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I think this was the first William McIlvanney novel I read. It won the Whitbread Award for Fiction. When McIlvanney was writing the book there were still such a thing as a coalminer. There’s probably a picture of one in the Daily Mail hate archives, the equivalent of a Lascaux cave drawing to remind them what these men that held the country to ransom, the aristocracy of the working-class, trade-union movement, looked like. Coal powered the...

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 12 May 2017 In a very strong week for poetry, Ralph's 'Addict' really stood out for me. It's a barnstorming performance piece, but even reading it on the page is a visceral experience. Please have a look now if you haven't managed to read it yet: https://www.abctales.com/story/ralph/addict Story of the Week is Rosalie Kempthorne's dreamlike, poignant, wistful 'Dead Men Tell No Tales', one of a field of very strong...

In a very strong week for poetry, Ralph's 'Addict' really stood out for me. It's a barnstorming performance piece, but even reading it on the page is a visceral experience. Please have a look now if you haven't managed to read it yet: https://www.abctales.com/story/ralph/addict Story of the Week is Rosalie Kempthorne's dreamlike, poignant, wistful 'Dead Men Tell No Tales', one of a field of very strong Inspiration Point entries this week. Again...

Huge thanks to everyone who came to our reading night yesterday in London, it was so lovely to see you all, and there were many fabulous performances, some of which we managed to film, and we will hopefully be sharing those with you soon. Special thanks to Mark Say for the organisation and for being a brilliant MC, and to Richard (blightersrock) for the auction which raised a very tidy amount to help keep us going (and I have now got some great...

'The records of the Divorce Court, the annals of the asylums, the dates of the tombstones in the churchyard, all tell us of the severe strain put upon the system of the woman during the change of life.' 1874 JM Fothergill, the Maintenance of Health It's true! But it's not the whole truth and neither is it helpful to the woman of fifty-two whose husband has left her for another woman or a man now that the children are ready for independence and...

How can Anita Ekberg draw such little attention. I KNOW she got mine at the time and pretty sure she got Old Uncle Bill's attention as well. The story of Anita and Uncle Bill is the continuatiuon of Learning to Misinterpret Sex which won an award. The usual frustration with continuyity in composition. If you read the second one without the first, it doesn't make as much sense as if you read the second one after the first. It's like getting to...

A million years really goes quickly when there is no such thing as time. When there is no such thing as time 1o minutes underwater might as well be ten light years in space. When there is no time, there can be no answers so Gambar didn't bother to provide one as that would be hypocrisy. It's not the destination that Gambar illuminates, it's the journey so those along for the whole ride might be happier than those who read the last page first...

Two brilliant pieces this week. Congratulations to elsie katz for her wonderful transcription of her father's piece of life writing 'Shlamek', and to kilb50 for his beautiful poem 'The Wall' https://www.abctales.com/story/elsie-katz/shlamek https://www.abctales.com/story/kilb50/wall The Inspiration Point is here: https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip - I hope you enjoy it! Lastly, don't forget our Reading Night is coming up next week...

Today looked like the conclusion of Gambar but when I sat down at my desk to wap things up three unexpected things happened. I realized that today was May the Fourth which led to the creation of an Intergalactic Holiday. Second I remembered something from my past and caught it. Third was finding a draft that had been hanging around and needed to be finished. Got' em done. Thanks to you 80 folks who began to catch up with Gambar. I'm gonna finish...

Not too late to get hip to Gambar. Two more installments (maybe 3) remain. I'm sayin' maybe ten people have gone all the way. Join the group that can say " I read it first as it was created"