Blogs

Callum McSorley (2023) Squeaky Clean. Not many people read the Acknowledgements. They’re on page 383, at the end of a book, I read in one go. It’s one of those books I read and think I could write—and have written versions of it. Working class people having a shite life. I read a review on Peter Turns the Page and knew this would have been the kind of book I like because it’s about people like me. The author’s job is to make their shite life...

Science has neither proved or disproved God. Whatever we believe about science, it is always possible to say that that is simply way that God does things. When Edmund Gosse was a botanist in the 1850s his wife would look down the microscope and say, 'How marvellous are thy doings!' How wonderful are the things that you do, oh God. Many Christians would simply see the big bang theory and evolution as an explanation of how God created the universe...

I read every day. Less than 1% of what I read is poetry. And Ann Michaels Held isn’t a poetry book. But it’s got that feel about it. I checked the number of pages. 220. Because I also write, I’d estimate that’s between 60 000 to 80 000 words. I’d like to be more precise. It’s been a couple of days since I finished it (meaning to review it) and had to look at the Contents page. Now we’re getting somewhere. The first six chapters are labelled...

Drew Gummerson would be high on the list of books that need to be banned and burned in the good old US of A by the followers of the moron’s moron cult and stealer of elections he, apparently, never stole. Short stories that become longer stories. Fey wee folk that become fucking big folk that catch up with their shopping with their dead sister who gets stroppy about what you’re buying. (It happens.) A young boy, Ginny, with a massive wanger that...

Polly Tonybee is an author who writes regularly for The Guardian and Observer . You’ve probably guessed by that she’s left-leaning and middle class. An Uneasy Inheritance shows that doing good is not the same as being good. Her family includes the leading intellectuals of their day, including Arnold Tonybee, the economic historian and social reformer who charted the miserable conditions of how the working class lived in the late nineteen century...

Healing of psychiatric illness is more difficult than physical healing. Spiritually there is greater warfare. Bearing a grudge can make someone ill. The psychiatrist deals with that grudge directly. Emotional trauma can make someone ill. Barry Bennett described a woman being hit by a car. She wasn't badly injured but the trauma caused her to have severe arthritis. The psychiatrist is dealing with that trauma directly. Some psychiatrists say that...

One of the most controversial questions about healing is whether sickness could ever be beneficial. God uses pain and suffering to discipline and purify us all the time. None of these verses is specifically about illness but the Bible contains principles that can be applied to different situations. James 1:2-4. Consider it pure joy when you face trials of many kinds. The testing of your faith produces perseverance. James 1:12. Blessed is the man...

Help. I realise this is unprofessional - ABCTALES, delete if you must - but I have been locked out of my Amazon Kindle Publishing Account for over 6 months, and I cannot get in or make contact with anyone at Amazon, all I receive is: "We have detected unusual activity on your account and have locked it temporarily. Please contact customer service for further assistance." "Temporarily" has been months and months and months. I have tried every...