Caldwell
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I have 156 stories published in
10 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 162138 times
and 158 of my stories have been cherry picked.
28 of my 246 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 29 votes
Christopher Caldwell
I grew up in England and have since made a home in France, on the banks of the Loire. My writing explores how family, place, and history leave their traces on us.
My stories
In response to Luigi's Morning Mail
I want good news, but not the kind doled out like cute puppies to blot out massacres, sunsets to obscure famine. No. That’s comfort served not as...
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- 12 comments
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- 435 reads
There's an element of The Two Ronnies about this
[Courtroom set. Barker (Counsel) rises, papers in hand. Corbett (Professor Plomb) is in the dock, looking dignified but slightly bewildered.] Barker...
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- 2 comments
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- 182 reads
The time I tried acupuncture
The practitioner was a Romanian woman, about my age, with jet-black hair and a round, sweet face that carried a natural compassion. Before our...
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- 6 comments
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- 303 reads
School friends
I was never much for friends. In primary school I was a loner, though I didn’t have the word for it then. My younger brother was the one with a...
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- 4 comments
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- 241 reads
The lyre of Orpheus
There was a summer, not long after Breathless came out, when I listened to it on repeat. Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds — a song unlike most of theirs,...
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- 189 reads
The commercialisation of
Posted on Tue, 10 Dec 2024
The commercialisation of religious holidays often feels out of step with their origins. The Magi, brought gifts that symbolised more than material wealth: gold for kingship, frankincense for divinity, and myrrh for mortality. The gold might have...
Read full commentPosted in CHRISTmas is Cancelled. Part Four.
Being out in the woods has
Posted on Fri, 16 Feb 2024
Being out in the woods has saved me numerous times. I love the woods. Especially the mossy, brackeny, hilly kind with large rhododendrons and wise old trees. Doesn't matter the weather or time of day, it is always inspiring, reviving and calming...
Read full commentPosted in Two kinds of crying : 15th February 2024
Good collection of anatomic
Posted on Tue, 12 Nov 2024
Good collection of anatomic maladies. I'd quite like to see an anatomical model with all of those clearly demarcated. Perhaps including the vented spleen and weaver's bottom, blacksmith's lung and of course, one wouldn't want to miss out writer's...
Read full commentPosted in The Tale of the Housemaid’s Knee
The media thrives on hate. I
Posted on Sun, 03 Nov 2024
The media thrives on hate. I see more and more people switching off the news, not owning a TV, not buying papers. I got very depressed last year, mostly to do with all the terrors in the Middle East but not limited to just that. I had a friend...
Read full commentPosted in I HATE YOU!
I'm sure if there is a God She or He will understand.
Posted on Sun, 03 Nov 2024
Surely this God would practise what they preach and offer compassion, and love and turn the other cheek regardless of whatever sins may have been committed. Surely that's the point. No one is born evil and we are all a result of our environment....
Read full commentPosted in I HATE YOU!
I love me a clootie dumpling.
Posted on Sat, 02 Nov 2024
I love me a clootie dumpling.
Read full commentPosted in Breast, not Beast
Thank you for your high
Posted on Mon, 28 Oct 2024
Thank you for your high praise.
I was actually drawing on Andrew Marvell's style. Crossed with a question from Steven Wright "Ok, so what's the speed of dark?". He has some good leftfield oneliners that leave you thinking such as "Why isn’...
Read full commentPosted in The Speed Of Dark // Eclipse
Woman of the hour
Posted on Thu, 24 Oct 2024
I watched a 2023 film the other night called Woman of the Hour set in 70s LA. Though it's about a serial killer targeting women, it's actually a study on outdated attitudes towards women in general and unfortunately, there is evidence that these...
Read full commentPosted in You picked the wrong time to ask.
A stark and painful image of
Posted on Thu, 24 Oct 2024
A stark and painful image of womanhood. You capture the cyclical nature of violence, loss, and survival with visceral language—“hollow-eyed blossoms of rape,” “orphans, widowers,” and the repeated “begetting” convey a history of suffering passed...
Read full commentPosted in You picked the wrong time to ask.
Wonderful. Seamus Heaney's
Posted on Mon, 21 Oct 2024
Wonderful. Seamus Heaney's earthy textures, but sparser and more sensual and questioning. "through truffled scurf" and "saltmist warped the wood" are just fantastic.
There's a songwriter I used to listen to called Joanna Newsom who had a...
Read full commentPosted in Figurehead
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