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Hindustan Times
18-05-2025
- General
- Hindustan Times
Literary Rehab: How to balance Life with Lit
Dear Reader, This is my week of non-reading. I've been forced into literary rehab. As someone who spends all their free time between the pages of a book, this is pure torture. The only times I haven't read were when I was forbidden to —maybe there were exams, or maybe my mother decreed I was straining my eyes too much. Even then, there were always inventive ways around the ban: reading a Five Find-Outers mystery between my science textbooks or reading Gone with the Wind under the sheets. But now, even I know it's time to stop reading. I've returned to Mumbai to a house filled with cartons that need unpacking, a desk cluttered with unpaid invoices, and chaos in every corner. I have a week to fix it all before leaving again. The writing is on the wall: I need to stop reading—even my to-be-read list. Sonya, don't look at Audition by Katie Kitamura, never mind that your book club is reading it. Or How to Kill Your Family by Bella Mackie, by your bedside after your girls recommended it as riveting. Or Fasting—no, you can't call it 'health research.' and pretend that's not reading. Sonya, read the writing on the wall. Stop Reading. My friends say, 'You read so much!' like it's a virtue. (The truth? I've long disguised my escapist addiction as self-improvement. My notebooks are plastered with lofty quotes: 'Reading fiction allows us to explore the depths of our own emotions, question the world around us' 'Readers are leaders,' etc. All true—but did those wise souls mean for me to neglect life entirely?) I skim from story to story, drunk on make-believe. Monday: Chinese spies in The Hidden Hand by Stella Rimington. Tuesday: Shanghai murder mysteries. Wednesday: Nigerian sci-fi in Death of the Author. Friday: House of Huawei. And on the weekend, real life scams in Empire of Pain and The Everything War. Sounds perfectly bookish I know. Except that at this point, between you and me, and strictly off the record - it's time to stop. My binge-reading has left me mired in a mountainous mess. And it's just a week of not reading—how bad could it be? Plus I've done it once before. Six years ago, following Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way program, I was forced to quit all reading as part of the course. For a whole week ! The first days were hell—what to do in queues, waiting rooms or winding down before bed? But slowly, I re-learned to play the piano, sketched, even tidied drawers. Shockingly, not reading had unexpected perks. Also Read | Book Box | Reading without rules Now on Day 1 of literary detox, I clear my desk, my cupboard and my hard drive. Afterwards, I slump onto my reading spot (red cushion, propped pillows) with no soothing prospect of a book before me. Instead I stare into space, at my walls full of bookshelves, and wonder: Did I always read this much? At 21, studying at IIM Calcutta, I barely touched novels—just MBA notes. Work life weekends in Mumbai revived my habit. Motherhood pared reading down to Saki and Maugham short stories, read in bits between baby cries. Now, with grown kids, I read 100+ books a year, and binge on book clubs. This week is different. With no books to gobble my attention, I discover life beyond the pages. I sit about more, I day dream. The girls and I go buy flowers, we go hunting for light fixtures. I make mango ice cream, egg sandwiches and homemade mustard. I write more. I start writing a screenplay. I also end up irritating my family ! Suddenly I am noticing all their little misdeeds and their messes. Go back to your murder mysteries, they beg me. As the week draws to a close, I am strangely content. This literary detox feels like a palate cleanser, like breathing in the scent of coffee beans between glasses of wine. I am more intentional and more mindful about my reading life. I shift away from the latest bestsellers and decide to begin a long planned project - re-reading old classics, beginning with The Brothers Karamazov. It feels like this break - even from a good habit - has sparked creativity in me, and given me more focus. Going back to reading is amazing - for reading is magic—it deepens our empathy, stretches our imagination, and connects us to lives we'll never live. But I realise there's another kind of magic too: unhurried conversations, homemade mustard, swimming with your daughters, noticing the shape of your day. The best stories aren't just the ones you read—they are also the ones you pause long enough to live. (Sonya Dutta Choudhury is a Mumbai-based journalist and the founder of Sonya's Book Box, a bespoke book service. Each week, she brings you specially curated books to give you an immersive understanding of people and places. If you have any reading recommendations or suggestions, write to her at sonyasbookbox@ The views expressed are personal.)
