Xander Michael

Well done, Ath. Great voice (as always!) And thanks, Clebs, for prompting me to write something (anything!) even though I had no idea where I was going with it 🙂 (The only thing I was sure about was that whoever Amelia is, she’s no benevolent being).

Sandra, I’d like to see more of yours if you develop it and Alex, good job on taking the…[Read more]

Well deserved, Athelstone, and thank you Clebs for the topic which at least sent me back to the primary sources to size up the task again. Thanks to all entrants for a feast of post gathering events.

Not quite fulfilling the brief but it’s this or nothing.

The post-gathering I should most like to write the aftermath of, did time and ability permit is the one which took place following the reading of the will of Thomas Hutchinson Goodfellow, my husband’s great-grandfather, following his death in Tottenham in 1891, age 73.
That it was…[Read more]

After the Gathering

There was never an invitation. No surprise email in your inbox, no speculative phone call while your mouth was full of the last of the chocolate brownies, and no snatched conversation as you unloaded your shopping in the supermarket queue.

‘Have you heard? Amelia’s having another one of her get-togethers this weekend. It see…[Read more]

Congratulations, Clebs, a well-twisted tale. And thanks Alex for a prompt which produced such variety.

A ‘critical reading course’ sounds exactly what I need, (and I’ve a couple of books on the course list) but despite several books on ‘How to’, and the Future Learn course using the James Tait Black shortlists, I’ve realised my brain doesn’t work that way. Hope you get what you want from it. I’ve several books from the Festival added to my…[Read more]

And now that Edinburgh’s book festival is over, I need to thank you again for the heads up – so many hours of pleasure, not to say inspiration.

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

Just come across this while procrastinating and would firstly say I found it fascinating. I know I lack analytical skills and rarely watch films, finding them lacking compared to books, so your post, Daeds, and subsequent comments, have opened my eyes to a new way of viewing – I’ll come back and re-read several times more – so thank you.

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]

Change for the better?

I was born in Dovercourt, Essex, in my paternal grandparent’s house, to which they’d moved when my father was five years old. He, being still in the RAF was told of my arrival by telegram. The house was small; too small for five adults (my father’s sister lived there too) and baby, but we lived there for several years…[Read more]