Blogs

There's been a treasure trove of pieces this week - such a range that everyone will have found a good read. I've pulled out a couple of particularly dazzling pieces. Story of the week comes with the promise of more, as it is part 1. An intriguing opening from Proudwing https://www.abctales.com/story/proudwing/astrobleme-part-1 Poem of the week is also full of narrative, a rich treat from Kilb50 https://www.abctales.com/story/kilb50/old-dog-fox-...

I’m a duff reviewer. The narrator is a former Glasgow journalist trying to make sense of his life after his wife dies, but I don’t know his name. I’m not sure he has a name. Let’s call him everyman adrift. His background is on the page. And I like to play detective and mitch and match with the author. She was a second-year student and I was her tutor; a disgraceful state of affairs, as popular then as now. I was attracted by the difference. My...

On the flyleaf Heather Morris’s The Tattooist of Auschwitz is ‘based on the powerful true story of Lale Solokov’. You see that kind of affirmation attached to film titles. Lion , for example, was based on the screenplay of a book by Saroo Brierly and Larry Buttrose and it’s Saroo’s story that is told. Morris’s book is based on the screenplay she wrote based on the life of Lale Solokov (Ludwig Eisenberg). Gita (Gisela Fuharmannova [Furnam]) also...

I had a great audition on ‘The Voice UK’ tonight when my reggae interpretation of, ‘The Wheels On The Bus’, caused all 4 judges to turn amidst rapturous applause from the audience. Will.i.am, in reflective mode, said, “It was like when aliens land in your back garden and they ask you to take them to your leader and you think, ‘now that’s dope’.” Jennifer Hudson, hand on hip, ordered with attitood, “You come to Momma now, boy!” Tom Jones...

Why should we listen to Viktor E.Frankel? Well, he’s a scientist, philosopher, a psychiatrist and author, but the real reason we should listen to him is because of the time he spent as an inmate in Auschwitz, Dachau and other concentration camps. That gives what he says heft, he’s walked the walk and suffered the indignity of being regarded as less than human and treated as a throwaway thing. His life and death as a Jew having little or no...

I really enjoyed this short novel. Many of the themes resonate, identity, disillusionment, a search for meaning in a life that has no meaning. He stood at the back gateway of the abattoir, his hands thrust into his pockets, his stomach rigid with the ache of want. Men in white coats and baseball caps whistled and shouted as they moved between the hanging carcases. He couldn’t see his father, yet he did not want to venture in. He knew the sweet...

The Bulger Killers: Was Justice Done? http://www.channel4.com/programmes/the-bulger-killers-was-justice-done/on-demand/66601-001 James Bulger: A Mother's Story https://www.itv.com/hub/james-bulger-a-mothers-story/2a5514a0001 I watched both of these programmes. We know what happened. Twenty-five years ago, when Tony Blair was Shadow Home Secretary, ten-year-old Robert Thompson and Jon Venables took toddler James Bulger from a shopping centre in...

It’s certainly going to be a busy year.

St. Nicholas’ Church, Kings Norton, Birmingham. There’s been a church on this site since the Normans first built a small chapel in the 11th century. The existing church has been built, demolished, rebuilt, expanded, improved and restored many times over the last 1,000 years. Only one dignitary of note over that time: Rev. W. V. Audry… creator of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. He was the curate from 1940 to 1946. to 1946. The bells were...

Two friends, one now dead the one living writes about the friendship. I don't think I like Lucy, her friend. Ann gives us a selection of Lucy's letters to Ann who she often addresses as 'dear pet' They seem twee, shallow, lacking in reciprocity. 'you will have make do with being my favourite bagel, my favourite blue awning above some great little cafe where the coffee is strong but milky and has real texture to it.' Why all the poetic...