The Independent
19-03-2025
- The Independent
British teenager who killed family and planned school massacre gets minimum 49 years in prison
A 19-year-old British man who shot and killed his mother and two younger siblings and who wanted to carry out a high-profile school shooting was told Wednesday he will not be eligible for parole for at least 49 years. At the sentencing hearing at Luton Crown Court, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said she had considered handing Nicholas Prosper a full life sentence in prison but opted against that given his age — he was 18 at the time of the shootings — and the fact that he had pleaded guilty, Last month, Prosper admitted at a hearing to murdering his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, and his 13-year-old sister Giselle Prosper and 16-year-old brother Kyle Prosper at the apartment the family shared in Luton, Bedfordshire, on Sept. 13. He had also stabbed his brother more than 100 times. The judge said Prosper had wanted to emulate and outdo atrocities around the world, including the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in Dec. 2012, when 26 people, mostly children were killed, and the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007 when 30 people were killed. 'Your ambition was notoriety," she told Prosper, who had to be forced to come to the court to hear his fate. 'You wanted to be known posthumously as the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century.' The judge said Prosper's case featured many 'recurrent themes' seen in school shootings around the world, including a sexual interest in children, a withdrawal into an online world, a lack of empathy towards victims and the selection of a 'uniform' for the killings. The court was told that Prosper, who had been unable to stay in education or hold down a job, had been planning the attack on his family and his old elementary school on Friday the 13th — the date was no accident, with Prosper thinking it would give him even more notoriety. He managed to forge a gun license and used it to buy a shotgun and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders. Prosper had intended to kill his family in their sleep but his mother had woken up, and after realizing something was 'terribly wrong,' a struggle ensued. After shooting his mother, Prosper left a copy of the novel 'How to Kill Your Family' on her legs, before shooting his sister as she hid under a table, and then stabbing and shooting his brother. 'The lives of your own mother and younger brother and sister were to be collateral damage on the way to fulfil your ambition," the judge said. She added that Prosper appeared 'cheerful' and had blood on his hands, clothes and glasses when he was picked up by police in a nearby street after the attack had been reported by a neighbor, Bedfordshire Police Detective Superintendent Rob Hall read a statement on behalf of Prosper's father Raymond Prosper, in which he said the deaths of his ex-partner Juliana and his son Kyle and daughter Giselle, had 'much more meaning and importance.' 'Their deaths and the fast response of Bedfordshire Police stopped any other family in the community going through the pain we have suffered,' he said.
The Independent
19-03-2025
- The Independent
Triple killer who wanted to be notorious mass murderer jailed for life
A triple murderer who killed three members of his family and was plotting a school shooting has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years. Nicholas Prosper, 19, from Luton, who wanted to become a notorious mass murderer, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Wednesday. He was jailed for life for the murders with a minimum term of 49 years – a total of 48 years and 177 days when the amount of time he has already been in custody is taken into account. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him: 'You intended to unleash disaster on the community of Luton. Your plans were intelligent, calculating and selfish. 'Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century. 'The lives of your own mother and younger brother and sister were to be collateral damage on the way to fulfil your ambition.' He had to be ordered to come to court after initially refusing to attend the second day of his sentencing hearing. Prosper shot his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at the flat the family shared in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 last year, and stabbed his brother more than 100 times. He hid for just over two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields. The teenager, who had been unable to stay in education or hold down a job, had been planning to carry out a mass shooting at his old primary school driven by a desire for notoriety. A forensic psychiatrist said he had 'an extreme lack of empathy and remorse', which were psychopathic tendencies. Prosper managed to forge a gun licence and used it to buy a shotgun and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders. The Government said it is 'urgently looking' at how 'deep and long-standing weaknesses in the private sale of firearms' can be addressed. He admitted three counts of murder as well as purchasing a shotgun without a certificate, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and possession of a kitchen knife in a public place at an earlier hearing. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 18 years for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, 3.5 years for buying the gun and one year for possession of the knife, to run concurrently. Prosper refused to stand in the dock as he was sentenced. Horror unfolded at the family flat at about 5am on September 13 last year, when Prosper carried out a test shot into a teddy bear in his bedroom before launching the attack. He first killed his mother, leaving a copy of the novel How to Kill Your Family on her legs, before shooting his 'terrified' sister as she hid under a table, and then stabbing and shooting his brother. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court that Juliana Falcon was a hard-working woman who cared for her children and had tried to get Prosper to get help when he was struggling at school. 