Blogs

I usually pick up these wee books from the library every year. Anybody that has written anything knows the feeling of triumph at being published. They are published by Scottish Book Trust. And they’re free. The paradox of free stuff is snob value. If it’s free, it must be shite. Almost thirty stories and poems in five sections—Community legends, Making it home, Origin Stories, Finding my place and Tales to treasure—and not one dud. Most stories...

Sam Knight reminds the reader, I’m not just making this up. I believe him. I love this kind of wacky stuff and read it in one go. But when Knight tells the reader what psychiatrist John Barker was thinking about when he was flying into New York in the mid-sixties, he’s writing fiction. It’s the kind of world Stephen King writes about and asks questions like how can we know what we do not know? In one of King’s novels, the protagonist sets out to...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d3jv/the-ice-cream-wars-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001d3lb/the-ice-cream-wars-series-1-episode-2 Start with the big stuff. Headlines that grab your attention—and demand something needs to be done. The murders of six members of the Doyle family in April 1984, which included a baby and fourteen-year-old boy in Bankend Street in the north-east of Glasgow, elicits that guttural...

I read. That’s what I do. I’ve got books in the toilet. In the kitchen and hall. Down the side of my chair and in my van, stashed behind the passenger seat. I no longer keep a book in the glove compartment. I’m not therefore an addict. Before deaths and Amens, there’s a line that goes something like this: lead us not into temptation and out of our boozers and strip clubs, or away from offers of half-priced drugs because it’s Black Friday on a...

spotted a fe in night trance kitty farouk the big cat ben the prancing pug Ben my nephew ben dimond 'ben the 2 of us ...michael jackson had a pet friendly RAT but my nephew ben is a good dog ha the every spotted mandybird whizzes and flitters a cheery phoenix peacock NAYNA WHERE IZZY NAYNA FROM RED LEICESTER VIA THE PUNJAB JUDITH SCHAUFELD HAD A MIXED RACE FRIEND izzy from england brown girl english mum moroccan dad judy also had an artist...

Cultural studies this was widely taught in universities and colleges. it came and went Why it is what we bring to the book it is what we read into art i love cultural studies when i was a student i had never heard of the words cultural studies i called it 'reading round the subject' i was good at it it is not a lazy study it is what we put into to it xxray schaufeld early example of cultural studies is an the book Division street Chicago. w...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/david-baddiel-jews-dont-count A quote attributed to Mark Twain, but perhaps not said by Mark Twain, the great American writer and humourist goes something like this: ‘What gets us into trouble is not what we don’t know. It’s what we know for sure that just ain’t so.’ David Baddiel shows footage of the moron’s moron supporters of the 45 th American President chanting, ‘We will not be replaced by the Jews.’ It...

Metal Box Perivale Bang clang the shutters the works leaver do of Reg Sweeney a dapper old rogue Reg has drunk in the Hop Bine the Century the football place here we are drinking lads and lasses BOTTOMS UP burby hic heigh ho raise your glasses to lynette revelle with her short skits and shoes me dancing spirit in the sky at Minys youth Club some time back Norman Greenbaum Harrow on the Hill near Northwick Park Hospital the machiners are drinking...

It was easy to deactivate my Twitter Account. For the past four years, I found it easy (too easy at times) to get mired in in pointless arguments - especially the toxicity of the Brexit debate. I lost sight of why I was on the platform; primarily to sell my books and engage with the writing community. I would close my laptop fueled in anger and hurt. Both on a personal level - I received threats on my time line and watching educated and...

trance night maybelline factory metal doors slam down HARD UPON THE box OF nayna RED LEICESTER nayna the lass in dead cenre gujerati mother from Leicester Eric Clapton hears and senses the mood and rhythm of Nayna LALALALAL nAYNA SHOW ALL YOU HAVE GIVE US LEICESTER CREAM CHEESE SHOW US YOU KNOW YOU CAN DO CANDO CANCANSLOWHAND cLAPTON THERE THERE NO FLEAS PULEASE PUSS GOOD CATCAT nEXT STOP LALA gRUNWICKS AND ARTHUR SCARGILL (INDUSTRIAL ACTION...