Blogs

Panorama, BBC 1, BBCiPlayer, editor Rachel Jupp. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bb6yw0/panorama-syrias-chemical-war https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bnfn0d/a-dangerous-dynasty-house-of-assad-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp1b9v/a-dangerous-dynasty-house-of-assad-series-1-episode-2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bpyvvh Civil War in Syria has lasted seven years, around 13 million of its citizens...

After an absence, celticman is back with twelve-noon - a brilliantly gritty new story. As usual, he's posting as he writes so I can thoroughly recommend you join the people following - you won't regret it. I've selected part five as our Story of the Week but do read them all. Poem of the Week goes to Jane Hyphen for 'Your Mother' - her gloriously vituperative portrait of a toxic family member. She doesn't hold anything back! https://www.abctales...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxjJZSgY_mA https://www.channel4.com/programmes/child-of-mine/on-demand/65727-001 One in 200 hundred births end in stillbirth. This documentary follows three couples through the ordeal and deals sensitively with the issues of loss and pain. In one London borough the Registrar dealt with six babies that were born dead that week. Spoiler: It will make you cry. My mum lost her first-born child, Michael, and she might...

Goldstone BBC 4, BBCiPlayer, written and directed by Ivan Sen. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08x19x1/goldstone?suggid=b08x19x1 Mystery Road, BBC 4, BBCiPlayer, written by Michaeley O'Brien and directed by Rachel Perkins. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bl5l7q/mystery-road-series-1-1-gone If there’s a drama series on BBC 4, usually, I’m watching it. After the medieval Spanish drama, The Plague , I watched Mystery Road . No...

The winds are howling at the door and stories are filling up the site like autumn gold. It's been so very hard to choose but I've gone for two pieces that touch the heart with their truth. Noo's fabulous poem, takes us to the heart of experience and speaks of the strangeness of life and death. https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/one-thing-we-can-be-certain Harry C's autobiographical piece is tender and hopeful. https://www.abctales.com/story/...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bn6tr3/storyville-jailed-in-america Roger Ross Williams recalled the time he first attended school in his home town of Easton, Pennsylvania and a white kid called him ‘nigger’. The white kid’s mum chastised him and told him not to do that or he would come and burn their house down. Here we are in Trump’s America, before the moron’s moron got to play at being presidential. Here we are in Trump’s America...

For the month of September our picks have very kindly been chosen by Mark Say: Poem of the month At sea with you by caribou_ A clever and powerful expression of longing that combines the sense of wanting someone with the knowledge that it would be a destructive relationship. It manages to simultaneously convey a sense of ecstasy and foreboding. https://www.abctales.com/ story/caribou/sea-you Other stand-outs were Tangerine Static by lavadis, a...

Mrs. Treaclechops is off gallivanting down in Hampshire for the next week-or-so, spending time with her sister and niece. No problem… I’m a modern man who can fend for himself and cook and clean like the best of ‘em. Mind you, I cooked salmon for my Friday night meal and burnt the parsley sauce. Again, no problem… the salmon started off as unsmoked, but ended up with an evocative smoky, cokey, choky flavour. I spent Saturday morning winemaking...

The Way of All Flesh is the way of man. I gave it a chance, got to page 50 and cut the cord. Read on. Edinburgh in 1847, was almost there on the page, but the narrators Raven and Sarah didn’t wind their way into my heart. Because it is not for me, does not mean it is not for you. That is the fickle way of all books.