Happy New Year! 2022 has got off to a great start on the site with wonderful writing. Nevertheless our Poem of the Week is marandina's Ynys Wydryn which you can read here: https://www.abctales.com/story/marandina/ynys-wydryn-glastonbury-tor And Story of the Week is Jane Hyphen’s Five Other People Are Looking At This Item which you can read here: https://www.abctales.com/story/jane-hyphen/five-other-people-are-looking-item Our new Inspiration...

Dan Carlin’s book is based on his HardCore History Podcasts. I’ve never listened to them. Books are better. A good apocalypse always gets my attention. Carlin asks the question were men (and women) tougher in ye olde days. The answer, not surprisingly, was probably. Let’s look at the Spartans. No fat kids. No food unless children foraged for it. Stole it from each other. Childhood obesity is no joke, but you know we should try that at Eton, and...

Happy New Year! with a big emphasis on the ‘HAPPY…. For me, the first minutes of the New Year bring optimism and the endings of the previous year bring reflections. What was, what could have been, what should have been…if only… Those seconds before the final strike of midnight are burdened with a mixture of human emotions…sweeping out the clutter of dreams and wishes from our mental closets can be burdensome, or it can be treasure seeking.....

https://www.itv.com/hub/anne/2a5505a0001 Not many programmes can get away with a one-word titular introduction—Anne. I’d have had no idea of who it was referring unless I’d read the pre-publicity for the four-night drama starring Maxine Peake. Anne Williams, an unremarkable woman from Liverpool who worked in a shop, and who died in 2013. That might have been that. But if we throw in another word, Hillsborough, the unremarkable becomes remarkable...

https://www.channel5.com/show/ufos-the-proof-is-out-there/ A screenshot from USS Princeton released by US defence department, April 2020. Stare at the tic-tack long enough and the object will move. “Senior officials briefed on the intelligence conceded that the very ambiguity of the findings meant the government could not definitively rule out theories that the phenomena observed by military pilots might be alien spacecraft”, the New York Times...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000qt06/hector Peter Mullan always seems to snag the parts of the homeless alkie. Hector McAdam doesn’t even have to be an alkie, just grizzled looking as Peter Mullan in a beanie hat, and as if he’s just stepped out a cardboard box, washed up in a motorway café’s toilet and rustled up a quick snack. He’s left two pals and a dog still sleeping at the side of the building. He nips of the post office to pick...

I hadn’t heard of OxyContin, nor Purdue Pharmacy (Purdue Frederick) that manufactured the opioid drug. Nor had I seen Dopesick , a Disney backed television series based on the manufacture and sale of ‘hillbilly heroin’ that ravaged America, cost 450 000 American lives (and still counting) approximately $2 trillion of collateral damage at a conservative estimate. I hadn’t heard of the Sackler family, or the ‘Cadillac high’ of OxyContin and Valium...

Hoping everyone is safe and snug with mince pies and mulled wine. Our Story of the Week is the Christmas treat of Pad Life: So Here It Is’. https://www.abctales.com/story/airyfairy/pad-life-so-here-it Our Poem of the Week is JupiterMoon’s beautiful poem ‘and when we should have felt like strangers’. https://www.abctales.com/story/jupitermoon/and-when-we-should-have-felt-strangers Many more great things to read from this week - have been loving...

I am very pleased to announce the publication of 'Inside Elephant' - a delightful and very special collection of poetry by our very own Catherine Poarch. Published on December 17th, it's available to pre-order now From Silverwood Books: https://www.silverwoodbooks.co.uk/inside-elephant-by-catherine-poarch or from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Inside-Elephant-Catherine-Poarch/dp/1800421613/... Two reviews for you - the first from airyfairy and...