News of ghostly object drifting in Wind...etc. Last night Archemedies the Owl came by, he was upset and worried, “There's a thing,” he said urgently, “And I don't know what it is!” “Okay, what does it look like?” I asked passing from sleep to awake, “I mean does it have a shape?” “None of us can see it until we're close up, then we're too close up, and we drop!” “Not good,” I said, “You must tell the others not to go that close up!” Archemedies...

Posted by Ewan on Sun, 22 Oct 2017 Not Writing: Read, that’s all. The more you read the better your writing will be. Read a (very) few books generally acknowledged to be bad writing. Work out why people say this about them. Read the books your parents and grandparents had to read at school and books by their writers’ contemporaries. (You may be offended, that’s fine. Learn to read with detachment, it’s a good skill to have). Make notes about...

Not Writing . Read, that’s all. The more you read the better your writing will be. Read a (very) few books generally acknowledged to be bad writing. Work out why people say this about them. Read the books your parents and grandparents had to read at school and books by their writers’ contemporaries. (You may be offended, that’s fine. Learn to read with detachment, it’s a good skill to have). Make notes about what you read, or what has inspired...

“Whats up, son?” he asked, “Did last night not go well? Didn't she have you in?”

John Lewis-Stempel’s Where Poppies Blow is a hotchpot of different things. That’s usually a criticism, but in this case this is the books strength. Pre-war England is the baseline, a kind of Acardia to which the British soldier on the front’s mind often returns. Fuck off I say to that kind of crap. The majority of troops came from slum housing and if they were lucky enough to be in regular employments worked between 12 and 15 hours a day for 364...

Some great pieces on the site this week. Our Story of the Week is a most extraordinary two-parter by LilleDante. It's not an easy read, but you definitely won't regret the effort. Our Poem of the Week is a lilting little beauty from PoetonaHill. Everyone who's read it so far wants to see it set to music. Who knows? Perhaps if he gets more requests he'll have a go! Big congratulations to both: https://www.abctales.com/story/lille-dante/black-book...

As the nights draw in and we reach the end of October, we will once again be able to enjoy that newly-imported pastime of ‘trick or treat’ which, at any other time of the year, would be more accurately termed ‘demanding money with menaces’. I know this instantly brands me as an old curmudgeon, desperately out of touch with the times, but I think it’s a shame that we seem to have embraced the U.S. version of Hallowe’en, with its practical jokes,...

Jean Faley (2008 [1990]) Up Oor Close. Memories of Tenements 1910 – 1945 Helen Clark and Elizabeth Carnegie (2006 [2003]) She Was Aye Workin’. Memories of Tenement Women in Edinburgh and Glasgow. I’ve just finished Helen Clark and Elizabeth Carnegie’s book, but I read Jean Farley’s Up Oor Close a while ago but didn’t bother reviewing it. This has a bit to do with time and opportunity cost. If you’re reading you’re not writing about tenement life...

As usual I was trying to remember if I’d read Bernard MacLaverty’s work before. I’m a great reader but not very good at it. His work Cal strikes a note, but what kind of note I’m not very sure. Memory wise, nothing. Midwinter Break is quite a simple story that follows that clichéd pattern of nothing happens twice. An elderly couple Gerry and Stella Gilmore go on a short break from their home in Glasgow to Amsterdam. They’re Irish enough to split...

It started on time (!) and this year the route went from the bottom end of town to the top. Our predictably surprising Exmouth Carnival. Floats, walking groups, individuals, three towns of glitz and twirl majorettes. If only majorettes had been around when I was nine. It's about rhythm, and dancy pop and baton twirling and showing off in little seaside town carnivals. It's 'we' not 'I', winning trophies as a troupe, not straining to notch up...