Stuart W

and that - is writing.

he's a diamond lad, sure enough and there's something to be said for honesty

one word: talent

He is a clever boy that one. Wish he finds something interesting to talk about one day.

have long admired stuart's work for its apparent brutal honesty ... he isn't an easy read but if you haven't tried his other stuff then do so ... it is sometimes hard on abc to separate the writer from the work if they have a forum persona ... and possibly his capers (like some others') legislate against him ...

this was the first piece of Stuart's i'd read. it was witty and clean and emotionally contradictory, just like his forum postings. though some of the themes aren't easy, i found it an easy read - it possessed that quality that good prose has, whereby the reader's mind slides through it like butter, and the writer seems to have produced it without effort. like Stuart, i had also checked out the get.ethical web site. i was surprised by his assertion that Tony Cook couldn't write. i had read something of Tony's there, and, though the style of the site seems to be one of soft journalism, within that sphere, i found Tony's writing to possess that same quality of ease for the reader, bequested by the ease of the writer when writing. i am thus all the more certain that any competition should not be judged by abctales members. overall, i have thoroughly enjoyed Stuart's postings in the forums. i look for them eagerly and they never fail to entertain me. i think that Stuart, RichardW and Tom Saunders are three witty blokes who have livened up my day considerably, in a world where most blokes thing they are witty, but rarely are. i should add that Tom's humour is often gentler, and he's not personally vitriolic in the way that Stuart and Richard are. abc's lucky to have three such witty blokes around.

Hear hear! And all that...

Just a pity that cruelty is so often mistaken for honesty. I have hovered for quite some time on abctales and the one thing that stops me from writing anything on the site is this kind of thing. The relentless singling out and personal attacks made in the forums and through writing. What is incredibly sad is it seems to be done by one of the stronger writers. Honest and genuine critisism is fine, but there is no excuse for it to be so personal - no excuse.

vitriolic?? i'll spleen you, cad. the most angry i ever get is when losing a thumb war