a – The dirt road and one can see the same stones were used in building the farm house. Ancient stone ruins in South Africa : https://www.abctales.com/story/tom-brown/ancient-stone-ruins-south-africa b – Part of a typical rock wall right behind the house, the stones roughly fitted the wall was damaged and it is not a very large example. c – The stone age tool from ruins near the river perhaps an axe or knife. d – A rock fireplace by the wall.

So much good stuff to enjoy! Our Story of the Week goes to Hudson Moon's 'Onward I Mutter - A Ramble'. It's funny, it's instantly relatable, it was a bright spot in the week, it's like having a conversation with a good friend: Onward I Mutter - A Ramble | ABCtales Poem of the Week is TJW's stunning 'Insidious'. This is writing from the heart and soul, and it will stay with you: Insidious | ABCtales This week's Inspiration Point is here:...

Story of the Week Longer pieces seem to be in vogue at the moment, who says the novel is dead? Some very good prose writing this week. Celticman’s Uggly Puggly is sharply observed and hilariously dark-humoured, Part 71 is here . I also enjoyed the first three chapters of CliffordBen502’s Exotic Illnesses, the first of which was last week’s Story of the Week. So, since I must pick only one, this week’s Story of the Week is Lou Blodgett’s The...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001b7jh/panorama-the-billionpound-savings-scandal Britain is the money-laundering capital of the world. An estimated billion pounds is lost every year to companies that go bust, create ‘anonymous’ limited accounts, disappear or hide their wealth in tax havens in former British colonies. Panorama follows one company, Blackmore Bonds and other subsidiaries to an address in Gibraltar. Blackmore as a limited...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0018364/lullaby Leila Slimani brings the screen her international bestselling novel Lullaby , directed by Lucie Borleteau. Another case of preferring the film to the novel. I read about half the book, or more, before I stopped reading. I knew what was going to happen and didn’t particularly like any of the characters. I’ve nothing against books about nannies. Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre is a classic, none...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b03n1svn/midnights-children I like films, but I love books, but I don’t love Salman Rushdie’s books. I read about the first fifty pages of Midnight’s Children and didn’t go any further. But I enjoyed the film. It’s a simplified version of the book, and being quite simple that’s the version for me. I get the same kind of thing with Shakespeare. It’s not something I’d read for pleasure. And when you get to a...

The same, but different. Most writers write the same book again and again. (I do that too). Publishers like that. It’s an easy sell, especially if your debut novel won the Booker Prize. Different characters, different haircuts, the same predicaments, with much the same outcomes. Write what you know. Young Mungo (Hamilton-Buchanan) is Shuggie Bain . A rundown housing estate in the Dennistoun, East End of Glasgow (of course) after Thatcher...

I am the moonlight on the land – the smack of glitter on the lake the beam for nightly shapes that whisper in the wind. Soon I will be a slice of sunshine.

‘We elected a meme.’ Conspiracy beliefs eat you from the inside. I know this having been brought up a Roman Catholic. Guardian journalist Van Badham tells the reader her book is about two things, i) the internet, ii) belief. It was personal for her. ‘My interest in the internet’s extremist underworld resulted from my experience of its attacks…I found myself on the very public online radar of misogynists, racists, homophobes and outright fascists...

Too much time on my hands and not prime time I’m afraid. Recovering from Covid, which I’d managed to avoid getting for nearly two and half years and ticked that it found a chink in my defenses now for it is not a party, far from it. The first days of it, I didn’t know I had it; thought it was a virus, a cold or my general allergies acting up but fast forward a couple of days, and I’m thinking maybe a test might be in order. And then…”voila”...