Blogs

“It was the late 70s. Everyone seemed focused on a sense that we were always at the end of things, that it was all collapsing. London was filthy, semi-functional. The phones didn’t work properly, the tube was a nightmare, but no one complained. It fed into a rather apocalyptic sense of things.” Ian McEwan, The Guardian, 26 January 2014. “The farm is crucial. Stranded in such an isolated place, where there are only the natural rhythms of life and...

Almost There. In just over twelve hours’ time, we’ll know who’s the world’s best boxer at welterweight and more importantly who’s the best pound for pound boxer alive today. It’s being billed at Good Guy v Bad Guy. Floyd Money Mayweather the multi-million dollar, cocky, arrogant, bully boy American against little Manny Pacquiao the quiet well- mannered Filipino. Not quite the truth. That’s what the promoters want us to believe because it all...

I use to think : There must be a true writer inside because I have this need to write. But I'm not sure how to cultivate the acclaimed writer within or even if I'm supposed to. Maybe it's just letting the thoughts flow and catching a great dialogue or one magnificent paragraph, a moment to savor, like catching a wave - a rush of adrenaline. Maybe I don't have a full length masterpiece inside... but it's all right. I can survive. I will still...

We have a tie for Story of the Week! Both very different styles, both wonderfully authentic depictions of family, love and ageing. Read them one after the other and you'll see what I mean. Congratulations to T_az and Celticman: http://www.abctales.com/story/taz/taking-turns http://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/snap-0 Poem of the Week goes to london_calling79 for his wonderful Current - inspired by a chance encounter - a nothing much turned...

The Trouble With Our Trains, BBC 2, 9pm. http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05sz83j/nick-and-margaret-the-trouble-with-our-trains Twenty years after privatisation, in which the number of rail passengers have doubled, Nick Hewer and Margaret Mountford examine what was once British Rail, but is now a hotchpotch of different companies competing in the rail market. Only they aren’t. Four billion pounds of government money a year still subsidises...

I enjoy writing. I wish my story link was working.

Hi, Is anybody having a problem writing a story? My story link is saying "Assess Denied".

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/on-demand/57108-007 Reporter Harry Wallop goes undercover to investigate Sports Direct, and its owner Mike Ashley, listed as the twenty-third richest man in Britain, with an estimated fortune of £3.5 billion. I must admit a conflict of interests here. I own three-supersized Sports Direct mugs. Indirectly, I’ve contributed to Ashley’s fortune. The first half hour (or excluding adverts, twenty minutes...

Even as a child - Stories have always run through my day -causing me to daydream characters and plots and subplots -and I write and write and have never stopped. I am not a published author but I have 4 completed novels -- My family has not read them - only me. My world in little creations that are mine- mine to move in and bend plots in and create moments for. I am happy writing - so I worried - if I tried to publish and received less than...

Long-time, much respected, very valued ABCtales editor and professional writer Mark Say stepped in to scrutinise this months writing and his decision has just come in. Here’s what he has to say: Poem - My Other Life Is – Philip Sidney http://www.abctales.com/story/philip-sidney/my-other-life This impressed me because it is simultaneously simple, clever and perceptive. It uses a few well-chosen words to create a sense of contentment and then...