Blogs

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b097bkcy/child-in-mind?suggid=b097... I watched Men Who Sleep in Cars a drama, in verse, linking the lives of three men who, you’ve guessed it, sleep in cars, but one of them cheats, because he has the luxury of a Ford Transit van. It was OKish. I didn’t really intend to watch Child in Mind , with poetry by Simon Armitrage, I’ve got stacks of things to do, and by that I mean, read. I write too and sometimes...

Picks for the month of September very kindly chosen by airyfairy: We say this every month, but ABC Tales is genuinely on a roll at the moment, with wonderful work from familiar and new faces. Choosing this month's Picks has been a really enjoyable struggle, and a privilege. The choices for story and poem have very similar themes, but I make no apology for that. They were both just stunning pieces of work. Please do read all the mentions, if you...

Celtic 2— 2 Hibernian This was Neil Lennon’s return to Paradise, the former manager and Celtic player’s summation of the game and Hib’s performance was absolutely right. ‘We didn’t take a step back the whole game. It was an outstanding team performance. A draw was probably a fair result but we are disappointed not to win.’ Brendan Rodgers got a bit of dig in about the pitch (no pun intended) a message to the Celtic board, and how ‘it was always...

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 29 Sep 2017 Another amazing week on ABC Tales, with some brilliant pieces. Our Story of the Week is jolono's just about perfect 'Swimming In The Rain'. A wonderful evocation of time and place, with a story that will catch your heartstrings: https://www.abctales.com/story/jolono/swimming-rain Poem of the Week goes to Philip Sidney's 'DIY', another just about perfect piece. The mundane experience of redecorating...

Another amazing week on ABC Tales, with some brilliant pieces. Our Story of the Week is jolono's just about perfect 'Swimming In The Rain'. A wonderful evocation of time and place, with a story that will catch your heartstrings: https://www.abctales.com/story/jolono/swimming-rain Poem of the Week goes to Philip Sidney's 'DIY', another just about perfect piece. The mundane experience of redecorating transformed into something magical: https://www...

Scott Sinclair’s goal in the ninety-third minute to put Celtic three up put the sheen on a fine team performance and, more or less, guarantees Celtic third spot in the group table and a Europa League spot. European football after Christmas is not something we’re used to and after getting hammered by PSG the doom-mongers (let’s call them Ranger’s supporters) were predicting, once again, zero points in the group stage and an embarrassment to...

DH Lawrence 1885 - 1930. His star blazed short and bright. I studied some of his novels and poems when young and until now I never delved into his collected essays. David Herbert is always outspoken, a writer who keeps it real. When I was a student my tutor said 'you always know what his characters are feeling.' As an essayist he shares his own feelings. In his essay written in 1929 'On Funk'- funk in his day meant cowardice and fleeing from...

Accidentallyexisting is on the radio today as part of the celebrations for National Poetry Day! Here's a link for UK people (I'm not sure if it'll work for others elsewhere - but give it a go anyway!) http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05f6njp She'll be reading during the breakfast show (between 7 and 10am) but you should also be able to listen again if you don't catch her live.

I, Daniel Blake is one of those films everybody thinks I should see. A typical conversation, or text message, goes something like this, sorry you missed the screening, you’d have loved it and the discussion afterwards in Dalmuir library. It’s one of those films I already know the story. Some old guy meets up with some young girl who has kids. They’re on the buroo and they get shat on from a great height because they’re poor and working class and...

I liked this book, it’s about us, the working class often portrayed standing outside history books adding a bit of colour to the stories of kings and governors, quietly happy to die for their country, or the working class portrayed as a Lemuel Gulliver lying down in the long grass and falling asleep and being tied down by Lilliputians who make theatrical speeches he doesn’t understand but he does what the little men, the 1% of the population...