Blogs

Angela Carter (1991) Wise Children.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 03 Jun 2024

‘Good morning! Let me introduce myself. My name is Dora Chance. Welcome to the wrong side of the tracks.’ Carter specialises in the wrong side of the track. If it’s not circuses, it’s showbiz, which is just a different kind of circus. Dora has taken on the task of writing her autobiography. Well, not just hers, but her twin sister, Nora. It’s their seventy-fifth birthday. Same birthday as William Shakespeare (assuming we know who that is). Same...

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 02 Jun 2024

Our Story and Poem of the Month for May, very kindly chosen by airyfairy: We've had an exceptional month here on ABC Tales. The poets seem to have been inspired by the coming of spring, and a number of our regulars are still producing magnificent ongoing works. So it's been hard to make choices. I've gone for the ones which have stayed with me ever since I first read them, and which I've been compelled to go back to. I greatly enjoyed mcmanaman'...

Close (2022) BBC 4, BBC iPlayer, directed by Lukas Dhont, and written by Lukas Dhont and Angelo Tijssens

Posted by celticman on Sat, 01 Jun 2024

https://wwwbbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001zqvz/close https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Close_(2022_film) Winner of the Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This is a tearjerker. It reminded me of C.Day Lewis’s poem Walking Away . The poet laurate is transfixed and transfigured the sight of his son (Oscar-winning actor, Daniel Day Lewis) Walking Away. Behind a scatter of boys, I can see You walking away from me towards the school With the...

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...

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