Blogs

Story and Poem of The Month

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 06 Feb 2022

Our picks for the month of January, very kindly chosen by airyfairy: I’m writing this just after the latest ABC Tales Reading Event, which only proved, once again, how much talent there is on this site. Not only the writing – the readings were pretty amazing too! So of course it’s been really hard to make this month’s choices. I’ve enjoyed so many wonderful stories and poems, and in the end it came down to the ones that gripped me right from the...

Lenny McLean (1998) The Guv’nor.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 05 Feb 2022

On the cover is a picture of Lenny McLean, with a banner, The No.1 Bestseller and a quote (from Lenny) ‘I look what I am, a hard bastard’. The book has been ghost-written by Peter Gerrard who has worked with Reggie Kray and Ronnie Knight. The back cover shows a picture of a glowering Lenny with a sweep-over bald patch, wearing a white t-short, hands clenched as fists. The background shot is the sign for The Blind Beggar pub where Ronnie Kray...

Online Reading Event - Friday 4th February (7-9pm GMT)

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Wed, 02 Feb 2022

Just a reminder that on Friday (7-9pm GMT) we are having another online reading event with a fab lineup! Readers include: Drew Gummerson, Sean McNulty, Ewan Lawrie, Jane (airyfairy), Paul (marandina), Jack O'Donnell (celticman), Little Red Hat, Rachel Deering (onemorething), Ross Lowe, Michael Lawrence (donignacio), JoAnne (Penny for a thought), and Mark Burrow. Do come along and listen, we'd love to see you there. Click here to register (...

Happiness is a warm Keyboard=I live to and love to write

Posted by Penny4athought on Mon, 31 Jan 2022

Stepping away from writing for a day can sometimes extend into an unintended emptiness of words. For someone who has always had stories and thoughts swirling in her head, filling up any given downtime, it was happiness disrupting when my warm keyboard grew cold. After weeks of trying to write, I thought, “Okay that’s it, I‘ve run out of imagination, used it all up…I am no longer a storyteller.” That thought was disheartening because it felt...

Words of Wise Advice

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Fri, 28 Jan 2022

Before you speak - T is it True H is it Helpful I is it Inspirational N is it Needful K is it Kind ( I discovered these words on a poster on a classroom door at Orchard Manor School in Dawlish when I visited yesterday, together with my elder daughter in order to take part in a tree planting ceremony on Holocaust Memorial Day.) Orchard Manor is a school for children who have been diagnosed with autism, some of whom have additional issues. They...

The Rise and Fall of the Krays, STV, ITV Hub.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 28 Jan 2022

The Rise and Fall of the Krays, STV, ITV Hub. https://player.stv.tv/summary/espresso-krays ‘Rise’—‘Fear and Fame’—‘Fall. The first episode charts how the Kray twins with a propensity for violence rose from a humble working-class background in the East End of London. We’re on familiar territory here. The wife-beating father, who kicked their mum in the stomach, and caused her to miscarry. But no mention of their older brother, Charlie. Her...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 29th January 2022

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 28 Jan 2022

Another week another difficult choice. It was fun to read more of Terrence Oblong's flights of fancy particularly Midnight Mass Murder and Hudson Moon was on form with a surreal avian-narrated piece A Pigeon's Delight . However, Story of the Week goes to Mark Burrow's Weightless v2 . Choosing a Poem of the Week is often harder than choosing a story, this week is no exception. I won't list all of the quality work here, as there really was so much...

Jose Antonio Vargas (2018) Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 25 Jan 2022

I’m not American, nor undocumented. I’m not a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. I’m a British citizen, born in Scotland who voted for independence in the recent referendum. I’d qualify for an Irish passport on my father’s side and probably my mother’s too. Neither of them was born in Ireland. A product of the great diaspora, when the population of Ireland halved from around 12 million citizens, and then almost halved again. President John F...

The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara (book review)

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Sat, 22 Jan 2022

As an old Englishwoman I can truly say that The Salt Eaters is the most demanding and also the most rewarding work of fiction that I have read for over 40 years. The place is Southern USA in 1981.. Velma Henry has spent many years as a Black community activist, trying to sabotage the local nuclear power plant ('they' employ her because she is a highly qualified computer analyst). She and her girl buddies also try to mend warring factions within...

Jennifer Worth (2009) Farewell to the East End.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 21 Jan 2022

You’ve probably not heard of Jennifer Worth. Certainly, I hadn’t, when my sister gave me this book. You probably heard of Call the Midwife . It’s one of the most popular programmes on telly and a massive hit for the commissioners at BBC. It’s got everything you need: nuns in funny wimples and nurses dressed in uniform (with nursing hats made out of doilies) no nonsense matrons and cute as pie, newly born babies, which provoke a collective aahhhh...

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