Happy New Year! with a big emphasis on the ‘HAPPY…. For me, the first minutes of the New Year bring optimism and the endings of the previous year bring reflections. What was, what could have been, what should have been…if only… Those seconds before the final strike of midnight are burdened with a mixture of human emotions…sweeping out the clutter of dreams and wishes from our mental closets can be burdensome, or it can be treasure seeking.....

https://www.itv.com/hub/anne/2a5505a0001 Not many programmes can get away with a one-word titular introduction—Anne. I’d have had no idea of who it was referring unless I’d read the pre-publicity for the four-night drama starring Maxine Peake. Anne Williams, an unremarkable woman from Liverpool who worked in a shop, and who died in 2013. That might have been that. But if we throw in another word, Hillsborough, the unremarkable becomes remarkable...

https://www.channel5.com/show/ufos-the-proof-is-out-there/ A screenshot from USS Princeton released by US defence department, April 2020. Stare at the tic-tack long enough and the object will move. “Senior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomena observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft”, the New York Times...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qt06/hector Peter Mullan always seems to snag the parts of the homeless alkie. Hector McAdam doesn’t even have to be an alkie, just grizzled looking as Peter Mullan in a beanie hat, and as if he’s just stepped out a cardboard box, washed up in a motorway café’s toilet and rustled up a quick snack. He’s left two pals and a dog still sleeping at the side of the building. He nips of the post office to pick...

I hadn’t heard of OxyContin, nor Purdue Pharmacy (Purdue Frederick) that manufactured the opioid drug. Nor had I seen Dopesick , a Disney backed television series based on the manufacture and sale of ‘hillbilly heroin’ that ravaged America, cost 450 000 American lives (and still counting) approximately $2 trillion of collateral damage at a conservative estimate. I hadn’t heard of the Sackler family, or the ‘Cadillac high’ of OxyContin and Valium...

Hoping everyone is safe and snug with mince pies and mulled wine. Our Story of the Week is the Christmas treat of Pad Life: So Here It Is’. https://www.abctales.com/story/airyfairy/pad-life-so-here-it Our Poem of the Week is JupiterMoon’s beautiful poem ‘and when we should have felt like strangers’. https://www.abctales.com/story/jupitermoon/and-when-we-should-have-felt-strangers Many more great things to read from this week - have been loving...

I am very pleased to announce the publication of 'Inside Elephant' - a delightful and very special collection of poetry by our very own Catherine Poarch. Published on December 17th, it's available to pre-order now From Silverwood Books: https://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/inside-elephant-by-catherine-poarch or from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Elephant-Catherine-Poarch/dp/1800421613/... Two reviews for you - the first from airyfairy and...

I took Ewan Gault’s novel with me to get my Covid booster and flu jab. An hour-and-half waiting. It’s a pocket-sized book with the print a bit too wee for my liking. But I got stuck in and read most of the short twenty-six chapters in one long wheeze. I kept a few of the pages back to enjoy the denouement when my mind was a little clearer. Crime/Thriller category. Tartan Noir. Ian Rankin, who wrote William McIlvanney’s latest Laidlaw, knew...

I can’t remember very much about Derren Brown’s guide to practicing stoicism in an unhappy world, Happy . This is the follow up. Pretty good fun, more like a chapbook and diary (his father died during Covid). I’ll no doubt forget all the lessons learned here too. Stoics taught us fortitude comes from controlling our thoughts and actions. The common mistake we make is to try and manage things we cannot (serenity prayer). Derren suggests, You are...