both student and tutor time.

The few tutors, who have been of the opinion that students should not be offered a choice, reasoned that it could lead to an imbalance of workload, that is, in the student tutor ratio. It would also be impractical to wait for the student to make a choice at the onset of the course. Still, this problem can be overcome by initially allocating a personal tutor and giving a choice at a later time. Students would prefer to be offered a choice within three to six months of the onset of the course, as they would have had time to get to know different tutors. The second most identified time for being offered this change is at the time of change from Common Foundation Program to Branch Program. Lastly the choice should be available to students whenever there are difficulties, academic problems and communication breakdown.

Tutors from one site specifically identified the problem with lack of continuity of support to the student, if the tutor was changed, which could affect record keeping and student profiling, the very advantages pointed out by Hitchcock (1990). However, at present only personal tutorial records are maintained by the tutor, as other academic records are maintained centrally by field administration, along with attendance and clinical placement records. Therefore, if there is a change of personal tutor, only tutorial records and records of any communication with the student, are to be handed to the new personal tutor. Since the student tends to choose a personal tutor who she has developed a relationship with, it is not likely that there will be a break in continuity of support, a factor more important than maintaining of records and student profiling.

These detailed findings regarding allocation of a personal tutor can be applied to most professional courses as well as other qualifications, especially long courses as the issue is about when to allocate and how to allocate personal tutor.

Role of Personal Tutor in Professional Education - Introduction

Discussion section of unpublished research - 

Williams M, 1999, ‘Exploring the Role of the Personal Tutor in Nurse Education, Department of Education, University of Surrey, unpublished.

Research into the understanding of the needs of students and perceptions of the tutors (within nurse education) helped to tease out the issues that are important to both students and tutors, with regard to this role (Williams 1999).

The main influence on the tutors’ perception of this important role is the past experience, both as a tutor and as a student. Both, the positive and negative experiences of support from a personal tutor, have been mentioned, along with the development of personal philosophy of education and commitment. Very few tutors look on other tutors as role models for the development of this role. The other big influence is the time constraints, particularly with regard to differing needs and motivation of students. This means that the provision of this service is based on the demands of individual needs. This, though a suitable approach, is based on reaction to the situation rather than a proactive approach and decision to provide individualised support. Some point out the influence of changes within nurse education and the nursing profession itself. This includes the move into higher education and the use of modular system in delivery of courses.

While the role appears to have developed through experiential learning on the part of the tutors, learning through role models has been limited. It is interesting to note that lack of literature is obvious, as that has not been mentioned as a factor influencing perception of the role. It appears that changes have been made in a reactive approach to role development, instead of using proactive methods to develop what is stated as an essential service by both the tutors and the students. This is surmised through the changes made in the functioning of personal tutors. In the past, the personal tutor had both academic and pastoral support roles to play. The personal tutor was generally available and accessible on site. 

With the move into higher education and amalgamation of different schools, the tutors travel between sites so availability and access have decreased. The introduction of a modular system brought about a split of pastoral support role from academic support role. For, the academic support, the part relating to the actual knowledge base, is now referred to the module operator while the personal tutor supports academic skills. This split, however, cannot be made in reality so students hold tutorials with module operators, and obtain complete academic support. This, along with time constraints, has brought about a change in the way we support our students. Philips (1994) agrees that, the academic support is the main role of the personal tutor, however it stems from some pastoral care of support and friendship. This will mean bringing back together the pastoral care and academic support within the role of the personal tutor.

The role as identified by the university does not to take into account this dichotomy. Therefore, there is likely to be a conflict generated between what is asked of the tutors, their own perception of the role and the limitations due to afore mentioned changes. So the high response rate, to my research, can be taken to be an interest by the tutors to have clarification and guidance regarding their role as a personal tutor as suggested by Earwaker (1989a, b).

The changes have thus affected the service the students get, and when students from various sites meet, there is an exchange of ideas, regarding the course as well as the support provided. So interest of the students can stem from two factors. First, the students could, have noted a difference in provision of this service, between sites. Second, students are unsure of what support the personal tutor can provide to them because for academic content they have to see someone else. The provision of support is generally discussed with students during tutorials and evaluation of the modules.

The Greek Key by Colin Forbes

This is the spy thriller set in the 80s during the time of change in the Soviet Union and move to end the Cold War. However, the crux of the whole conspiracy is in the murder that was committed about 40 years ago, during World War 11, in Cairo. Was that one linked to another murder on the Siros during a commando raid?

Back to present day, one of Tweed’s sector chief, Harry Masterson, is murdered in Greece. Before his death he had sent a box with random things in it which could be clues to what he was doing in Greece with a beautiful Greek woman. They point to both Greece and to Exmoor. So Tweed sends the famous and vetted by SIS reporter Newman and the best marksman Marler to investigate the Greek end. While he goes with Paula to Exmoor and see what the 3 retired army officers are worried about, living close together and in more or less fortified houses.

Who are all the horsemen riding around the moor? Why is an ex-policeman, digging into the 40 year old murder, in Cairo, investigating the 3 ex-army officers? Was he close to finding the murderer? Is the father of the murdered man, an old world Greek out for revenge and responsible for the killings happening in the present day? Is there a conspiracy that is using this old vendetta as a smoke screen?

A well woven plot and works through all the clues and situations in detail. It takes time to develop all the threads and link them up in the final few chapters. Will they be able to avert the looming disaster? Will they be able to find out who the mastermind and murderer is?

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel which is the sixth book in this series. You get to know the characters better and as some of the team members are still getting to know one another. The team is well formed by the end of this book as this continues (seen from the later books) to be the core team to investigate and protect. These earlier books were also quite long and plots intricate and so very hard to put down until complete.