Blogs

Congratulations to the brilliant winning entries! http://www.abctales.com/blog/jolono/london-competition-winners

The Competition was inspired by a good friend of mine, The Gentle Author. He has a daily blog called Spitalfields Life. He also produces the most wonderful books, all with London as their main theme. I managed to get hold of a couple of copies of his best- selling book “The London Album” and thought they would make great prizes for a London based competition. The entries were, as expected, of the highest quality. We had the hustle and bustle of...

I’ve always been interested in old, well-used things. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure so they say. Very true. I only wish they had such things when my kids were small, would have saved me a mint. To me, walking round a Boot Fair is as interesting as doing a museum, and opens up all sorts of imaginings about previous owners in my tiny mind. With the added bonus of perhaps acquiring something useful for a fraction of the ‘new’ price. OH...

It would be unfair to suggest I read Positive Intelligence with an open mind, or even read it, rather I flipped through it. I did read today’s report in The Observer by Harriet Sherwood, the headline of which is Top cleric says C of E reforms risk making it a ‘suburban sect’. How does that apply to Shirzad Chamine’s New York Time’s bestseller? Well, I’d argue that Positive Intelligence (PQ) which measure the percentage of your mind that is...

Just a quick reminder. the London Competition ends at midnight tonight. No entries will be accepted after that time. All details are on this link. http://www.abctales.com/blog/tcook/new-abctales-competition Go on! Great prizes to be won. Just £2 per entry. Good luck!

This week's winners just have to be our two Competition winners. Both are exceptional pieces and fully deserve a week on the home page! http://www.abctales.com/story/simonf/saturday-night-soldier-london http://www.abctales.com/story/torscot/district-line-london-competition The Inspiration Point is based on your local celebration, whatever it may be: http://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Good luck to everyone and have a great week!

Wednesday 3 rd August 2016. We’re all going on a Summer Holiday! Well me and the OH anyway. And just two nights. Apart from being skint OAPs, ourselves and umpteen grandchildren to support, we were unwilling to commit any more time away from the Mother-in-law; we are being called out to her so much these days and it’s a long way from Croydon to Portsmouth, well Hayling Island actually. We did get an offer to extend by one day for a very good...

The weekend after the break up (in both senses) from school, I tried to fill the empty spaces in my brain by writing some pieces for the London competition, right up my street you might say. Born and bred in Lewisham in ‘Sarf’ London, with roots in Peckham and Camberwell, I have always lived in this part of the capital, even having had a brief spell in posh Dulwich, during my short-lived first marriage. And I do love London, good bits and bad,...

This is an exclusive book club. There are only two people in it, Will and his mother Mary Anne, and one of them dies. Mary Anne always read the last few pages of a book before starting the beginning. She liked to know what happened. I guess we all do. Death is the great taboo. One of the guy’s I went to school with brother was in the pub after their mum died. I told him I was sorry. Recently I asked an acquaintance I’d known about twenty years,...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07n2w8t/artsnight-series-3-12-meg-rosoff Novelist Meg Roscoff examines creativity. She’s a late bloomer, coming to the writing game, aged 47, with her debut novel, How I Live Now winning a major literary award. I haven’t read any of her work. Nor have I read the young Irish author Eimear MacBride’s A Girl is a Half Formed Thing , which won the Bailey Prize. But I do know who Anne Marie Duff is, although not...