Dedicated publisher of fiction, poetry and memoir
'Guiness' the Cat 'I LOVE Guiness, Mammy!' Not normally the words you want to hear from a two-year-old. But in this case, he was talking about a neighbourhood cat who we'd befriended a few days before lockdown started. Now the children have been let out on (reasonably) good behaviour, we went looking for Guiness last... Continue Reading →
Forget Paris, forget Venice, forget Rome... For me, the most romantic city in the world is Liverpool. Dreams of long-departed emigrants hang in the dockside air; ever expectant; awaiting transportation to the New World. I can almost hear their chatter on the docks. Maybe it's from the many visits to the Maritime Museum as a... Continue Reading →
In another post dedicated to my kids, Benji and Ollie, today I want to tell the story of their first trip out in six weeks. For six weeks they'd been hidden behind closed doors. I'd been looking forward to this moment since the Spanish Government announced the relaxation of lockdown restrictions last week. I actually... Continue Reading →
Thanks to Roser, I have been nominated for the Vincent Ehindero Blogger Award. I am very grateful to receive the nomination: keep up the great work on your wonderful blog, Roser! Also keep posting in Catalan, such a poetic language! Here are the RULES to follow 1. Thank the person that nominated you with a... Continue Reading →
Today's post is dedicated to my children, Benji and Ollie, who have endured six weeks of total lockdown in Spain. They haven't been able to go any further than the garden. They've been absolute stars of the lockdown show. They've had to make their own magic, with a little help from mum and dad of... Continue Reading →
If my sobriety were a baby, I should be giving birth today, to a Brand New Me. Or perhaps just to the Old Me, which would be the Young Me, before I started drinking. Unfortunately, I've been through a tough time over the last few days, and all the old behaviours are coming back: shouting... Continue Reading →
In today's entry, I take a look at another poem by Seamus Heaney, 'The Blackbird of Glanmore,' and the extended metaphor of the 'house of life' presented therein. It's something I've been thinking about a lot during this strange period of quarantine, with a little time and stillness to reflect upon my life and re-evaluate... Continue Reading →
The two of us looked out at the blue sky, the bare chestnut tree glistening with dew, the seagulls and other birds glinting with silver as they swooped through the air, and we were so moved and entranced that we couldn't speak.Anne Frank: The Diary of a Young Girl, 23 February 1944 As I write... Continue Reading →
Do you remember that night, the night we talked? It was a fine and starlit night. Somewhere backstage, a salamander sounded the depths of the night, his mating call a sonar probe, rebounding and marking out the limits of our world. We didn't need a territory greater than this, delineated by his echoing mating call:... Continue Reading →
In today's post I take a look at what's happening (or not happening) 'out there' in what used to be called 'the real world.' Commercial activities have been stripped down to the bare minimum, and many people have been brought to question their whole value system because of this. Empty aisles Yesterday, I ventured into... Continue Reading →
Experiments in Fiction 