http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p04t0h2b/stacey-dooley-investigates-young-sex-for-sale-in-japan I watched this half-drunk on Tuesday night, after the Celtic horror show. I quite like Stacey Dooley, a kind of Miss Marple with sensible shoes sorting the world out, but she’s breezy and young and pretty. It depends, of course, what you mean by young and pretty. Japan has a bit of history here. You’re probably aware of the rewriting of history...

Posted by airyfairy: There is so much good stuff on ABC Tales at the moment that it becomes increasingly difficult to make the week's Picks, which this week have involved much deliberation and pleasurable re-reading. Story of the Week is Celticman's 'relapse prevention therapy'. It's a stunning piece of work, haunting and disturbing, but with an inner strength that makes you want to weep: https://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/relapse-...

There is so much good stuff on ABC Tales at the moment that it becomes increasingly difficult to make the week's Picks, which this week have involved much deliberation and pleasurable re-reading. Story of the Week is Celticman's 'relapse prevention therapy'. It's a stunning piece of work, haunting and disturbing, but with an inner strength that makes you want to weep: https://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/relapse-prevention-therapy Poem of...

a chance remark...

The Booker Prize is a prize for the best fiction book of the year(?). The judges are famous authors. They pick a book. I think they want to look like clever people. They pick a book that they don't understand and that no-one who is is famous in the literary world is likely to understand. To make themselves look clever (?). Some people buy the book in Smiths or Waterstones. A lot of us hedge our bets and reserve it from the library. A Horse...

Hamilton manager Martin Canning after Friday night’s defeat to Celtic admitted his team had stood off Celtic in the first-half, given them too much room to play, they’d done better in second half, but they were outclassed. Ditto here. Celtic were outclassed. The odds for both teams were roughly the same. Hamilton to win around 12/1. Celtic to win 12/1. The bookies are rarely wrong. It was all so easy for PSG at Parkhead last night. Barcelona...

Some things are as predictable as a blind man waving a white stick. Ranger’s supporters are saying what they say every year when Celtic make £30 or £40 million from the Champions League and they can’t make progress against a team called Progres who are fourth best in the a Luxembourg league, which is the equivalent of the Scottish First or Second Division, and you’d think that would shut them up, but it angers them even more and they cry Celtic...

Its amazing isn't it how the week repeats itself.

Marina H. Smith in the Introduction to the 46 Jews published here, who survived the Holocaust, tells the reader: ‘Every life is different. Every story is different too.’ That is true of us all, but there is a pattern of before and after. The survivors are young, middle or upper-class adolescents, some of them younger children, when the Nazis came to power and swept through Europe, when transport to the East meant certain death in Concentration...

Posted by Philip Sidney on Fri, 08 Sep 2017 It's been back to school for many this week - but at last it's the weekend! Put your feet up and have a bumper read of all of the great pieces this week. Kick start your reading binge with our emotional story of the week from Jewel Serpent. It will keep you gripped to its perfect end. https://www.abctales.com/story/jewel-serpent/little-longer Then follow-up with another gripping piece from Ralph. Here...