Blogs

Hoping everyone is safe and snug with mince pies and mulled wine. Our Story of the Week is the Christmas treat of Pad Life: So Here It Is’. https://www.abctales.com/story/airyfairy/pad-life-so-here-it Our Poem of the Week is JupiterMoon’s beautiful poem ‘and when we should have felt like strangers’. https://www.abctales.com/story/jupitermoon/and-when-we-should-have-felt-strangers Many more great things to read from this week - have been loving...

I am very pleased to announce the publication of 'Inside Elephant' - a delightful and very special collection of poetry by our very own Catherine Poarch. Published on December 17th, it's available to pre-order now From Silverwood Books: https://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/inside-elephant-by-catherine-poarch or from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Elephant-Catherine-Poarch/dp/1800421613/... Two reviews for you - the first from airyfairy and...

I took Ewan Gault’s novel with me to get my Covid booster and flu jab. An hour-and-half waiting. It’s a pocket-sized book with the print a bit too wee for my liking. But I got stuck in and read most of the short twenty-six chapters in one long wheeze. I kept a few of the pages back to enjoy the denouement when my mind was a little clearer. Crime/Thriller category. Tartan Noir. Ian Rankin, who wrote William McIlvanney’s latest Laidlaw, knew...

I can’t remember very much about Derren Brown’s guide to practicing stoicism in an unhappy world, Happy . This is the follow up. Pretty good fun, more like a chapbook and diary (his father died during Covid). I’ll no doubt forget all the lessons learned here too. Stoics taught us fortitude comes from controlling our thoughts and actions. The common mistake we make is to try and manage things we cannot (serenity prayer). Derren suggests, You are...

I was vaguely aware who Alan Cumming is. For independent film consortiums, Miriam Margolyes seems to be the pensioner of choice to go on adventures and sell the results to BBC, ITV or Channel 4. She’s been sent to America a few times and to Australia. The latest wheeze is Scotland. Yes, Bonnie old Scotland. Who’d have thought of that? Monopoly money for old rope. They flung in Alan Cummings as a guide, and driver of their motorhome. He’s...

What I have learned in ten years of writing by Robert Craven 2021 The great jazz musician, Miles Davis once observed, “ Sometimes it takes you a long time to sound like yourself, ”. This is especially true of being a writer. It’s 2021 and its the tenth anniversary of the publication of my first ‘real’ novel GET LENIN . I have often thought of taking it down off Amazon and giving it a full rewrite, but then I wouldn’t be doing it justice. I love...