Music and reading and writing is my life. Some weeks I will find a lost song and get close to it again. British pop music of the 70s & 80s is so poetical and full of hidden philosophy. A younger generation can learn so much from this period of art. We are an island of poets and im sure we know it. This week a certain song has been inspiring me into better health. In the comments section of the song I wrote " a ballad for humanity ". Spandua...

Story of the Week is Rosalie Kempthorne's 'Choices, Past and Present'. Beautifully written, and tapping into the 'what if' that we all feel at one time or another. It's one of her Golwerra stories - see more of them on here, on find the ebook on Amazon! https://www.abctales.com/story/rosaliekempthorne/choices-past-and-present Poem of the Week is Ralph's 'Last Rites', a downbeat and darkly humorous epitaph for a relationship. You can hear these...

Its been too long since I’ve taken to my keyboard to let loose my thoughts...but thoughts are like that sometimes...they just refuse to be captured…written…studied...or even understood in quick simple musings. Probably due to the fact, I've been living my days in record speed...long hours at work…and longer hours at mundane household tasks… but my imagination has not rested during these quick silver days…it has just been quietly gathering...

I had a theory that HHhH stood for Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich, but I wasn’t sure who or what the other H stood for. I wasn’t sure why three of the H were capitalised and one wasn’t. I was wrong in the right way. Hitler, Fuhrer, number one in the Reich, Himmler perhaps with the largest powerbase and his number two, but it was Herr Reinhard Heydrich who was ‘killer bureaucrat’ and gloried in being known as ‘the most dangerous man in the Reich’ who...

Panorama, BBC 1, BBCiPlayer, editor Rachel Jupp. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bb6yw0/panorama-syrias-chemical-war https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bnfn0d/a-dangerous-dynasty-house-of-assad-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bp1b9v/a-dangerous-dynasty-house-of-assad-series-1-episode-2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bpyvvh Civil War in Syria has lasted seven years, around 13 million of its citizens...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KxjJZSgY_mA https://www.channel4.com/programmes/child-of-mine/on-demand/65727-001 One in 200 hundred births end in stillbirth. This documentary follows three couples through the ordeal and deals sensitively with the issues of loss and pain. In one London borough the Registrar dealt with six babies that were born dead that week. Spoiler: It will make you cry. My mum lost her first-born child, Michael, and she might...

Goldstone BBC 4, BBCiPlayer, written and directed by Ivan Sen. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08x19x1/goldstone?suggid=b08x19x1 Mystery Road, BBC 4, BBCiPlayer, written by Michaeley O'Brien and directed by Rachel Perkins. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bl5l7q/mystery-road-series-1-1-gone If there’s a drama series on BBC 4, usually, I’m watching it. After the medieval Spanish drama, The Plague , I watched Mystery Road . No...

The winds are howling at the door and stories are filling up the site like autumn gold. It's been so very hard to choose but I've gone for two pieces that touch the heart with their truth. Noo's fabulous poem, takes us to the heart of experience and speaks of the strangeness of life and death. https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/one-thing-we-can-be-certain Harry C's autobiographical piece is tender and hopeful. https://www.abctales.com/story/...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bn6tr3/storyville-jailed-in-america Roger Ross Williams recalled the time he first attended school in his home town of Easton, Pennsylvania and a white kid called him ‘nigger’. The white kid’s mum chastised him and told him not to do that or he would come and burn their house down. Here we are in Trump’s America, before the moron’s moron got to play at being presidential. Here we are in Trump’s America...

Mrs. Treaclechops is off gallivanting down in Hampshire for the next week-or-so, spending time with her sister and niece. No problem… I’m a modern man who can fend for himself and cook and clean like the best of ‘em. Mind you, I cooked salmon for my Friday night meal and burnt the parsley sauce. Again, no problem… the salmon started off as unsmoked, but ended up with an evocative smoky, cokey, choky flavour. I spent Saturday morning winemaking...