ABCtales Critiquing Service - good reports!

Posted by tcook on Mon, 26 Mar 2012

Over the years many of you have asked for a critiquing service and it has taken a long time to find (a) someone good enough to do it well and (b) someone who will charge what we regard as a reasonable fee. Finally, we've done it! Lorraine Mace is a freelance writer, columnist and tutor for the Writers Bureau. Winner of the Petra Kenney International Poetry Competition (comic verse category), Lorraine's fiction, features and humour have appeared...

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Illegal TV Firesticks

Posted by mallisle on Wed, 24 Sep 2025

In Britain the government are getting angry with people who use illegal TV firesticks which plug into the back of a TV and give you access to subscription programmes without having to pay. One or two sellers of these sticks have been sent to prison. But the full danger has not been understood. I must warn you very strongly. If you use these devices it will become impossible for broadcasters to make any money from their subscriptions. In 40 years...

Marilyn Shimon (2020) Auschwitz Survivor 31 321: A Memoir. First One In, Last One Out.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 22 Sep 2025

Marilyn Shimon recognises that Holocaust literature has become a literary category. It’s one that speaks to many of us, including me. I’m never happier than when I’m reading about someone being miserable. Power corrupts. But as Robert A. Caro in his study of Lyndon B. Johnson shows—it also reveals. We can learn lessons from Holocaust survivors about what it means to be human but treated as sub-human. Everyone has their story. Marilyn Shimon...

Graham Farmelo (2009) The Strangest Man. The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 20 Sep 2025

Graham Farmelo’s biography of Paul Dirac won the Costa Book Award the year it was published. That was a while ago. I need to do the maths (or arithmetic). Sixteen years ago. You’d need to go back 100 years to inhabit the world of Paul Dirac. Einstein’s special theory of relativity had not yet changed the world. But had changed the way the world was viewed. A Kuhnian revolution in scientific thought. Paul Dirac was a genius whose work Einstein...

James Van Praagh (1998 [2009, 2012]) Talking to Heaven

Posted by celticman on Fri, 19 Sep 2025

James Van Praagh (1998 [2009, 2012]) Talking to Heaven Living with the Dead (Talking to Heaven) (2002), screenwriter John Pielmeier, Director Stephen Gyllenhaal, starring Ted Danson and Mary Steenburgen. I watched Living with the Dead while scrolling through Prime. It’s based on James Van Praagh’s best-selling memoir. But, of course, instead of a wee baldy fat guy with pretension of being a screenwriter, Ted Danson (Cheers) plays James Van...

Bex Hainsworth (2025) Circulaire.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 15 Sep 2025

What is a poem? I’m not sure. Although I’ve foolishly claimed to have written poetry. I’m not a poet. Bex Hainsworth is. I’m not sure how to explain that either. Poetry is hard. A poet must make it look easy. All houses are haunted by women . ‘My grandmother’s semi-detached. A familiar echo. Mundane made wonderful. ‘…a congregation of glass paperweights’ The obvious word here is a collection, not ‘congregation’. But they are ‘arranged in...

Dogman (2018) Film 4, Channel 4, written and directed by Matteo Garrone.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 13 Sep 2025

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/dogman Matteo Garrone's crime thriller is factional story and morality play. It won a stack of awards at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Earned Garrone the Nastro d'Argento awards for both Best Director and Best Producer. I wonder which film won the best writer award because Dogman would be hard to beat. Marcello Fonte’s performance as Marcello won him Best Actor at Cannes. He inhabits the role of Dogman. A man...

Poetry Book Awards 2025: Shortlist

Posted by Lille Dante on Sat, 13 Sep 2025

<gratuitous trumpet blowing>

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