Just finished watching the film Tolkien, written by David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford. what a brilliant performance from all the actors, especially Nicholas Hoult who plays J R R Tolkien. I truly recommend this film for fans out there. Jenny.

What better time to start? A friend is running twice weekly ' free writing ' sessions via Zoom during the Covid-19 lockdown. I joined today for the first time and thought I'd add my writing here (hadn't realised there was a blog function!) so I capture what I've done and can share it for fun or for feedback! Session 1 The prompts were: 'In hindsight' and 'I remember' told from two different perspectives. We had 10 mins for the first and 20 mins...

Miscegenation n 19 th century from Latin miscere ‘to mix’ + genus ‘race’ + ation Man Gone Down is a terrific book. Whether the subject is race, or class, and the gentrification of New York, the opposite of white flight, and the squeezing out of the poor and disenfranchised, well, that’s not a book, but a documentary. Here we have a black writer, unwilling to compromise. We have the ticking clock, the unknown narrator (whose name is Ishmael)...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p02gfy74/wolf-hall-1-three-card-trick https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05172x8/wolf-hall-2-entirely-beloved https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0520v9d/wolf-hall-3-anna-regina https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b052sfnf/wolf-hall-4-the-devils-spit https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b053j5n1/wolf-hall-5-crows https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0547rvc/wolf-hall-6-masters-of-phantoms ;’ I...

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...