St. Nicholas’ Church, Kings Norton, Birmingham. There’s been a church on this site since the Normans first built a small chapel in the 11th century. The existing church has been built, demolished, rebuilt, expanded, improved and restored many times over the last 1,000 years. Only one dignitary of note over that time: Rev. W. V. Audry… creator of the Thomas the Tank Engine stories. He was the curate from 1940 to 1946. to 1946. The bells were...

Two friends, one now dead the one living writes about the friendship. I don't think I like Lucy, her friend. Ann gives us a selection of Lucy's letters to Ann who she often addresses as 'dear pet' They seem twee, shallow, lacking in reciprocity. 'you will have make do with being my favourite bagel, my favourite blue awning above some great little cafe where the coffee is strong but milky and has real texture to it.' Why all the poetic...

Leggings – Back to the Beginning... It's Mr and Mrs Homburg Hat! Alive as well and walking after me around the Norwich shops earlier this week. He's minus the hat. Perhaps its because it identifies him instantly with his plump short wife by his side. At every shop he critiques me , “Oh look,” he said artlessly to the shop assistants, “Of course what they say about her can't be true, can it! I mean if they said that about someone who meant...

Tim Winton is one of those annoying kids. He wanted to be a writer when he grew up and by the time he was nineteen he was publishing. Pisses you off, doesn’t it. It’s the story of the exception to the rule. Here’s a white, working-class kid, from Perth of all places, that won all kinds of prizes and made it not just in Australia, but world-wide. Good on yer cobber I say. My mock-Australian is like my writing, to be avoided, but I just keep doing...

Story and Poem of the Month for January chosen by Airyfairy: A brilliant start to the year for ABC Tales, with lots of really interesting, thought provoking pieces on the site. It's also been great to see so many people responding to the Inspiration Points and the Poetry Monthly prompts. It's therefore been really hard to select the Picks of the Month. I've gone for pieces that stayed in my mind long after I read them and that conjured questions...

This is an old book in that Carl McDougall received a bursary from the Scottish Arts Council to write his debut novel. How quaint that sounds now. It’s like having a governess or a government that valued literature. I ripped through the book quickly. The story pays homage to Jane Eyre. The hero and narrator of the novel is Angus McPhail. ‘Give me the child until and I will give you the man’ is the maxim of Aristotle, or Ignatius Loyola and the...

It's been a very rewarding week on ABC Tales - we've had a real run of rich and interesting work. Story of the Week is Noo's 'Spell'. The magic within the story is echoed by the effortless weaving of words around this intimate and profound tale: https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/spell Poem of the Week goes to Philip Sidney's 'Blood and Other Substances'. Beautifully crafted, this draws you in and then delivers a haunting finish: https://www...

No it's not my boyriend's bean stew I'm talking about weather, gusty breeze, longer days, shivering in the sun. A feeling that the year is cracking open like a hard shelled egg.The usual 'stay or go' dilemma coupled with awareness that choice can be a soft bed to sink into. I'm doing new bits of paid and voluntary work, helping with mental health training sessions for student doctors and nurses through Experts by Experience, also waiting till my...

Setting the scene move fast and break things enriches the already wealthy. The Schumpeterian idea is our future for better or worse. Children born now will be the most tracked in history. In some novels only the wealthy can eradicate their digital footprint. Paradoxically, not to be known, is to be somebody. The security risk of tracking devices in our home was touched on here. It's not just phones, but our fridges, washing machines, kettles,...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZI6EdnvH-8 This song takes me back to 1973... a village called Oberjoch (over the hill) in the Bavarian Alps in December. Six feet of snow! I was learning to ski with 49 Field Regiment, Her Majesty's Royal Artillery. Just six of us squaddies plus instructor. We went to a local gasthaus one night and bumped into some young ladies from a German finishing school. They were strictly supervised by a formidable matron...