Wednesday 3 rd August 2016. We’re all going on a Summer Holiday! Well me and the OH anyway. And just two nights. Apart from being skint OAPs, ourselves and umpteen grandchildren to support, we were unwilling to commit any more time away from the Mother-in-law; we are being called out to her so much these days and it’s a long way from Croydon to Portsmouth, well Hayling Island actually. We did get an offer to extend by one day for a very good...

The weekend after the break up (in both senses) from school, I tried to fill the empty spaces in my brain by writing some pieces for the London competition, right up my street you might say. Born and bred in Lewisham in ‘Sarf’ London, with roots in Peckham and Camberwell, I have always lived in this part of the capital, even having had a brief spell in posh Dulwich, during my short-lived first marriage. And I do love London, good bits and bad,...

This is an exclusive book club. There are only two people in it, Will and his mother Mary Anne, and one of them dies. Mary Anne always read the last few pages of a book before starting the beginning. She liked to know what happened. I guess we all do. Death is the great taboo. One of the guy’s I went to school with brother was in the pub after their mum died. I told him I was sorry. Recently I asked an acquaintance I’d known about twenty years,...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b07n2w8t/artsnight-series-3-12-meg-rosoff Novelist Meg Roscoff examines creativity. She’s a late bloomer, coming to the writing game, aged 47, with her debut novel, How I Live Now winning a major literary award. I haven’t read any of her work. Nor have I read the young Irish author Eimear MacBride’s A Girl is a Half Formed Thing , which won the Bailey Prize. But I do know who Anne Marie Duff is, although not...

If you are old enough you’ll remember the teacher at school leaving a star on the page of your jotter for writing. Gold, silver, yellow and red stars. Well, Amazon do the same kind of thing. You hover over the star and there’s suggestion of how much you liked or disliked a book. If you hover over the customer reviews and click you can read what reviewers thought about the book. https://www.amazhttps://www.amazon.co.uk/Lily-Poole-Jack-ODonnell/dp...

The entries so far have been coming in thick and fast. There is just one week to go ( deadline is midnight 13th August). All details can be found on this link. http://www.abctales.com/blog/tcook/new-abctales-competition Just £2 per entry and there will be a winner for best Poetry and best Prose. The prize is a copy of The Gentle Author's "London Album" and a copy of my own book "The East End Butcher Boy". That's £30 worth of books in total. As...

Three thousand kilometres from Bram Stoker’s birth place in Clontarf and about three hours’ drive from Bucharest, along Highway DN73, towers the formidable fortress, Castle Bran, in the town of Toerzburg, Transylvania. Built by the Teutonic Knights as a defence against the Ottoman Turks, Tartars and Hungarian marauders, Castle Bran straddles the historic fault line between Western Europe and the steppes of Eastern Europe. Castle Bran is also a...

The start of a cracking tale from Kilb50 - do make sure you read the following parts - wins the Story prize this week: http://www.abctales.com/story/kilb50/ned-1 Our poetry award goes to a piece that is brilliantly well observed: http://www.abctales.com/story/veraclark/magic And we go up to Edinburgh for our inspiration: http://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Congrats to all!

I liked Charlie Sherry’s interview with Irvine Welsh, and I talked about it with him on my mobile. I’m not a great man for phones. Boy can Charlie talk. Irvine Welsh probably never got a word in. But one thing stuck with me the last few days and it’s not the Renton quote from Trainspotting, which I’ve some sympathy with, ‘It really is shite being Scottish.’ Nor is it Welsh’s upbeat message, ‘Scots now have a positive can-do attitude which bodes...

I hope your summer’s full of sun and laughter. Thank you to Blackjack Davey for last month’s brief of enchantment, there were some traditional narratives and symbolic twists emerging in your pieces. This month, let's encourage even more collaboration! Encourage your fellow writers and friends to have a crack at our monthly briefs. Share them on social media. Here’s three magic poems from July: Heavenly imagery about a parent’s love: http://www...