Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 31 May 2024

Well, it's the last day of May and it's 14 degrees here which doesn't seem at all fair really, but BBC weather assures me that tomorrow will be nicer, so in the meantime it's been very nice to go through all the wonderful prose and poetry you've posted this week. Thank you for each and every one. My choices for Story and Poem of the Week are as follows: Story of the week is a wonderful dip into 1970s England by Turlough, 'Bill or Bob?' and Poem...

Bill Bryson (2013) One Summer America 1927.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 28 May 2024

Bill Bryson offers an idiosyncratic snapshot of America as the workshop of the world, the most powerful nation on earth that had a good 1 st World War—with most other countries, debtor nation—that produced tax surpluses that largely benefited President Warden G. Harding and his wealthy cronies with shades of the moron’s moron Trump. Bryson wasn’t to know this having written the book before the rise of bankrupt rapist, serial liar, tax dodger,...

The Snowman (2017) Director Tomas Alfredson, based on the book of the same name by Norwegian author Jo Nesbo, screenplay by Peter Straughan, Hossein Amini, Søren Sveistrup.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 24 May 2024

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Snowman-Michael-Fassbender/dp/B076B8B7WV/ref=sr_1_1?crid=F1X4A7U9WGE3&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.WJNn2zh9V6W1SdedKlH3zw.4bmtaqlSLVGsIzX7tcNDdo8_MX0AYgumz_qblIA8oZQ&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+snowman+michael+fassbender&qid=1716581776&s=instant-video&sprefix=the+snowman%2Cinstant-video%2C81&sr=1-1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Snowman_(2017_film) I was a big fan of Wallander on BBC4. I watched every...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 24 May 2024

Firstly some rather sombre news. Yesterday we had to cancel the account of someone who continued to post AI assisted writing despite numerous warnings. We rarely ban users and it’s always a sad moment for us so if you’re thinking of trying AI please remember that this is an AI free site and it will result in you losing your account. We do check things very carefully and all the editors are consulted before such a decision is made. On a brighter...

Jonathan Haidt (2024) The Anxious Generation. How the Great Rewiring of Childhood is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 20 May 2024

When I was a kid, late sixties and early seventies, most of us watched the same programmes on telly . Jackanory when we were younger. Then Blue Peter . These were the kind of programmes parents would have approved. Educational and entertainment. It was part of the remit of BBC to provide for both. STV, later ITV, had Magpie . It tried to mimic Blue Peter , with the catchy tag: ‘Why Don’t You Go Outside and Do Something Far More Interesting...

Angela Carter (2006 [1979]) The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories.

Posted by celticman on Sun, 19 May 2024

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angela_Carter Angela Carter died at the relatively young age of 51 in 1992. I’ve been digging up her legacy. I started with Night at the Circus . Life is wonderful and horrific. And if you scratch the surface, magic happens. Heroes are heroines. As they are in the Bloody Chamber. I didn’t find out until later it was meant to be a retelling of The Bluebeard Story. Carter’s heroines are innocents abroad, crossing the...

READING EVENT - THANK YOU

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 19 May 2024

I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who came to our reading event last night. The rest of the world may be going down the plughole but ABCTales reading events are still fabulous. No-one had a dodgy connection or any microphone malfunctions which I think was a first! We heard some old favourites and some new unpublished work and every single piece was a gem. It was a brilliant evening! Thank you to our exceptionally talented readers...

Clouds Sand Foam

Posted by memphis on Sat, 18 May 2024

Clouds Sand Foam The once invisible clouds now materialize. On, to a pristine deep blue sky now encroaching and threatening cloud sand floaters, imprint in consciousness with a mood that. Such omnipresence seems to move in slow motion. She reappears visibly as once seen to the unseen. Caught in a glimpse, then fades with attention, aimlessly taking new shapes and foams. How these clouds float with water in them, behind the half-quarter moon. At...

Teresa Henderson 27th September 1953—8th May 2024.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 14 May 2024

Recently, I said to Teresa that I had to keep correcting myself. It was no longer Jimmy and Teresa—Jimmy had died at the end of June 2023—it was just Teresa. A flicker of a smile, but she was quick to correct me. ‘It’ll always be Jimmy and Teresa,’ she said. ‘Always.’ I guess it is again. She’s buoyed herself up during his long illness. In and out of the chemists. Up and down Singers Road carrying messages. She’d carried him to the end. With...

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