Blogs

Ryszard Kapuscinski (1993) Imperium.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 26 Feb 2022

Ryszard Kapuscinski was born in 1932 and grew up in the Polesie region on Poland (today Belorussia). Pinsk was liberated by Soviet troops in 1939. From what wasn’t clear. He learned the Cyrillic Russian alphabet as school from a single copy of Stalin’s Studies in Leninism, watched arbitrary mass deportations to Siberia and starved with his family. He remained liberated for most of his adult life and witnessed the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 25 Feb 2022

Such fabulous writing on the site this week and, as always, it's hard to choose Picks of the Week. And so difficult to choose a poem of the week with such powerful pieces from littleditty, poetkateholden, Ewan and lenchenelf. However, it must be lenchenelf’s wonderful poem that takes Poem of the Week this week. https://www.abctales.com/story/lenchenelf/firepower As for Story of the Week - some great writing from hudsonmoon, ice rivers and the...

Colson Whitehead (2019) The Nickel Boys.

Posted by celticman on Wed, 23 Feb 2022

Colson Whitehead (2019) The Nickel Boys. Simone Weil: ‘The Present is something that binds us. We create the future in our imagination. Only the past is pure reality.’ Colson Whitehead won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Underground Railway , a blend of fiction and fact. The Nickel Boys doesn’t need to stray far from the truth. America jails more people than any other nation combined, blacks for once have a majority. Whitehead in dipping...

I am in the Club

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Tue, 22 Feb 2022

I am in the Covid Club. I tested positive this morning. I have notified everyone I can possibly think of. I have posted a big Covid notice on my front window displaying my positive test and told everyone who reads it to stay away from my house until I remove my notice. I am staying at home for at least five days. My covid app tells me to self-isolate for 11 days. The government is now removing all restrictions including those for people in my...

Storyville, Try Harder, BBC 4, BBC iPlayer, directed by Debbie Lum.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 21 Feb 2022

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0014j4m/storyville-try-harder I’m unfamiliar with the American college application process. It’s a big country, but modelled, in theory, so school-test scores determine which colleges will accept students. The American dream is a quite simple belief that if you work hard you’ll get your just rewards. Student, Tina Zheng, for example, plans to be a brain surgeon. The adolescents featured in this documentary...

Roy Shaw (2003) Prettyboy.

Posted by celticman on Sun, 20 Feb 2022

Roy Shaw (2003) Prettyboy. In the inside cover, Roy Shaw, in Acknowledgements, writes BUY MY BOOK…OR ELSE! There were a lot of or elses for Roy Shaw. The Prettyboy—a media tag before a bareknuckle bout. He saw it as a marketing tool, in the same way as Thomas ‘Hitman’ Hearns or other professional boxers. He was born in Stepney, London 1936. Bullied at school. He found when he hit back at his attackers he’d talent for inflicting hurt. And the...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 18 Feb 2022

We're in the middle of Storm Eunice here, with a red weather warning, and I'm sitting under a glass roof as I write this - possibly over-optimistic, but ok so far! I hope everyone else manages to stay safe, keeps their power on, and doesn't lose too many roof tiles. Anyway, reading through all the wonderful pieces you've posted has been a wonderful distraction - thank you so much for keeping ABCTales such a vibrant, supportive place My choices...

50 Years (My Brain Hurts A Lot)

Posted by Lille Dante on Mon, 14 Feb 2022

Was it the 4 minute warning?

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 11 Feb 2022

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 11 Feb 2022 Two very haunting and unsettling pieces for you this week, which also have the advantage of being beautifully written. Poem of the Week is onemorething's 'The Tale of the Six Swans'. It captures the dark magic and timelessnes of the original story, giving it a new focus for our own times. It really is like reading a fairytale anew: The Tale of the Six Swans | ABCtales Story of the Week goes to Simon Barget...

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