Went to Sainsbury’s mid-week instead of Saturday. Not sure why was going on a Saturday, there must have been a reason, anyway, went on Wednesday instead; it was a lot emptier. Except the shelves which were fully stacked. Lesson learned. On the way, decided to pay the £3.60 for ‘up to two hours’ extortion in Aberdeen city car park to make a stop at ‘the sisters’ shop’ and see if there was a cheap, yet charming, laptop cover. ‘The sisters’ shop’...

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent A reader named Katharine wrote to ask me two things. The first was whether I would go and see a fishing captain named Ellery Thompson, out of Stonington, Connecticut, a draggerman who paints. The second was whether I am a vampire. I will take them in order, and I will do a better job with the first, because the first has an answer. I went up to Stonington to find the captain, and found instead...

Making new friends can be difficult at any age. Have joined various arty or writing sessions over the years in the hope of meeting like-minded people. Instead, found the solace I craved in coming home to peace and quiet. Fifties; classes were populated by bickering menopausal women, and we all hated being there, waiting our turn, and each other. Sixties; joined a walking group for retired people. Fresh air and an easy pace. However, there was...

Douglas Sturt understands how fragile memories and language are and how they can be torn away from a sense of self. There’s no place for his Booker Prize winning debut novel, Shuggie Bain or his international bestseller, Young Murdo on library shelves for books in places like Texas that ban and burn books. His protagonists are always working-class boys going to be fucked over or just fucked for being different, for being gay. If not by others,...

Soulfire77 has very generously offered us a donation for each scary story posted between now and October 30th, so please fire up your laptops and follow his instructions below. He's also written another Frankenplot challenge and will be making another donation for answers, but there's a twist! Here's what he says: It's Halloween, people! Wait, no, not really... It's still September, but why wait? Everyone seems ready for the change in the season...

Instead of reading daily news of a morning, as part of the September news and social media break, have been reading the teeny chapters of a book called ‘Lapidarium: The Secret Life of Stones’. It is an enthralling book, which comprises eclectic stories about precious gems and stone; a Spanish Maharani with a moon-shaped emerald that once adorned an elephant’s forehead. Stones discovered, prized, then, like malachite, relegated when unfashionable...

Fraserburgh is known as ‘The Broch’. Last Friday, went to the cinema there to see ‘Practical Magic 2’. Decided to leave early to visit the garden centre on the way, for Spring bulbs. Bought paperwhite ‘Grandiflora’, and Hyacinths; ‘Gypsy Queen’ and ‘Yellow Queen’. Feeling all calm and ‘moves-through-the-fairish’ decided that in order to miss the cinema adverts, (there’s a horrifying one about the perfect cat poop which, if I have to sit through...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002w9wy/the-iron-claw I chanced on this film. Supposedly based on the Von Erich brothers. Wrestlers handed a poisoned chalice by the domineering dad Fritz on their Texas ranch. Fritz’s signature move while wrestling was The Iron Claw. Hence the movie’s title. But Fritz never got to be the heavy-weight world champion. His boys would be and he wasn’t going to let them forget it. Their lives were to be shaped...

Vermiglio (2024), BBCiplayer, screenwriter and director Maura Delpero. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002xkf7/vermiglio Vermiglio is a place and time. Towards the end of the Second World War, 1944-45, two deserters came to hide in the remote Alpine village. One is a local boy. The other Pietro (Giuseppe De Domenico), a Sicilian deserter. They are hid among the chickens. At the centre of village life is the Graziadei family — Cesare (...

The Postie had been folding things in half and ramming them through the letterbox. A book, ruined, and a coat. Who pushes a whole coat through a letterbox? A duster coat with a showerproof finish which the letter-box-squashing ruined. Raised complaints with Royal Mail for compensation of the cost of both items. Complaints took months, and at least three reminders, before I was told, in both cases, that I needed to take it up with the vendors,...