I was very surprised to her of the death of Jean Alexander (who played Hilda Ogden in Coronation Street) at the weekend, not because of her age (90) but the fact that she has been added to my growing list of people who have died when I thought they were already long dead.

Alexander left ‘Corrie’ in 1987 (about the time I had her certified dead) but apparently went on to appear (for 22 years no less) in ‘Last of the Summer Wine’ a Sunday night sitcom that was remarkably popular for reasons that have perpetually escaped me.

In a moment of pre-sleep boredom, I flicked through my iPad and read a little bit about the life of Jean Alexander just to see if there was anything of interest and incredibly there was; she wrote and published a book don’t you know?

So, what do you think it was called?

‘My Life with Stan’ perhaps?

‘Hilda Ogden – The Corrie Years’ maybe?

Or what about ‘Street Life – Being Hilda‘

Not even close.

It was called ‘Russian Aircraft Since 1940’ and is available on Amazon in hardback for just £17.50 which could be regarded a bit pricey considering it only has one review, albeit a 4 out of 5.

The reviewer was Mr Paul Mbele, who described the book as;  “A little dated but a book that I am enjoying. Arrived in good time for a good price. Very Pleased”.

Remarkably, Jean had a rival courtesy of John Stroud’s ‘Soviet Transport Aircraft Since 1945’ a roller coaster of read described by reviewer, Charles Mattingly (a fantastic name, I bet he is a dashing cricketer) as follows.

“Very informative. The book had photos & specifications not readily available from other sources (is that a little dig at Jean?). The only downside was that more information on the aircraft could have been supplied”.

I flicked back through the BBC news pages about Brexit, Boris Johnson, Donald Trump and Vlad Putin, closed my iPad, and started to drift off to sleep. As I did so, I thought to myself;

“Why did Jean Alexander write a book about Russian aircraft and more importantly, who is Paul Mbele and has he had sex with anything that can’t be deflated and put in the cupboard?

I quite like my parallel universe; it rather suits me.