'She was an innocent victim of an ungrateful, unfeeling son, whose only wish was to be famous through destroying the lives of young children,' the judge said. Kyle Prosper had 'his whole future ahead, he fought bravely for his life, but there was no contest with his older armed brother', she told the court. Giselle, who was just 13, was 'a smiling girl, no doubt the treasure of her parents and friends'. Prosper later told a prison nurse he had wanted to cause 'the biggest massacre in the 21st century' by murdering his family and carrying out a mass shooting at his former primary school. He deliberately chose Friday 13 for the day of the attack. Throughout secondary school up to the end of year 11 there had been no concerns about him – he was described as a quiet and geeky boy with a small group of friends who were into computers. But once he began sixth form he stopped engaging with school staff or his family, and refused help from mental health workers. His then-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder meant he could not stay in mainstream education or hold down a job, and he became increasingly isolated, spending more time online and becoming obsessed with school shootings. Defending, David Bentley KC said he had gone down 'an internet wormhole'. He plotted for months to kill his family and carry out the school shooting, even choosing a black and yellow uniform that he would wear for the killing spree. Speaking outside court, Detective Superintendent Rob Hall read a statement on behalf of Raymond Prosper, the father of Nicholas, Giselle and Kyle. It said: 'We are devastated by the loss of our loved ones, and are horrified to hear what Nicholas had planned. He had completely isolated himself from us over the past year, and we had no knowledge of his intentions. 'We now see the deaths of Juliana, my son Kyle and daughter Giselle, had much more meaning and importance. Their deaths and the fast response of Bedfordshire Police stopped any other family in the community going through the pain we have suffered.' Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb also told the court: 'Juliana Falcon, Kyle Prosper and Giselle Prosper's deaths are almost certain to have saved the lives of many children. The community owes them its gratitude and their memory should be honoured.' Prosper, who wanted to outdo the death tolls seen in the 2012 Sandy Hook and 2007 Virginia Tech school massacres, has expressed pride in his crimes since he has been in prison, the judge said. Detective Chief Inspector Sam Khanna, who led the investigation, said Juliana, Kyle and Giselle 'were brutally murdered by someone they loved, who they should have been able to trust'. 'It is their names we should be saying and remembering today and in the future, rather than the person who carried out such sickening crimes,' he said. 'In my entire policing career, which has included many years spent on the major crime team, I've never encountered anyone capable of such horrific acts, of showing no remorse. 'I've been utterly shocked and appalled by the actions and plans of the offender in this case, and I'm pleased that this truly evil individual will serve a significant proportion of his life behind bars.'
Los Angeles Times
19-03-2025
- Los Angeles Times
British teenager who killed family and planned school massacre gets minimum 49 years in prison
LONDON — A 19-year-old British man who shot and killed his mother and two younger siblings and who wanted to carry out a high-profile school shooting has been told he will not be eligible for parole for at least 49 years. At the sentencing hearing at Luton Crown Court on Wednesday, Justice Bobbie Cheema-Grubb said she had considered handing Nicholas Prosper a full life term in prison but opted against that given his age — he was 18 at the time of the shootings — and the fact that he had pleaded guilty, Last month, Prosper admitted at a hearing to murdering his mother, Juliana Falcon, 48, his 13-year-old sister, Giselle Prosper, and 16-year-old brother, Kyle Prosper, at the apartment the family shared in Luton, Bedfordshire, on Sept. 13. He had also stabbed his brother more than 100 times. The judge said Prosper had wanted to emulate and outdo atrocities around the world, including the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut in December 2012, when 26 people, mostly children, were killed, and the mass shooting at Virginia Tech in April 2007 when 30 people were killed. 'Your ambition was notoriety,' she told Prosper, who had to be forced to come to the court to hear his fate. 'You wanted to be known posthumously as the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century.' The judge said Prosper's case featured many 'recurrent themes' seen in school shootings around the world, including a sexual interest in children, a withdrawal into an online world, a lack of empathy toward victims and the selection of a 'uniform' for the killings. The court was told that Prosper, who had been unable to stay in education or hold down a job, had managed to forge a gun license and used it to buy a shotgun and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders. His plan, the court was told, was to carry out a mass shooting at his old elementary school on Friday the 13th. At about 5 a.m. that morning, Prosper carried out a test shot into a teddy bear in his bedroom. His mother had woken first, realizing something was 'terribly wrong.' Prosper killed her, leaving a copy of the novel 'How to Kill Your Family' on her legs, before shooting his sister as she hid under a table, and then stabbing and shooting his brother. 'The lives of your own mother and younger brother and sister were to be collateral damage on the way to fulfill your ambition,' the judge said. With police swarming the area after the attack on his family was reported, Prosper flagged down police officers in a nearby street and showed them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges. Bedfordshire Police Detective Superintendent Rob Hall read a statement on behalf of Prosper's father, Raymond Prosper, in which he said the deaths of his ex-partner Juliana and his son Kyle and daughter Giselle had 'much more meaning and importance.' 'Their deaths and the fast response of Bedfordshire Police stopped any other family in the community going through the pain we have suffered,' he said. Pylas writes for the Associated Press.
