Blogs

The night air is chilled but the climb up the ladder is thrilling…as I lift the skylight’s heavy cover and push it carefully off the opening… I feel the freedom in the first breath of night air as I lift myself up onto the edge...and out onto the roof top...I am immediately thrust into a magical place as I stare into the deep, quiet darkness filled with starlight above and street lights below. It is a world beyond the normal, a world where...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bvbf5n/care I like Jimmy McGovern’s dramas. Apart from Brookside, I’ve probably seen most of them. Care, well, it’s in the title. As a dramatist he’s got to make us care about single mum Jenny (Sheridan Smith) her elderly mum Mary (Alison Steadman) and the distant sister Claire (Sinead Keenan). And he begins with a car crash. Mary crashes the car with two kids in the back. Cue drama as we find out that the...

Posted by Ewan on Sat, 08 Dec 2018 "The most difficult thing for me to remember is that a poem is made of words and not of the expanding heart, the overflowing soul, or the sensitive observer. A poem is made of words." W S Graham Last Night I Met John Adcock, is Ewan's first collection of poetry to be published and features a number of the excellent poems he has shared on ABCtales. The poems move from the relative drudgery and small thrills of...

A Review, by Simon Whitworth AKA Fatboy_74, of Ewan (Lawrie)'s Cerasus Poetry published collection "Last Night I Met John Adcock"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bt8x6z/barbra-streisand-becoming-an-icon-19421984?suggid=b0bt8x6z Barbra Streisand is a bit like the Rorschach-ink-blot test. Ugly or beautiful? Well, my sister Jo, used to get told she looked like Barbra Streisand. In other words, she had a big hooter. This was the consolation prize you didn’t want to win. Streisand redefined what it meant to be beautiful. If you listen to her feminist fan Camille Paglia...

Posted by Philip Sidney on Fri, 07 Dec 2018 Two legends set the scene for this week's picks. Story of the week is a modern take on a classic tale. The Grandmother, from Penelope Creighton is beautifully executed and perfect reading on a dark cold night. https://www.abctales.com/story/penelopecreighton/grandmother Poem of the week elevates the humble bagel to its rightful status. Alfie Shoyger's ode to the mythic snack will make you smile. https...

Two legends set the scene for this week's picks. Story of the week is a modern take on a classic tale. The Grandmother, from Penelope Creighton is beautifully executed and perfect reading on a dark cold night. https://www.abctales.com/story/penelopecreighton/grandmother Poem of the week elevates the humble bagel to its rightful status. Alfie Shoyger's ode to the mythic snack will make you smile. https://www.abctales.com/story/alfie-shoyger/bagel...

Review by Noo: There is a fragility and beauty running right through Scharlie Meeuws’ collection of poetry,Outbranching. The collection is split into four sections, moving from memories and dreams, through betrayal and darkness, to nature, wisdom and finally, healing. As you read the poems in each section, you make this same journey and are both touched and transformed by the words in each poem. Scharlie has her own take on the world, but there...

Poems are small on the page, but can swell to fill the mind.