Turlough
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I have 226 stories published in
7 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 822664 times
and 317 of my stories have been cherry picked.
954 of my 3,391 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 1024 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
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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- 2176 reads
The Fox and the Elm Tree
For Julia and Robert. And for Coral and Sarah.
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- 10 comments
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- 1244 reads
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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- 1446 reads
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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- 2105 reads
Up to Their Ears in Tears
Good people raise their voices in anger but nobody hears them. It seems that nobody wants to hear them. Meanwhile Palestine and her children bleed to death.
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- 3799 reads
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)
Down the Pole
Posted on Sun, 18 Jan 2026
You might find this hard to believe but down the years I've spent quite a bit of my time in pubs. Your description of the Pole and it's punters makes me feel I know the place well.
The has-beens, never weres, dreamers and despairers....
Read full commentPosted in 3. An Expedition To The Pole (i)
Bravo!
Posted on Wed, 14 Jan 2026
Very well deserved accolades for words that match my thoughts.
Read full commentPosted in Gloom and Doom (sorry)
Mobile phones
Posted on Thu, 15 Jan 2026
The best way to deal with mobile phone problems is as follows:
- Take a bucket or similar container.
- Carefully place the mobile phone in the bucket.
- Add five litres of cold water and stir.
- Season to taste.
...
Read full commentPosted in Update.
Anger
Posted on Fri, 09 Jan 2026
I get you Mark. Under such awful circumstances anger is the natural first reaction.
Read full commentPosted in ICE terror
Terror and fear
Posted on Fri, 09 Jan 2026
It's a terrible thing that's happening and it needs to be stopped immediately, but it's nothing new. People are starting to sit up and pay attention because it's affecting middle-class white Americans for the first time. Black people in America...
Read full commentPosted in ICE terror
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