Blogs

Derren Brown (2016) Happy: Why more or less everything is fine.

I like Derren Brown which makes everything easier. As Billy Connolly said when people approach him they are usually smiling. Derren Brown doesn’t make me happy. You can only do that yourself and he’s not really sure that happiness exists, except as a transitory experience, a bi-product of something else. Derren Brown’s book reminds me of chap-books heroines in nineteenth-century novel, written by Jane Austen, who were, for example, always...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Philip Sidney on Fri, 11 Oct 2019 The weather and news may be bleak but ABCtales is full of life and energy! Another week of fabulous writing - thank you to all who have posted. Our picks this week both draw on the hidden depths of the domestic world. Story of the week goes to Noo with her two captivating portraits of loneliness and quiet lives behind closed doors. https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/involuntary Poem of the week goes to...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point.

The weather and news may be bleak but ABCtales is full of life and energy! Another week of fabulous writing - thank you to all who have posted. Our picks this week both draw on the hidden depths of the domestic world. Story of the week goes to Noo with her two captivating portraits of loneliness and quiet lives behind closed doors. https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/involuntary Poem of the week goes to a wonderful autumnal concoction from Ed...

The Colour of Memory by Geoff Dyer - book review

Welldescribed grit with bright sploshes of lyricism. Published in 1989 it describes a Brixton that is often unsafe. The storyteller fortifies his council flat with tons of metal, his pal has to butt a racist agressor in the stomach and run for his life and jump onto a bus. The characters are young,likeable, a group of friends, sometimes working at casual jobs at a time sometimes not. They have a lively energy. Some do creative stuff, at least...

Story and Poem of the Month

September was a really great month on ABC Tales, with lots of new members and some fantastic work from both newcomers and regulars. It's been a joy to go back and read so much good stuff, but choosing was very, very hard. Story of the Month is Noo's brilliant three-parter 'Land and Water'. The writing is exceptional, drawing the reader completely into this trio of moving stories, which are both intensely intimate and universal: https://www...

London Reading Event Coming Up!

ABCTALES READINGS – LONDON, 16 th NOVEMBER It’s been a long time since the last once, but we’re pleased to announce that we have our next London reading event planned. It’s set to take place at the usual venue, The Wheatsheaf, on a Saturday afternoon from 3.00-600 on 16 th November. We hope this will be convenient for people within reach to come into London for a day trip, with plenty of time for socialising and to get trains home. It’s an...

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