Mad Iguana

Burn

The day the power went off for the last time, Dad started on about the country again.

“When did this country change?” he growled. “Things never used to be like this. This is Britain, how did it get so the electric doesn’t work?”

Gemma didn’t understood when he talked like this. It was like he felt the whole island was somehow the same. G…[Read more]

<p style=”font-weight: 400;”><b>Upwards and Downwards</b></p>
<p style=”font-weight: 400;”>An unexpected ray of light pierced  the blanket of cloud which hung over the otherwise dull cemetery. A plot empty of earth with planks and ropes ready to lower a coffin screamed yet another death.
</p>
<p style=”font-weight: 400;”>Had the reaper taken…[Read more]

Admittedly the last edit I had done was via someone I have known for a while. But still, you are commissioning a job so it is up to you to tell them/ask them what you think is necessary.

I’d write along the lines of

Hey, Editor. Sort out this pile of horror for me, there’s a good fellow.

OK, OK. More along the lines of

Dear Editor

I got your…[Read more]

It did, but not by very much. I went looking for info on this, and found three post-nationalisation disasters with forty or more killed. Not quite slaughter on nineteenth century levels, but you have to take into account that the industry was being steadily run down.

Though I’m old enough (I was born in 1950) I don’t remember where I was or what…[Read more]

Thank you both, @richardb and @katemachon; Kate, the info on your process, experience and end results was especially illuminating. Thanks so much! ✨

I was just reading up on Gresford following this and noticed one striking coincidence. The name of an MP who castigated the mine’s management during a debate in parliament following the inquiry’s mealy-mouthed conclusions:

David Grenfell…

And thank you too, Seagreen.

For those of you who are interested enough to look up that song lyric, I should explain the significance of that line ‘Down there in the dark they are lying.’ On the grounds that conditions were too dangerous for any further rescue work, the controversial decision was taken to permanently seal the affected part of the…[Read more]

Great blog, Richard. As always. 🙂

Apologies, Alex. 190 words. Unfinished, indulgent and undoubtedly DQ’d, but I wanted you to know I made an effort 😊

UNTITLED

If he, Thomas Hicks, aged 52 years, 5 months and 19 days, were to try to recollect a time in the stoicism of his existence, when he had laughed such a laugh, he could not.

It was, for want of better description, a swallow…[Read more]

You have a calm, authoratative voice that is perfect for these blogs, Richard. I start one of these and it’s like eating something delicious: I can’t stop until it’s finished.

On the topic itself: it’s reassuring to think that we’ve come a long way since those unreconstructed days of holy capital. Then I consider the unreported disaster that has…[Read more]