The heroes lock in combat Across the stream And why not? Heroes of the epic then are heroes yet The permanent way is no less permanent Now than then My heroic deed awaits the morning In yellow gloves

Just as we thought it was safe to come out a little bit more...it seems as though some of us at least are going to have to retreat again. I do hope everyone out there is keeping safe and well. Don't forget our Virtual ABC Reading Night on August 27th - all details and instructions are here: https://www.abctales.com/blog/insertponceyfrenchnamehere/virtual-reading-night Our Story of the Week is this episode from Ewan's marvellous thriller 'Mr...

A friend is conducting an internet experiment for his PhD at Camberwell Art College. It involves text generation. You might find it a) entertaining b) useful if you're a bit 'blocked' at the moment c) uplifting because you're advancing the twin causes of knowledge and science. Anyway, here is a link to the page. You can remain completely anonymous too, if you prefer. I've had a play with it, they won't replace us with robots yet, but the results...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000lb9c/anthony I’m a fan of writer Jimmy McGovern's work rooted in Merseyside and working-class life. His production company can pretty much sell what he produces to the BBC. His focus here is the murder of eighteen-year-old Anthony Walker. A black kid murdered by an ice-pick through his head in a Liverpool park, in an unprovoked racist attack in 30 th July 2005. His two assailants received life sentences...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000l9rg/the-last-wave-series-1-1-five-hours https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000l9rl/the-last-wave-series-1-2-the-return I’m a bit of telly snob. If it’s on BBC 4 and its got subtitles I’m usually watching it. Part of my hangover from bingeing on Wallander . The Last Wave is a French drama with subtitles, therefore it ticks one of the boxes. Unfortunately, there’s no introspective morbid detective...

Miriam Margolyes has done England, she’s done Trump’s United States and now she’s been sent on another two month road trip to see how Australia works (or doesn’t). Honeyed days indeed for an 82-year-old ‘fat, Jewish, lesbian’ (her words). Same old faces, popping up everywhere. I like the idea of Miriam Margolyes being unshakeable and having shock value, but this just seems like more jobs for the boys, although of course she’s not and it’s some...

One day when I was really feeling down about something, my mom taught me how to crochet the pattern for her blankets. I was young and had so much going on beyond home that although at the time I did learn how- I only made small attempts to make one of my own, never having more than a row or two for my attempts. While my mom was alive and could have helped me, I never found the time to start another one and after she was gone, I couldn’t remember...

I picked up this book and put it down a few times. I doubt if I’d have read it, but for one thing—it was Bob’s book. He carried it around like a lucky rabbit paw in his rucksack (not so lucky for the rabbit). Mostly in the first 150 pages of the book, around the middle of the book, Bob scribbled messages to himself in biro. He underlined words like Urbie and wrote things like ‘Visible From Space So We r Told’. Adding a tick mark to quote from...

It's been a happily productive week on the site annd we're fortunate to have a number of new writers joining us - welcome one and all! I don't know about you, but I'm yearning for pastures new. The evocative poem from Coolhermit takes us on some armmchair travel that may satisfy that itch - with a trip back in time and 'in Nepal' - it's our poem of the week: https://www.abctales.com/story/coolhermit/nepal-june-1971 Our story of the week also...