Blogs

BBC 2, BBC iPlayer http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09wfrk0 Hatred has no country. Ironically, I watched this programme on BBC Catch-up on Easter Sunday in memory of the resurrection. I read in The Observer about Israeli snipers on Good Friday shooting Palestinian demonstrators, or terrorists, depending on how those shot are defined. Around 16 dead. Hospitals in Gaza report 284 injured people, the majority with bullet wounds. 70 wounded,...

A journey into mystery...

My little Princess is planning her first Glasto. Not this year, next year. Last year, when the tickets came out for this year, she wasn’t poised over the computer with her fingers ready to ‘apply’ within ten seconds. This year, for next year, she and her friends will be hunched over the keyboard with the whole thing on a trip wire. However quick you are with your application, there’s still no guarantee you’ll get a ticket. Before long you will...

BBC 1 Scotland, 10.45. BBC iPlayer https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p060xfr6/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-1-the-night-of https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0618hs2/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-2-no-smoke-without-fire https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p061bm2d/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-3-the-truth-and-other-lies https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p061bmtv/unsolved-the-man-with-no-alibi-4-hot-shoe-shuffle https://www.bbc...

I must admit, I was sorely tempted to award Pepsoid everything for this: https://www.abctales.com/story/pepsoid/larry-and-mick-hope-cherry-abc-tales In the end though, Story of the Week goes to Ed Crane's sharp, satirical and frighteningly believable 'Wai Peipei Comes Of Age'. A cautionary tale for our times: https://www.abctales.com/story/ed-crane/wai-peipei-comes-age Poem of the Week is Alfie Shoyger's beautifully constructed 'My First Love,...

I love it! A tale of a young man on the road, busking with his violin in England and Spain. The date 1933. So even if Laurie was playing for pennies down the road at the local shops he would be giving me something new. Past times. He's good. Here's Laurie on backstreet Southampton. 'The streets near the water appeared to be jammed with shops designed more for pleasure than for profit, including tattooists, ear-piecers, bump-readers,...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b09xptp8/reggie-yates-searching-for-grenfells-lost-lives?ns_mchannel=email&ns_source=pan_newsletter&ns_campaign=PANUK_NLT_13_SCO_HospitalComeHome&ns_linkname=bbctwo_reggieyatesgrenfellsearchingforlostlives_FactualCurrentaffairs_reggieyatesgrenfellsearchingforlostlives&ns_fee=0 I write stuff, which nobody much reads, but I’ve got a roof over my head and I’m not hungry or cold and need to queue...

I rattled through this book in no time. A simple story told in the first person voice of Tom Hazard who was born on the 3 rd March 1581 and is now—I’m crap at arithmetic, so I’ll jump from page 1 to page 316, near the end of the book—and say Tom is around 439 years old. He’s done a lot of living. And his daughter, Marion, who is also over 400 years old, calls the American President ‘a motherfucker’. Wisdom comes with age. Only it doesn’t. Look...

There has been some really thoughtful and moving poetry and prose on the site this week. Story of the Week goes to Richard Dobbs' 'Sunrise'. Immensely readable, its insight into one of the saddest wartime situations is deeply felt without being sentimental: https://www.abctales.com/story/richard-dobbs/sunrise Poem of the Week is elsie katz's 'Shifting Sands'. Funny and sharply observed, it asks questions about what 'home' is, and how we fit into...

The Sopranos is a cumming-of-age novel. Let’s start at the beginning. Page 1. Our Lady of Perpetual Succour School for Girls. Fionnula tells us the school motto, ‘Noses up…knickers DOWN!’ Warning, this novel contains a rape scene, but it’s wee Orla that’s doing the raping. The Sopranos are the elite of the ‘Hoors of the Sacred Heart’. These are the girls in the fifth-year school choir that can hit the highest notes. There’s Fionnula, Orla, (Ra)...