I read this years ago. Probably, the beginning of the 1970s. Mrs Bell our next door neighbour was on her throne. She kept a firm grip on her son, Pete(r). TV Times , Reader’s Digest, Sunday Post and borrowed our Sunday Mail . All was right in her world. She admitted she skipped the boring bits in books. Descriptive stuff. A.J.Cronin was one of her favourites. No boring stuff and everything was black and white. There were good guy and bad guys...

I have not been posting much lately as I've been on a journey of learning the world of self publishing, learning how to format an eBook and a paperback- both apparently have different guidelines, and I’ve had to learn book cover guidelines as well. Doing all of this manually and on your own is daunting for a not always so computer literate being as myself...so It’s been a slow process of getting it right but I am slowly...very slowly...figuring...

Another marvellously creative week from ABC Talers, and lovely to welcome new members and some returning old friends. Story of the Week goes to Sean McNulty's 'We Can Do Your Weeds'. I am so enjoying this series of tales about a group of extremely Unlikely Lads, and this is one of the best so far: https://www.abctales.com/story/sean-mcnulty/we-can-do-your-weeds Poem of the Week is Catherine Poarch's joyful 'Dolphinical'. The energy, movement and...

https:// youtu.be/fVVtV296wj4

The Crying Book doesn’t really have a beginning or end. Heather Christle explains: ‘This book began five years ago with an idle idea about what it might look like to make a map of every place I’d ever cried…’ So it’s an ongoing conversation like making a rug of your experiences, tagging it onto another strip. Crying with friends. Crying alone. Crying for god’s sake. ‘I suppose some people can weep softly and become more beautiful, but after a...

20 Jan 2020 - USA has first confirmed imported case - From China. 20 Jan 2020 - COVID-19 included in Statutory Report of Class B Infectious Diseases and Border Health Quarantine Infectious Diseases in China - Measures to Curtail: Temperature Checks, Health Care Declarations, Quarantines - Instituted at Transportation Depots - Laws of China - Wildlife Markets Closed - Captive-Breeding Facilities Cordoned Off. 22/23 Jan 2020 - WHO decides not to...

Graham Greene’s whisky priest in The Power and the Glory doesn’t drink whisky, but damnation. Author, Nicky Nicholls also drunk of damnation. She drunk so much she found it her only salvation. ‘Needing to drink like I needed to breathe air. A craving so total that there’s no space around it.’ Nicky Nicholls (aided by Elizabeth Sheppard) has all the elements needed to create a successful misery memoir or a work of fiction. In my unpublished novel...

From full lockdown here in South Africa, wishing you all well. Hope the time of quiet, and option for stillness, brings great meaning, purpose, creativity and understanding that is filled with peace in your hearts. Take care of yourselves awesome ABC community. You rock. Cyber hugs, Shannan

Author Celeste Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere was published in 2017 to critical acclaim and is still a number one bestseller in Amazon in 2020. It terms of book sales, the author has produced the literary equivalent of Meatloaf’s Bat out of Hell . Being a writer that never writes much now, I thought I’d take a look. It’s a page turner were the end begins at the beginning. I liked it. The review should end here with recognition of that neat trick...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000gx8n/jawbone Writer Johnny Harris takes the central role of Jimmy McCabe in this smashing film with a boxing background. We’re all familiar with the Rocky theme tune playing in the background and the stereotypical rags to riches story. We know there’ll be a fight and our hero will win. Johnny Harris gives it a bit of twist, his fight is with the booze. He can still shift, but his better days are gone. He...