I’m delighted. I kept checking the US election results in the same way I usually check the football results to see how my team, Celtic, are doing. I get it. I really do. I’m not American. I was not going to influence the almost 75 million polled votes for Joe Biden, nor the just over 70 million votes for Donald J Trump. For the last five years I’ve called him the moron’s moron. He is no more. When the 45 th United States President was elected, I...

First of all, of course, a reminder of our Virtual Reading Night on November 28th! Many thanks to Mark Burrow for organising it once again. Whether you fancy reading, or just watching and listening to other ABC Talers doing their stuff, do please join us if you can. It's friendly, it's unpredictable, it's thoroughly good fun, and it's free! All the details are here: https://www.abctales.com/blog/insertponceyfrenchnamehere/our-next-virtua... Our...

Al Gore, of course, won the 2000-1 election, but an unfamiliar word entered the lexicon – chad. An appeal to the Supreme Court called for a recount of the votes in Florida. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bush_v._Gore Palast shows that following the 2000-1 Presidential election stories of African American voters being targeted, racial profiling, that excluded voters from the electoral roll weren’t fake news, but fact. He had a copy of two CD-Rom...

Changes... Perhaps you've heard of the old corny line, 'a change is as good as a rest'. Some weeks ago, I turned to examining estate agent's lists for the right small residence... Today the whole thing began to take shape - I'd selected 2, the first was a beautiful appointed bungalow on the outskirts of the city... The second a large flat close to a cathedral... When I last rented privately, you went to look, put down a small amount so they...

The full Halloween moon shines eerily on empty roads, devoid of trick-or-treaters or any human souls. The shadows play in fields of corn and forests filled of ancient oak trees. The veil of separation thins tonight to peek within is dare or fright. Halloween stirs the otherworldly imagination and delights with chills and thrills of fright. I cast my spell upon my home with decorations on my lawn and although this year will bring no trick-or-...

River of Fire is a book about before and after The Clydebank Blitz . Those who died in the aftermath of Luftwaffe bombing of Clydebank on Thursday 13 th March 1941 and the following night. Those who survived the bombing and fled the town. Those who stayed. Others that came through a sense of duty and solidarity to help the victims of the bombing. John MacLeod looks at the aftermath, the thousands, who did not return to Clydebank after March 1941...

I sometimes wonder if books are like bananas, after a certain time they go off and are sold at bargain-basement prices. This book was a clearance - 50p. That’s around the price you pay for books in charity shops. I got it for nothing. And no, I didn’t steal it. I just read it before the person was putting it into the charity shop dumped it. I read a good idea today about books you dislike, rather than giving it the one-star treatment and writing...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p032kjg0/play-for-today-series-10-1-just-a-boys-game ‘You’re getttin’ it McQuillan’. I’m old enough to remember this when it was first broadcast 8 th November 1979. Peter McDougall’s portrayal of working class life hit a nerve. It helped that large chunks of it were filmed in Clydebank and Drumchapel. Marathon shipyards featured. Or it might have been John Browns. We’re on the nostalgia trail. By day Jake...

Never thought of doing this before but as I have been once again ordered by the lovely Linda Wigzell Cress to get writing again, here goes. Having been active for the most part throughout my life, it came as a shock when I was told that I had Muscular Dystrophy. A muscle wasting condition which meant I was going to get weaker and weaker as my later years have proved. I knew something was wrong in my late 30's but my GP just dismissed this saying...

Kathleen Jamie (2019) Surfacing. ‘Please, are you worker, or student?’ the girl asked in polite English with Chinese accent. Kathleen Jamie, in an earlier incarnation, was asked that question. She was in eastern Amdo province, designated by China, ‘Autonomous Region of Tibet’, which means it was regarded as China. I’d heard of Amdo because of Peter Matthiessen’s classic, The Snow Leopard . I guess that makes me a student of literature. In the...