Many thanks to Mark Say for taking the time to pick his favourite story and poem from December - and a Happy New Year to all! Here we go with the picks of the month. Poem - Have You Seen My Sister? by Jane Hyphen https://www.abctales.com/story/jane-hyphen/have-you-seen-my-sister An entertaining and moving combination of whimsy, clever alliteration and a sense of having lost a treasured relationship. It conveys a reflection on someone close who...

Celtic were expected to win the last Old Firm clash of 2016 and they did, scoring two goals to Rangers one. But it wasn’t quite as easy as the last few meetings in which Celtic dominated from start to finish. Here Rangers scored first. We all know the rules. If the diddy team is going to win they must score first and their keeper must play brilliantly. Tick. Tick. Things go awry with the Tic. Wes Fotheringham has been brilliant for Rangers...

Such a horrible year for losses, not least among them two of our own lovely and very talented ABCtalers - Julia (overthetop1) and Deb (Bee). So I will light a candle to them both tonight with gratitude for all they did for our community. And then onto 2017 which I very much hope will be a good deal better than this one. Happy New Year to you all! xx

I recently watched a film by Andrew Haigh on DVD, 45 Years . It came with the usual plaudits, but was in an ugly word: boring. 45 Years never felt so long. Elena Ferrante The Days of Abandonment is, I guess, all the things 45 Years was trying to be, without sticking its tongue out in the form of a short novel and saying: Fuck You. The plot is very similar, a woman coming to terms with loss of the things she thought she knew and held true. In...

Congratulations to accidentallyexisting and philwhiteland. And have a go at some serious or frivolous prophecy with the IP. https://www.abctales.com/story/accidentallyexisting/tim-timpany-poetry-monthly https://www.abctales.com/story/philwhiteland/brightest-and-best-sons-mourning https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip

It's the day after the day after Boxing Day. And it's not Thursday it's Wednesday. Yes, I've got it right.

The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern What circus only opens at night? What circus has the power to manipulate reality? What circus is the prodigal son of the nineteenth and twentieth century? Le Cirque des Rêves , ladies and gentleman, The Circus of Dreams and it is the ultimate aesthetic experience. The plot begins in nineteenth century New York and does not stay there. There is not only an interchange of location but also time periods. The...

I guess I should review these books individually, but it’s my blog, I have god-like powers and can do anything I want. I asked Richard Holloway to sign my book, which is his autobiographical writing, when he visited Dalmuir library. He asked me what I wanted him to write in the flyleaf, I said that book you were talking about earlier, Andre Schwarz-Bart, The Last of the Just because I wanted to read it. I’m with the Society of Friends on this...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p02544td Must see television programmes are like a good marriage, you’ve heard of them, but up close they rarely exist. But this is David Attenborough territory. So you can suspend belief and watch this like a child, with open-mouthed wonder. My bet is you’ve never seen over a million penguins on Zavodoski island, a live volcano rock. That’s a lot of methane and lots of guano. Until we get smell-o-vision we’ll not...

Every year I try and add a little more to my Alternative Nativity, a slightly different telling of the Christmas story. However, I'm all out of inspiration this year (I think 2016 and the events of the world are rather weighing heavily on me) so I'm just going to have to encourage people to read the story so far, and hopefully find a few chuckles in the stable: The AlterNativity May I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a splendid New Year!