Turlough
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I have 225 stories published in
7 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 814997 times
and 316 of my stories have been cherry picked.
950 of my 3,376 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 1018 votes
Terence Mullan
I shaved my head again today. I shave it every couple of months to disguise the fact that I’m going bald.
My stories
Our Old Girl… Remembering Coral
I knew Coral (seashore) for only the final two of her eighty-six years. Around our love and sadness for her late daughter Julia (Overthetop1), who herself had been a dear friend forty years before, we formed an incredible bond in that short time. She once described herself as an old crock. To me she was an old crock of gold.
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- 3621 reads
Fire and Rain
If Stevie Wonder had lived in Equatorial Guinea, he’d probably still have thought there was nothing hotter than July in Bulgaria. Here’s one hundred words per day to describe the last fifteen days of a very sweaty month.
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- 2325 reads
Violetta Are You Better?
If Stevie Wonder had lived in Bulgaria, he’d have realised that there’s nothing hotter than July. Here’s one hundred words per day to describe the first sixteen days of a very sticky month.
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- 1009 reads
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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- 1295 reads
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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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
Shame
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
Kat, there’ll have been enormous pressure on them from their families because at that time they’ll have been considered to be the cause of overwhelming shame on the entire family and possibly even the local community. Some families were...
Read full commentPosted in Letter to Ann Lovett (1968 - 1984)
Tellies
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
Good on you for being off griddish. I went sixteen years without a telly but living in a remote corner of the world I can't manage without a phone. I use its translator app for something or other almost every time I step out of the house. About a...
Read full commentPosted in 3. An Expedition To The Pole (ii)
Papa Ain't Salty
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
Some people frown on pubs but they're the perfect places for stories like this, be they fiction, non-fiction or a combination. Spoken word will always beat a phone or a telly for entertainment and an Icelandic saga will always beat Corrie. ...
Read full commentPosted in 3. An Expedition To The Pole (ii)
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