Blogs

A big thank you to those who made it to York for a lovely social evening, and rather too much white wine in my case. It was great to meet up with writers whose work I've admired for a long time, and to find that, as I'd always suspected, they're extremely good company! Please keep an eye out for our next event!

No surprise that Edith Eger’s The Choice has on the cover that overused marketing phrase ‘The International Bestseller’. That epitaph is a tombstone for many unremarkable texts, but this is a book that reads like a thriller, beautifully written, full of compassion and wisdom and can take its place among the greats of Holocaust memoirs alongside luminaries such as Viktor E Frankel’s who acted as a mentor for Eger and whose book Man’s Search for...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0000fk0/tommy-burns?suggid=m0000fk0 In the week of another lacklustre Celtic performance in Europe, and, ironically, when Celtic visit Kilmarnock’s Rugby Park on Sunday, this is a wonderful tribute to the evergreen Tommy Burns who died ten years ago, at the age of 51, of skin cancer, who managed both teams. Why a boy from the Carlton was on Gaelic telly I don’t know, and don’t care, I loved it. Tommy loved...

Sadly, the weather and other things have conspired against us and so we have had to call off the formal reading part of tonight. Thanks to all those who have tried to make it! However, there will still be an informal get together for any ABC Talers who are in the area, from 7pm in the Black Swan, which is still a chance to meet fellow writers and chat about your work.

Five years ago today I wrote about a fight. Mayweather v Alvarez. https://www.abctales.com/blog/jolono/mayweather-v-alvarez Alvarez was just 23 back then and very much “the new kid on the block”. The young Mexican was unbeaten, talented, quick hands and was fast becoming a superstar. Mayweather was already a superstar. At 36 he was the biggest thing in Boxing. That fight saw Mayweather give young Canelo Alvarez a lesson in Boxing. How to hit and...

Sometimes we get caught up in hype and say things like Any Human Heart is ‘unforgettable’. But I’d forgotten I’d already read this book. There was something vaguely familiar about The Intimate Journals of Logan Mountstuart (LMS) 1906-1991 when the reader is told he dies of a heart attack and on his tombstone has chiselled Escritor , Writer, Ecrivain . It’s the bit in between those two dates that interest us and LMS has a Zelig like ability to...

I recently bought this book directly from an Unbound author that I met at book launch in Manchester. It is a collection of poetry that is funny, touching and sometimes sad. As far as I'm aware, thus far it is the only book of poetry that Unbound has published, though that is soon to change. Pineapples in the Pool explores ancient and modern themes, including love, the internet and home (whatever that means). Look out for where the title appears...

Water features in our two picks of the week. Our poem of the week is from Rosa Cruz - another brilliant piece from her pamphlet, Surfacing. Beach Mosaic, is both a fitting metaphor and a practical therapy; it's clever, beautiful and healing. https://www.abctales.com/story/rosa-cruz/beach-pottery-mosaic-0 Death is haunting me this week, so Noo's story, Occupation, with its drifting body, bartender, death midwfe, and cleaner (of the gangster...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p06g8bcy/trust-series-1-1-the-house-of-getty Donald Sutherland is the eponymous John Paul Getty senior in BBC’s big-budget drama. My knowledge of Getty was negligible. I knew he was one of the richest men in the world and I knew he had a pay phone in his house, so unpaying guests wouldn’t chisel him and make long-distance phone calls at his expense. Yep, tick that one off; it happens in this drama, which...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/married-to-a-paedophile Married to a Paedophile was, ironically, on at the same time as another outstanding piece of drama, Mother’s Day . The latter is conventional drama in that we start with tragedy and end in triumph – The Good Friday Agreement. The argument is implicit, cause and effect. Married to a Paedophile is more of a Greek tragedy in which, for example, solving a riddle Oedipus on the way to Thebes...