Start with the bad news. Flipper is dead. He drowned himself (or herself) in a small pool of water. He couldn’t take the isolation. Humans aren’t good at isolating either. We call it loneliness. You remember Flipper ? Saturday morning telly. It was a bit like Poirot but without the moustache or French accent. Flipper whistled to say ‘there’s the body over there.’ Or he’d rescue somebody. That seems improbable. But Kevin was relatively lucky. He...

Our Story and Poem of the Month for May, very kindly chosen by Di_Hard: It is great to have so many superlative pieces of writing to read this month, but it makes choosing only one poem and story much harder, and I am so sorry I could not list everything I loved. Here are a few examples : As well as completing her (definitely should be published) Parcel For You, Jane Hyphen gave us this magical first day in a new job : https://www.abctales.com/...

Joe Brown Rarer than radium, Commoner than water, crueller than truth -Dylan Thomas Two proud, blacked brothers cry, Winter-locked side by side, Ride through the doors of our unentered house. Exiled in us we arouse the soft, Unclenched, armless, silk and rough love that breaks all rocks.

Hi everyone. I am so sorry that I have not written anything new in the last couple of months. My creativity is a little on the low side and for that I am sorry. On the plus side, there may be something written later this week or early next week. I am currently raising money for a 10k walk that I am doing on the 7th at midnight. I may write something about it after I have done it. I know it will be a lot of fun but its going to be hard. I am...

Boeties Mother & Sons Dad's Christmas! East-London Sunset

Denver Riggleman and Hunter Walker take is as a given that their reading public know what Breach they’re referring to and what January 6th they refer. Like 9/11 it will be imprinted on our minds. But it isn’t. We’ve already moved on. ‘Stop the Steal’ didn’t work. Nobody much refers to it now. It’s no longer a shibboleth. Not even among Trump supporters. Enough Americans voted for a dim-witted, rapist, thieving, draft-dodging, neo-Nazi,...

Football is a simple game. If you have the best players, you win. Would Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe get into the PSG team that won their first European Cup at a canter? But football is also a team game. Any and all of the above are no loss. This is a young Luis Enrique team that plays beautiful football. Each player works hard to close down their opponents so they don’t have time on the ball. None of the recognised stars of yesteryear...

I was driving home from work on a Friday afternoon. I had collected some bread and cakes from the bakers shop and delivered them to the local Salvation Army. As I drove the car through Sheffield City Centre, I recalled a conversation I had had in the school classroom 40 years before. My friend had been talking about going to church. I went to church more often than he did. Did I not think that I lived an extremely dull and boring life? I...

I’m a fan of Jenni Fagin’s writing. And the Sunlight Pilgrims is terrific. Sunlight Pilgrims are those supernatural beings we sometimes hear about that can live on light alone. There’s a joke there. It only works if you’re anorexic. Fagin’s characters are always gallus. Dylan McRae is six-foot-seven but rarely seen. He works as a projectionist in a Soho cinema. Or did. He lived with his mum and granny. Or did. They died. He lost the cinema to...

skin problem Some years ago I had an operation where some scin cancer was removed it turned out much worse than it should have I ended up rather badly scarred. My mother had been taking me for follow-ups to the academic state hospital in the meanwhile she passed on I had been ther five times, in the end during the botched routine biopsy i was slaughtered (nit intentionally i must add). Got the T-shirt. i consulted a private specialist at wich...