Blogs

Disaster

What a disaster. What horrible news. At first sight, it bears the hallmark of an individual act of lunacy, and we've seen enough of those (I won't apologise for my choice of words under the circumstances), but this act is symptomatic of the level of political and social hatred that has been gripping Britain since at least the last General Election and is intensifying in the run-up to the EU Referendum. This behaviour is so out of character for...

Born on the same day, More4, 14th June, 9pm

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/born-on-the-same-day 7 th March 1944, three babies are born in different parts of the world, the Second World War is just finishing and there’s a population boom as the soldiers come back from the front. The format is familiar. Granada broadcast the original 7UP documentary series in what was meant to be a one off, World in Action programme, in 1964, directed by Michael Apsted. 7UP was meant to tell us...

Grande Britannia

It's a shame that the EU Referendum has essentially become a vote on immigration into Britain. It seems to have brought out the darker side of British culture. I should know. I went through that phase in my teens. It's a phase of my life that I deeply regret and have tried to live down ever since. It's a mindset that imprisons its owner and consigns them to a life of insecurity. History actually shows that population movement generates...

Thriller in Manilla 1975

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/thriller-in-manila/episode-guide Director and script editor John Dower takes us back to 1975, The Thriller in Manila, the fight of the century and the last of the three bruising encounters between Muhammed Ali and Joe Frazier. Score card, one win each. Note the running order of syntax in most guides. Muhammed Ali comes first. Then Smoking Joe Frazier. One an iconic image, perhaps second to Nelson Mandela in the...

James Kelman (1998) How Late it Was, How Late

How Late it Was, How Late won the Booker Prize on its publication in 1994. It was a controversial verdict. Rabbi Julia Neauberger one of the judges is quoted as saying, ‘Frankly, it’s crap’ and threatened to resign from the panel if it won. Written in Glasgow dialect and telling the story of Sammy who did a bit of stealing, did a bit of time and has become blind after taking a hammering from the cops that arrest him, I don’t think it’s crap, but...

Euro2016

It’s great to see the football back on telly. The best part is it’s on normal telly and you don’t need a special box or to pay a subscription because then I just wouldn’t bother. That’s a bit of a shame because I watched almost every match in the Euros and World Cup since Scotland humbled Brazil in 1974, never lost a game in the tournament and still got sent home to think again. 1978 was good as well. Mario Kempes sticks in the mind. Argentina...

Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week

There was some great work on the site this week. However, Story of the Week had to go to Celticman for his beautifully crafted and devastating story 'Most folk called her pet'. Poem of the Week goes to Gabzgirl for 'Letters to Herself', a dreamy poem with a vivid depiction of the mind and all its vulnerability. Congratulations to both. http://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/most-folk-called-her-pet http://www.abctales.com/story/gabzgrl/letters-...

Erwin James (2016) Redeemable: A Memoir of Darkness and Hope.

‘Writing makes me feel I was really living.’ There’s irony in when Erwin James writes that he’s a Category-A prisoner and banged up for killing two people. He doesn’t dwell on that. No excuses of how it was a robbery that went wrong –twice- and turned a thief and his mates into murderers. I’m not usually criminal, although sense of humour border on it, but I also write to make sense of the world and there is a lot of Ewin James I recognise in...

Telling the Ali story again

I read his auto-biography, The Greatest. Towards the ending of his book, Ali invited anyone who had read the book that far to come and visit him at his training camp where they would be welcome. He even gave simple directions. Go to Deer Lake. Go to the gas station in the middle of town. Turn left at the gas station. Come up the mountain road. Watch for the boulders along the side of the road. The boulders have names of past champions painted on...

David Millar (2011) Racing Through The Dark. The Fall and Rise of David Millar.

Today Maria Sharapova, the winner of five grand-slam tennis tournaments, received a two -year ban for failing a drugs test. It’s an old story, from hero to villain quicker than Honk Kong Phooey could do a karate chop. And he really was a super guy. What do I know about cycling? Not a lot. If I cycle along the cycle path to Clydebank, which is about a mile, I expect people to stand aside and applaud as I pass and to hold out bottles of water (or...

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