Turlough
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While My Guitar Teacher Gently Weeps
Words of apology to anyone who has ever tried to teach me to play a musical instrument.
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There’s a Guy Works Down the Chip Shop Swears He’s Engels
Dyado Petr, Baba Stefka and Todor Zhivkov are/were real people, the earthquake and appointment of a new head of state really did happen, and the places I’ve mentioned really do exist, but much of the rest of this tale is a fig leaf of my imagination. However, it describes an event that could have taken place in my part of Bulgaria seventy years ago. Superstition is so strong and diverse here that it’s possible to make it up and get away with it. Maybe I did make it up and maybe I didn’t.
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The Fox and the Elm Tree
For Julia and Robert. And for Coral and Sarah.
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If I Were a Fish
June is busting out all over… from day sixteen to the end of the month, each described in 100 words.
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Marlene Dietrich’s Gappy Teeth
June is busting out all over… the month’s first fifteen days, each described in 100 words.
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Quink
Posted on Wed, 21 Jan 2026
Try saying that after a few bottles of Quink!
Read full commentPosted in A Right Pen and Ink
Insect Incest
Posted on Wed, 28 Jan 2026
the cicadas were romancing and I was naked
I think your story might have filled a niche in the erotic literature market. Well done!
There's another insect called the common cockchafer... best avoided in my opinion...
Read full commentPosted in A Book Report Influenced by the Absurdity of Life
Spectrum is Green!
Posted on Thu, 29 Jan 2026
Is this about Captain Scarlet and the lovely Angel Interceptor ladies? Shame on them, especially Destiny Angel. I've been carrying the torch for her for sixty years.
Read full commentPosted in S.I.G!
Tamagotchi
Posted on Thu, 29 Jan 2026
Whenever any of my offspring, or the offspring of my offspring, make any sort of unreasonable request for anything at all, I calmly say ‘I want a Tamagotchi’. These words remind all members of our family (particularly my youngest daughter) of an...
Read full commentPosted in Stamp my little foot
Life on Mars
Posted on Thu, 29 Jan 2026
Perhaps Kandy in Sri Lanka or Sugar Loaf Mountain in Brazil would be a good place to start. Or even Bakewell where the tarts come from. And if all else fails you could start a new life on Mars.
I enjoyed your alternative approach to...
Read full commentPosted in Chewy and Exhausting
Keep up the good work!
Posted on Wed, 21 Jan 2026
You deserve success in the published world, Harry, because not only do you write extremely well but you take writing a lot more seriously than I do. I only do it to fill my spare time in the year's darker months and so that people have something...
Read full commentPosted in 4. Away with Words (i)
Pick of the Day
Posted on Tue, 20 Jan 2026
Perhaps we should arrange an ABCTales football match. Poets versus storywriters.
Can I be on the same side as Celticman please? I imagine him to be a diminutive winger known for his technique and dribbling skills, being able to go past...
Read full commentPosted in The Beautiful Game
Coconuts for goalposts
Posted on Tue, 20 Jan 2026
I once played football with kids on a beach near a fishing village in Madagascar. The ball was a rolled up piece of old fishing net and they didn’t own jumpers so they couldn’t even use jumpers for goalposts. One little lad was wearing a Chelsea...
Read full commentPosted in The Beautiful Game
Nice one Harry!
Posted on Mon, 19 Jan 2026
Being a positive sort I've often said myself 'There are worse places' but one night in Grays in Essex I was stuck for words. Your seafront at Dunhaven Bay is my roundabout where Barwick Road crosses Leeds Ring Road.
And I'm sixty-eight, so...
Read full commentPosted in 3. An Expedition To The Pole (iii)
Oh Ben!
Posted on Tue, 20 Jan 2026
So many people knock football. At the highest level it’s been ruined by money and corruption but just a few rungs down the football ladder there’s a game that anybody can play. You don’t need to be gifted, or athletic. You don’t necessarily need...
Read full commentPosted in The Beautiful Game
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