Question Eighteen – What pass times are great for single people? Donna Being able to do what you want; e.g. go out dancing without worrying about a husband &/ kids at home or a curfew. Alyss Goodness, I have explored so many! My favourite is a having a one-on-one coffee chat with a friend. Writing has been big for me – journaling to poetry and blogging. Reading, there is so much to read, from great new novels to the classics and the self-...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00265qy/since-yesterday-the-untold-story-of-scotlands-girl-bands ‘That’s terrible,’ a mother said of her daughter and her pal’s attempt at making music. ‘Would you not be better singing a nice wee Irish ballad?’ I’m not sure who or how to match mother and daughter in these girl groups—not a music lover or listener—I’m siding with the mother here. Making music is one part of it, misogyny and class bias...

Question Seventeen – Please give some positive and supportive advice for the other amazing ladies out in the world flying solo. Donna Just enjoy your time being single. Don’t dwell on what might have been, live in the now. Alyss There is so much good you can do when it is just you. When family and/or friends have needed support or help, I can literally change most plans in an hour and get to them shortly after that. There is no-one who is...

Question Sixteen – With the shifts in culture, entertainment, education and moves towards male and female "equality"; how do you think women should approach their dialogues with young girls? Donna Truthfully explain what is out there in the world, including discussion related to their gender and what it means to be female. Alyss I think that the best way to have a conversation is with authentic truth. So I can only tell my story as it is, and as...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_Boys I’d read the book. So I kinda remembered what happened. The plot is straightforward moral outrage. Man traps. Jim Crow laws. Mutilating and killing black kids inside the Dozier School for Boys, renamed and repacked as The Nickel in sunny California. An episode of Danny Robin’s Uncanny , ‘The Haunting of Hollymont Farm’ ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0027g7b/uncanny-series-2-1-the-haunting-of-...

Black Lives Matter. The moron’s moron Trump proved they don’t. Ripping up a Black Lives monument in Washington wasn’t exactly Kristlenacht . Just a little reminder. A little nudge. Know your place. Class matters. Race and skin colour matter more is the kind of argument Paterson Joseph became involved in. ‘Critical fabulation’ based on a real character, a black man in Georgian London, Charles Ignatius Sancho. In other words fiction. A reminder...

Poets make the best prose writers. I’m no poet. So I should know. Speak, Memory is a collection of pre-Second World War articles published before Nabokov had written and published Lolita . I’ve read Lolita and Pale Fire . I use the past tense and use the term ‘read’ imaginatively. My memory isn’t good. Pale Fire, I didn’t like or remember much other than vague shadows or reasons which I also can’t remember or don’t really care, which is perhaps...

Brett Anderson is the lead singer of Suede. I’ve heard of the band, but not listened to any of their records. His first love was Justine Frischmann. She was also was a founding member of Suede and later became the frontwoman of Elastica. They both attended University College London in the late seventies. Nope. Never heard of her either. I can’t therefore be described as a fan. I don’t listen to music. I’m not likely to erect a flagpole and fly...

Abir Mukherjee has written five international bestsellers set in 1920s India, (Wyndham & Banerjee) still owned by the English between the First and Second World War. I’ve not read any of them. Hunted is my first stab at his work. The author informs readers it took three years to write almost 500 pages. He’s from Hamilton. Just up the road from me. I’m not saying that’s a great achievement, coming from Hamilton, many people do. But if he came...

I'm very pleased to announce the publication of 'Gift, a son's story' by Dan Seagrave. Dan writes as HarryC on ABCTales and is one of our most talented writers. You can order your copy here (free on Kindle Unlimited) https://tinyurl.com/4snv2e3n 'In 2016, Dan Seagrave and his family were faced with a decision that faces so many people with elderly relatives. His mother had to go into hospital with a serious illness. While she was in there, it...