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Jacques was in state general hospital the whole of June and half of August, and following up as outpatient. He is recovering well and gradually but steadily picking up weight he is completely mobile and has been able since returning home. He does look a great deal more healthy now, sleeping well too. Jacques is Spartan allright. He was born a soldier. We get along well and my own health has been very good. He sees to shopping and meals I do my...

As the days get shorter and the nights get longer and Storm Whatever-It-Is-This-Week rages outside, it's great to have some wonderful stories and poems to read, and ABC never disappoints. Story of the Week is another of celticman's brilliant slices of life, with vivd characters and an acutely observed setting. You'll be standing in this kitchen and smelling those chips: Love Story 12 | ABCtales Poem of the Week is Di Hard's howl of anger and...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/happy-as-lazzaro https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Happy_as_Lazzaro Happy as Lazzaro won the Best Screenplay at the Cannes Festival 2018. It’s quite simple yet quite complex. Setting the scene. A proposal. A peasant farmworkerwith his workmates come to ask for the hand in marriage of young girl. Lazzaro (Adriano Tardiolo) looks on smiling. Food and drink is prepared in the traditional way. An electric lightbulb is...

Confession time... I've been writing on another writers' website. I wanted it to be art but it's turned out to be just my daily waffle. It may even contain an eff word. I'll try much harder next month.

Notes on why Celtic Supporters Fly the Palestinian Flag. Epitaph on a Tyrant W. H. Auden - 1907-1973 Perfection, of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he laughed, respectable senators burst with laughter, And when he cried the little children died in the streets. President Joe Biden offered some...

The book cover has a blurb from the Guardian : ‘Like an American Alan Bennet’. You might be asking what’s the Guardian and who is Alan Bennet? Why do we need more of him, especially if you’re American and already got David Sedaris. Like most writers David Sedaris writes about himself. Like most writers he tells the same story over and over while trying to capture new readers who’ll appreciate him for his literary talent, or at least pay him for...

Quite difficult to choose again this week. Do keep up the good work, everyone. Poem of the week There were many contenders for the poem of the week. Lenchenelf’s powerful and topical piece Identity was particularly good, as was marandina’s Blagdon Lake in Winter This weeks POW award goes to MJG’s Mother-tongue -a really moving elegy for her mother. Story of the Week The continuing stories were much in evidence this week and I continued to enjoy...

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/another-round https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Another_Round_(film) Another Round won an Oscar for The Best International Film 2021. Like most great stories the plot can be summed up in one line. Four teachers at the same school agree to get pissed every day. They call it an experiment. An aid to creativity and the better life they feel they’re missing out on. Psychiatrist Finn Skårderud’s theory — humans are...

The eagle-eyed amongst you may have noted that this week's Bring Out Your Dead episode - 'Can't Take My Eyes Off You ' , has appeared a day earlier than normal. This is because, due to circumstances beyond my control (as they always say) there will now be a slight hiatus in the regular weekly provision of insights into Josiah and Archibald's travails, getting the body of Sir Lewisham Carnock back to the U.K. However, nil desperandum and all that...