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Yahoo
Triple killer who wanted to be notorious mass murderer jailed for life
A triple murderer who killed three members of his family and was plotting a school shooting has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 49 years. Nicholas Prosper, 19, from Luton, who wanted to become a notorious mass murderer, was sentenced at Luton Crown Court on Wednesday. He was jailed for life for the murders with a minimum term of 49 years – a total of 48 years and 177 days when the amount of time he has already been in custody is taken into account. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told him: 'You intended to unleash disaster on the community of Luton. Your plans were intelligent, calculating and selfish. 'Your ambition was notoriety. You wanted to be known posthumously as the world's most famous school shooter of the 21st century. 'The lives of your own mother and younger brother and sister were to be collateral damage on the way to fulfil your ambition.' He had to be ordered to come to court after initially refusing to attend the second day of his sentencing hearing. Prosper shot his mother Juliana Falcon, 48, and siblings Giselle Prosper, 13, and Kyle Prosper, 16, at the flat the family shared in Luton, Bedfordshire, on September 13 last year, and stabbed his brother more than 100 times. He hid for just over two hours before flagging down police officers in a nearby street and showing them where he had hidden a loaded shotgun and 33 cartridges near playing fields. The teenager, who had been unable to stay in education or hold down a job, had been planning to carry out a mass shooting at his old primary school driven by a desire for notoriety. A forensic psychiatrist said he had 'an extreme lack of empathy and remorse', which were psychopathic tendencies. Prosper managed to forge a gun licence and used it to buy a shotgun and 100 cartridges from a legitimate firearms dealer the day before the murders. He admitted three counts of murder as well as purchasing a shotgun without a certificate, possession of a shotgun with intent to endanger life and possession of a kitchen knife in a public place at an earlier hearing. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced him to life with a minimum term of 18 years for possession of a firearm with intent to endanger life, 3.5 years for buying the gun and one year for possession of the knife, to run concurrently. Prosper refused to stand in the dock as he was sentenced. Horror unfolded at the family flat at about 5am on September 13 last year, when Prosper carried out a test shot into a teddy bear in his bedroom before launching the attack. He first killed his mother, leaving a copy of the novel How to Kill Your Family on her legs, before shooting his 'terrified' sister as she hid under a table, and then stabbing and shooting his brother. Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb told the court that Juliana Falcon was a hard-working woman who cared for her children and had tried to get Prosper to get help when he was struggling at school. 'She was an innocent victim of an ungrateful, unfeeling son, whose only wish was to be famous through destroying the lives of young children,' the judge said. Kyle Prosper had 'his whole future ahead, he fought bravely for his life, but there was no contest with his older armed brother', she told the court. Giselle, who was just 13, was 'a smiling girl, no doubt the treasure of her parents and friends'. Prosper later told a prison nurse he had wanted to cause 'the biggest massacre in the 21st century' by murdering his family and carrying out a mass shooting at his former primary school. He deliberately chose Friday 13 for the day of the attack. Throughout secondary school up to the end of year 11 there had been no concerns about him – he was described as a quiet and geeky boy with a small group of friends who were into computers. But once he began sixth form he stopped engaging with school staff or his family, and refused help from mental health workers. His then-undiagnosed autism spectrum disorder meant he could not stay in mainstream education or hold down a job, and he became increasingly isolated, spending more time online and becoming obsessed with school shootings. Defending, David Bentley KC said he had gone down 'an internet wormhole'. He plotted for months to kill his family and carry out the school shooting, even choosing a black and yellow uniform that he would wear for the killing spree.
