Blogs

Words of Wise Advice

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Fri, 28 Jan 2022

Before you speak - T is it True H is it Helpful I is it Inspirational N is it Needful K is it Kind ( I discovered these words on a poster on a classroom door at Orchard Manor School in Dawlish when I visited yesterday, together with my elder daughter in order to take part in a tree planting ceremony on Holocaust Memorial Day.) Orchard Manor is a school for children who have been diagnosed with autism, some of whom have additional issues. They...

The Rise and Fall of the Krays, STV, ITV Hub.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 28 Jan 2022

The Rise and Fall of the Krays, STV, ITV Hub. https://player.stv.tv/summary/espresso-krays ‘Rise’—‘Fear and Fame’—‘Fall. The first episode charts how the Kray twins with a propensity for violence rose from a humble working-class background in the East End of London. We’re on familiar territory here. The wife-beating father, who kicked their mum in the stomach, and caused her to miscarry. But no mention of their older brother, Charlie. Her...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 29th January 2022

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 28 Jan 2022

Another week another difficult choice. It was fun to read more of Terrence Oblong's flights of fancy particularly Midnight Mass Murder and Hudson Moon was on form with a surreal avian-narrated piece A Pigeon's Delight . However, Story of the Week goes to Mark Burrow's Weightless v2 . Choosing a Poem of the Week is often harder than choosing a story, this week is no exception. I won't list all of the quality work here, as there really was so much...

Jose Antonio Vargas (2018) Dear America, Notes of an Undocumented Citizen.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 25 Jan 2022

I’m not American, nor undocumented. I’m not a Pulitzer Prize winning journalist. I’m a British citizen, born in Scotland who voted for independence in the recent referendum. I’d qualify for an Irish passport on my father’s side and probably my mother’s too. Neither of them was born in Ireland. A product of the great diaspora, when the population of Ireland halved from around 12 million citizens, and then almost halved again. President John F...

The Salt Eaters by Toni Cade Bambara (book review)

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Sat, 22 Jan 2022

As an old Englishwoman I can truly say that The Salt Eaters is the most demanding and also the most rewarding work of fiction that I have read for over 40 years. The place is Southern USA in 1981.. Velma Henry has spent many years as a Black community activist, trying to sabotage the local nuclear power plant ('they' employ her because she is a highly qualified computer analyst). She and her girl buddies also try to mend warring factions within...

Jennifer Worth (2009) Farewell to the East End.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 21 Jan 2022

You’ve probably not heard of Jennifer Worth. Certainly, I hadn’t, when my sister gave me this book. You probably heard of Call the Midwife . It’s one of the most popular programmes on telly and a massive hit for the commissioners at BBC. It’s got everything you need: nuns in funny wimples and nurses dressed in uniform (with nursing hats made out of doilies) no nonsense matrons and cute as pie, newly born babies, which provoke a collective aahhhh...

Elizabeth Strout (2021) Oh William!

Posted by celticman on Thu, 20 Jan 2022

I’m not a great fan of Elizabeth Strout. Yet I’ve read most of the books in this series ( My Name is Lucy Barton, Olive Kitteridge, Olive Again, and Anything is Possible ).William Gerhardt who Lucy was married to for twenty years, and had two daughters with, before they separated and she married David, the cellist (who died last year), would explain it in terms of compulsion. William admitted he had affairs when he was married to Lucy. That was...

Danny Weston (2021) A Hunter’s Moon.

Posted by celticman on Wed, 19 Jan 2022

Where there are sheep the wolves are never far away, Plautus. Danny Weston weaves a spell that adolescent children—and those that think young—should follow under a Hunter’s Moon. A combination of coming-of-age drama, morality play and a supernatural thriller. It resonates with contemporary themes and Scottish folk lore. Callum, aged fourteen, narrates. Kids will warm to him, because he is the feisty everyman-child. His father lost him in a card...

New Online Reading Event - 4th February 7pm GMT

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 16 Jan 2022

Dear all, We are having another online reading event on Friday 4th of February from 7pm until 9pm. Please do come along and join in. It would be wonderful to have lots of readers, but it would be just as lovely to have people along as audience members too. If you do want to read, please send me an email at this address: rachel@abctales.com I will put together a list ready for Mark. Mark will, very kindly, be hosting again - you need to sign up...

Christopher Clark (2013) The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 15 Jan 2022

It’s been over 100 years since the war to end all wars. An impoverished and tubercular Gavrilo Princip, who carried all his possessions in a suitcase and had nowhere to stay when he arrived in Belgrade, firing the bullets in Sarajevo that killed Franz Ferdinand, Archduke of Austria-Este and the heir to the Habsburg throne for the cause of Serbian nationalism. Shots that rang around the world. Sophie Chotek, the Czech noblewomen, a love match and...

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