I picked up this book and put it down a few times. I doubt if I’d have read it, but for one thing—it was Bob’s book. He carried it around like a lucky rabbit paw in his rucksack (not so lucky for the rabbit). Mostly in the first 150 pages of the book, around the middle of the book, Bob scribbled messages to himself in biro. He underlined words like Urbie and wrote things like ‘Visible From Space So We r Told’. Adding a tick mark to quote from...

It's been a happily productive week on the site annd we're fortunate to have a number of new writers joining us - welcome one and all! I don't know about you, but I'm yearning for pastures new. The evocative poem from Coolhermit takes us on some armmchair travel that may satisfy that itch - with a trip back in time and 'in Nepal' - it's our poem of the week: https://www.abctales.com/story/coolhermit/nepal-june-1971 Our story of the week also...

Graeme Armstrong (2020) The Young Team Gore Vidal is attributed with the quote, ‘Every time a friend succeeds, I die a little’. Graeme Armstrong is not a friend of mine. But the title of his book, The Young Team needs no detailed sociological explanation. I don’t need to go searching for definitions in The Urban Dictionary . I’m proud to be working class, less proud to have a chib mark on my face and knocked guys out and been a baw hair away...

‘Witches Sail in Eggshells’ is a quote from Meg, a character in a story of the same name, but also a playful aside from Keiza, the bewitcher of the unnamed protagonist. It bookends a collection of seventeen short stories of around 150 pages. I think the first story in the collection, ‘Hagstone,’ is the best short-story in the collection, and the last, ‘Witches Sail in Eggshells’, next best—you may think differently. Short-stories bewitch in...

Mrs America, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, written by Dahvi Waller and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08ggl84/mrs-america-series-1-1-phyllis https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p08gglyp/mrs-america-series-1-2-gloria It’s 1971, American troops are still fighting in Vietnam. Richard Nixon is President and is engaged in ongoing peace talks with his USSR counterpart, President Brezhnev. Phyllis Schlafly (Cate...

Storyville, Welcome to Chechnya: The Gay Purge, BBC 4, BBC iPlayer, director David France. https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000kjnt/storyville-welcome-to-chechnya-the-gay-purge Here we have Claud Cockburn’s maxim as a rule of thumb, ‘Never believe anything until it has been officially denied’. Director David France’s documentary shows clearly that gay lives don’t matter in Chechnya, or in Russia, generally. Imagine George Michael had went...

I've got too much time on my hands –but that’s not a complaint exactly, it’s a cry for organization. I am still home and staying safe waiting for the cases to decline again and I decided to use this time as a gift and give my writing a daily focus, which while I was working full time was never a possibility. So I’ve restarted several stories I’d left unfinished- but somehow I’ve started them all at the same time. That wasn’t the plan; it just...

No apologies for the fact that Story of the Week is actually a series. Stephen Thom's marvellous 'Pins' goes from strength to strength. The first beautifully written part will draw you in to the story - follow the links to the subsequent parts and you'll find yourself somewhere you never expected to be: https://www.abctales.com/story/stephen-thom/pins-1-0 Poem of the Week is Ralph's 'Nineteen and the Mermaids'. A touch of mystery, a hint of...

I haven’t moved, everyone I know is still the same, the only differences I experience are from my book club, reading something the others will never try. And last week it was something poignant, another Oscar Wide because why not? A Woman Of No Importance. That’s it, that’s the title. The premise in a nutshell, well I’ll admit it’s not easy to put a button on it, the title already alludes to a woman’s journey, singling out one character in...

Diana Wilson got allocated one of the new builds in Trafalgar Street, 2003-4. She was much the same age as Ricky Ross, Deacon Blue, and Dignity has become a bit of a naff-classic. In those days of the late 1950s a Daily Record cost 2d, now it cost 85p. You could buy a bungalow in Great Western Road and have change from £125. Black-and-white telly, but not for all. Most couldn’t afford it, even with Radio Rentals. Crowds flocked to new X-Ray...