It’s not everyday that one of you friends release their debut novel but that is exactly what my good friend David Skivington has done this week.

Scar Tissue is a fictional story but many of the issues raised in the book are very real, looking at the prejudice faced by the Dalit caste and also the cruelty of human trafficking.

The book tells the story of Rachel and her husband’s secret life. The back cover reads as follows:

“In a single phone call, Rachel’s entire life unravels. Transported to a dingy basement in Kolkata to identify the body of her murdered husband she has no explanation for his presence in India. As she searches for answers about who the man she married really was she finds his death surrounded by allegations of drug smuggling, child trafficking and murder. Unsure of what is true and who she can trust, Rachel has no idea of the danger her husband’s hidden life has put her in.”

David completed an MA in Development Studies in which he explored the cause of many social issues. His studies focused particularly on the caste system in India. After this he trained as a teacher and taught RE in the UK for three years. He is now working as a volunteer, teaching English to children in a rural orphanage school in Andhra Pradesh, South East India.

David loves being immersed in different cultures and has used his experiences in India to craft his new novel.

I caught up with David and asked him about what his inspiration for his debut novel was and here’s what he revealed:

“I volunteered in Kolkata working among street children for six months when I was 18 and it had a massive effect on me. Seeing the poverty, and particularly the reinforcement the caste system had on keeping people in the cycle of poverty challenged me to do something to raise awareness of what was going on in our world. As well as this, while in Kolkata I was approached by and offered young girls. This, and future years contact with numerous charities made me want to try and challenge the horrendous practice of human trafficking and I saw my writing as a way to do this.”

Scar Tissue (Published by Fisher King Publishing) is now available for Kindle on Amazon UK for just £2 or as a paperback.

I have featured Noddle before on here and it is a great free service that allows you to keep track of your credit score. 

Although their free service is great and is exactly what it says on the tin (FREE), they also have a premium service called Noddle Improve. 

They are going to be paying off a different Noddle Improve customers credit card every fortnight. 

Check out their blog post for more information by clicking here.

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It’s been a long time coming but Tumblr have now optimised their iOS app for the iPad.

It might have been a long time coming but it seems like its been worth the wait.

A great example of this would be their £10 Goodybag which for £10 per month (it is pay as you go so you are not committed to a long contract although they do have the ability to set it to auto-renew monthly) they give you:

• 250 UK minutes
• Unlimited UK Texts
• Unlimited Mobile Internet
• Free Giffgaff to Giffgaff calls

Identity theft is a problem that you hear a lot about and appears to be on the rise. It is also something that everyone needs to be mindful of in order to ensure that we don’t become another one of the statistics. 

Aside from being careful with correspondence with your personal information on (shred ALL personal information), not revealing your pin numbers to anyone and covering your hand when entering them at the cash point, another way to keep an eye on things is to check your credit rating. Doing this will mean that you can check that everything against your credit rating is legitimate. 

I really begrudge having to pay to check that I am not going to be one of the statistics and Experian and Equifax are two companies that offer a trial period but then you have to pay a monthly fee to use their service. 

Today, I found a great new service called Noddle (thanks to MoneySavingExpert.com) which offers access to your credit report and it is free for life (although they do have a paid service also if you want to sign up for Noddle Improve which aims to help you to understand and improve your credit rating). 

Noddle is simple to sign up for and to use once signed up. It is easy to understand and I would highly recommend it. 

Just make sure you login every now and then as, if you don’t access Noddle for more than 3 months, they reserve the right to cancel your account. 

Go now and @useyournoddle!

I really enjoyed watching Being Liverpool on Channel 5 tonight.

Anyone that knows me knows that I’m a massive Liverpool fan and its been a very frustrating time for us over the last few years.

It was really refreshing to see the club behind the scenes but also to see Brendan Rodgers and some of the players spending time with their families and relaxing.

I thought all the players and the manager came across really well and I am looking forward to seeing next weeks episode.

YNWA