Blogs

Murder in the Pacific, BBC 2, BBC iPlayer, Director Chloe Campbell.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 21 Mar 2023

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0dvdpmq/murder-in-the-pacific-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0dvdqvz/murder-in-the-pacific-series-1-episode-2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p0dvdrpx/murder-in-the-pacific-series-1-episode-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_Warrior_%281955%29 ‘One death is a tragedy, a million death is a statistic.’ A quote perhaps wrongly attributed to the Georgian, and mass murderer...

Andrew O’Hagan (2006) Be Near Me.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 20 Mar 2023

I’ve been dipping into Andrew O’Hagan’s back catalogue. Be Near Me was longlisted for the Man Booker Prize 2006, but for me the book didn’t work. The title comes from an Alfred, Lord Tennyson poem, ‘In Memoriam, A.H.H.,’ preceding the beginning of the novel. ‘Be near me when the light is low, When the blood creeps, and the nerves prick And tingle: when the heart is sick, And all the wheels of Being slow.’ Who is it? What is it? We can expect...

ONLINE READING EVENT REGISTRATION LINK

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Mon, 20 Mar 2023

Very pleased to announce that the reading list for our upcoming virtual event on Saturday April 1st is now FULL! We still have places in the audience but you must register here or you won't be allowed in: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqd-mopjkvHt2R5NRDreRa_8JOzMvT5Frw We have some brilliant readers and it's always a wonderful evening so we'd love to see as many of you as possible. We start at 7pm All enquiries to rachel@abctales.com

Happiness is a warm keyboard=I live to and love to write

Posted by Penny4athought on Sat, 18 Mar 2023

Today the weather is an unusual temperature for my part of the world. I’m sure it was meant for a cooler clime but I’m not complaining, quite the opposite. The chill morning woke me up with an energetic burst of awareness and as I brewed the morning coffee, I opened the back door to my yard and was captured, stopped in my tracks, a complacent participant. The light wind on my arms and face was much better than a coffee for stimulation. I heard...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 17 Mar 2023

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 17 Mar 2023

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 17 Mar 2023 An interesting week this one. The prose side of things was exceptionally difficult due to some fantastic writing by quite a few different people. Celticman’s Schmooze Control was a snarling, vivid piece that must have been as cathartic to write as it was to read . Mark Say’s A Man Called Malcolm was as good as any short story has a right to be. On any other week either of these could have been Story of the Week...

An Irish Goodbye, BBC 1, BBC iPlayer, Directors Ross White and Tom Berkeley.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 14 Mar 2023

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m001k2z5/an-irish-goodbye An Irish Goodbye is an award-winning short film. The plot is simple. An Irish mammy dies and her two boys need to arrange her funeral. Turlough, the older brother, returns from London to sell the farm and to make sure Lorcan is taken care of. He assumes his younger brother will go and live with his Auntie because he’s got Down’s syndrome. An extra chromosome doesn’t stop Lorcan...

Gary Lineker’s Tweet and Match of the Day.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 13 Mar 2023

Tweet in response to the Tory government’s stop the boats propaganda: “immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”. The BBC back down, eventually. I’m a traditionalist, an old football-watching generation. We read the newspaper from the back pages to the front. The most important thing is my team, Celtic’s results. A Scottish team, built by Brother...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point (and a couple of other things!)

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 10 Mar 2023

Posted by airyfairy Firstly, just a reminder about the ABCTales Virtual Reading Night, hosted by Mark Burrow, on 1 April. If you haven't yet, please do email rachel@abctales.com (link sends e-mail) to reserve your place, with both your user name and real name. These events are always friendly, supportive and great fun, and it's lovely to see and hear new readers. Or just come along to be part of the audience! You can see the original...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point (and a couple of other things!)

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 10 Mar 2023

Firstly, just a reminder about the ABCTales Virtual Reading Night, hosted by Mark Burrow, on 1 April. If you haven't yet, please do email rachel@abctales.com to reserve your place, with both your user name and real name. These events are always friendly, supportive and great fun, and it's lovely to see and hear new readers. Or just come along to be part of the audience! There's always new challenges to running this kind of site, and the latest...

Kathy Burke: Growing Up, Channel 4, All4, Written, Presented and Produced by Kathy Burke.

Posted by celticman on Thu, 09 Mar 2023

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/kathy-burke-growing-up Kathy Burke and me are around the same age. We belong to the UB40 generation of Red, Red Wine and I am the 1 in 10 . Now we are the 1 in 5 growing like a cancerous cell. We belong to a vanguard army that plays a leading role in dementia and death, and most other things you’d rather not think about. Over 9 in 10 Covid deaths belonged to our age group. I didn’t vote for being old. I didn’t...

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