Blogs

Congratulations this week go to Mark Brown for one of the best pieces of flash fiction I've read and to Ewan for his wonderfully dark poem: http://www.abctales.com/story/markbrown/those-we-leave-behind http://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/light-gibbous-moon This week's Inspiration Point is poetry or prose on the theme of moving - and you can interpret that any way you want. Don't forget if you have an idea for the Inspiration Point we'd love to...

It’s National Poetry day so I thought I’d look at Edward Hirsch’s (2014) Gabriel: A Poem . I’m not qualified to write about poetry. I’m not qualified to write about grief. Edward Hirsch is qualified on both counts. He wrote A Poet’s Glossary and How to Read a Poem both of which I intend to buy. Poetry is a foreign country and I’d like to learn the language. I might even attempt a few of the mangled phrases that novices use and, with a lot of...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p025zl7d/the-secret-life-of-books-5... I’m a big fan of Jane Eyre and that Charlotte Bronte, well, she’s well hot too. We all know the story of little orphan Jane Eyre all alone in the world. She’s a plain girl with a fiery temper. In the opening pages she bests her bully of a cousin, John, and tells her Aunt Reed, who is her guardian, what’s what, which isn’t a winning combination. Only beautiful girls are...

Excellent news. Lots of congratulations to Laurie Avadis on achieving 100% of the funding that he needed to make his fantastic debut novel 'Ex' a reality. http://unbound.co.uk/books/ex Congratulations!

Laurie Avadis' Ex is on 93%! We really want to push him the rest of the way today - he only needs 9 more pledges to get to 100%. To incentivise the final supporters we're offering the chance to win two tickets to the launch party. We'll enter every supporter from now until 100% into a prize draw and pick a winner randomly. Here's the link: http://unbound.co.uk/books/ex

I needed to re-read this to understand how good the storytelling is; the first time I skipped bits as it is a bit who-dunnity. We are taken led the true tale of Agnes Magnusdottir, beheaded for murder in Iceland in 1830. Agnes was imprisoned with an Icelandic farming household until her execution to save money, rather than taking her to a prison in Copenhagen. The farmers had no choice, it was considered their civic duty and they got paid. The...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b01sd320/sex-drugs-rock-roll Sex - yes, I’ve tried it, but the latest research finds our parents did it more and enjoyed it more. I don’t find that hard to take. Drugs- not really. Rock & Roll - not my cup of tea. I guess I’m not fitted for this biop of singer Ian Dury played by Andy Serkis. Well, let us pop to near the end. Mr Dury returned to talk to the other spazzies (his world and his word, not mine...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04jmx7l/marvellous Marvellous really was marvellous. Writer Peter Bowker mines magic and Toby Jones performance playing Neil Baldwin was not outdone by the appearance of the real-life, but older, Neil Baldwin. If you’ve not seen it, give yourself a treat and watch - and listen. There’s some natty hymns. Neil’s mum was a committed Christian. It gave her life meaning. Her son Neil took it a stage further. Ask...

If you have been following the picks of the day this week you will have seen scorpio88's excellent 'September 18th' and now you will know that she/he has had a real red letter week because the poem of the week is scorpio's as well with 'C=D/F' http://www.abctales.com/story/scorpio88/c-df Our story of the week as usual is very difficult to choose but a choice has to be made and it goes to celticman for his latest post 'Radio Static'. http://www...

Derren Brown burst onto the scene by shooting himself in the head. It’s difficult to top that, but if he told his audience (including me) that birds fly upside down at night, you would have to take him seriously enough to open the curtains and look outside. You wouldn’t see anything, because it was too dark. He would explain that what he was saying wasn’t true, tell you how he did it and then birds would fly upside down. Derren Brown is a god of...