Caldwell
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I have 176 stories published in
10 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 186255 times
and 183 of my stories have been cherry picked.
35 of my 277 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 36 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
It ain’t where you’re from, it’s where you’re at
We tell ourselves we want change. We stare across the divide at that other life - greener, cleaner, fuller, freer - and we feel the ground beneath us...
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- 2 comments
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- 208 reads
Riddles
In 1984, Nick Kershaw’s The Riddle was in the charts - a mysterious, catchy song full of apparently profound but entirely nonsensical lyrics. It...
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- 1 comment
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- 164 reads
The language of the leaves
In the ruins of our century, the forests began to write again. Their script was neither ink nor binary, but a weaving of signals through sap and...
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- 5 comments
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- 397 reads
Barbers protect men’s egos, hairdressers threaten them.
A few months ago, I went to a hairdresser’s and was treated like royalty. Before I’d even sat down, I was offered a drink - coffee, sparkling water,...
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- 261 reads
Trump reads Hansel and Gretel
So there were these two kids, Hansel and Gretel - great kids, really terrific kids. Everybody said so. And they had a father, who was, you know, weak...
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- 13 comments
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- 1043 reads
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
Yes, fireworks were a key
Posted on Tue, 24 Sep 2024
Yes, fireworks were a key highlight for me too. And running around with sparklers but so scared of that hot metal. I was a '70s kid so a bit later - we had indoor fireworks too as a pre-show before the big ones outside. My dad more than anyone...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone (2)
Your poem reminds me of
Posted on Wed, 25 Sep 2024
Your poem reminds me of something.
There was a German advert featuring a Mr W for a wind energy company called Epuron. I don't know if you've seen it. It's easy to track down on YouTube.
He is large, awkward and looks like a mime...
Read full commentPosted in Visible signs of the invisible
Good old Mrs Cooper.
Posted on Sat, 21 Sep 2024
Good old Mrs Cooper. Entertaining kids without even trying.
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone (1)
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