F.R.I.G.H.T. – A Short Story

F.R.I.G.H.T. - A short Story for you entertainment: F.R.I.G.H.T. Foster sneered at the novel in front of him. ‘Writers! Shoot the bloody lot if I had my way.’ He leered at the scientist perched on the corner of his desk. ‘Who told him?’ The scientist inclined her head. ‘Not you, was it?’ She bridled, crossed …

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A Land Despoiled; a Short Story

A Land Despoiled, a short story for you. This one would be labelled 'Sci-Fi' or possibly 'Dystopian fiction', but I see it as the fruit of my imagination on passing through an area entirely dominated by the acid yellow flowers of oil seed rape. A Land Despoiled No one had been this far south for …

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A Perfect Solution: A Short Story

A pool in a Greek Hotel. Here's the next short story in my intention to give you one each week for the whole of 2026. I have a couple of anthologies of short stories, too, for those who love such collections. The one that would be most relevant for those who enjoy the one below …

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An Eztraordinary Ezperience: A Short Story

Here's this week's free to read short story for your entertainment. This one was entered for a contest and published in the resultant anthology, 'To Hull And Back 2016'. An Eztraordinary Ezperience ‘If you don’t help me, I’ll make you sorry.’ There it was again. Every time he switched on the computer, the same threat …

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Is There Progress In The Work In Progress?

I last wrote about the WIP on the 8th of August. How is it possible I’ve allowed all those days to pass without a single catch-up piece?At that time, the MS stood at 122,237 words over 282 pages. As I write this, it stands at 120,705 words over 280 pages, having been through a number …

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Outline, by Rachel Cusk: #BookReview

What is ‘Outline’? Is it a novel, a collection of essays, a piece of philosophy, an account of the physical, mental and emotional wanderings of the gifted author? It is all these things, and more.Whilst I discovered it was possible to put the book down, it was not feasible to do so without finishing that …

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Side By Side – A Short Story

I'm going to attempt to place a short story here every week. Some will have been published, others, like this one, will never have been seen. I'm doing this to give readers an idea of the scope of my writing and as a way to stimulate my writing discipline. I intend to illustrate each with …

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Walk 1,000 Miles In A Year

For a few years now, my wife and I have accepted a challenge set by Country Walking Magazine to walk 1,000 miles in a year. The weekly milage required to achieve this is actually only 19.23, which is hardly a marathon. We both love walking, getting into the countryside and enjoying the freedom and serenity …

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Technology: Why, Oh Why Those Constant Updates?

Sure, we all know sometimes tech needs to be updated to flow in synchronicity with other tech, and that’s an accepted necessary evil. But why, oh why, these constant changes in style, appearance, and especially, connections to bloody AI? We are the customers, the consumers of your products. We BUY them. Don’t we deserve a …

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How To Self-Publish Your Book For Free And Not Get Conned, by TW Robinson: #BookReview.

Subtitled ‘A new author’s guide to publishing and marketing for success’ this book was recommended to me by another writer, who thought it might be of use to me. It is! First, I’m a published writer, both self-published and published with a small indie publisher, so, on the face of it, this book could seem …

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The Temporary Gentleman, by Sebastian Barry: #BookReview.

Complex, moving, full of insight, and harrowing in places, this novel haunts the reader with its rich, expressive prose and its comprehensive depiction of its characters. Set mostly in Ireland and Africa, it uses the emergence of Eire as a republic and the difficulties that separation from mainland Britain imposes on that society during the …

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Halloween: Time For A Tale Of Terror!

It’s that time of the year again. Time to bring a spot of horror to the coming night of terrors, eh? 'Julie, dressed just for summer fun, is coerced by controlling fiancé Kasim to visit her ancient Aunt Agatha at her isolated old manor house. Local rumours inform him the Folly in the grounds holds …

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Watchwords, by Roger McGough: #BookReview.

This slim volume of the, at the time, relatively revolutionary poetry of the Liverpudlian poet, Roger McGough, I discovered on the bookshelves at my brother’s home when visiting recently. This edition was published by Jonothan Cape in 1972, though the title poem was first published in 1969. I picked it up to read while waiting …

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The Curious Cliché of The Black Scarab, by Mark Millicent: #BookReview.

Subtitled ‘The Dry Crumbs Of An Adventure’, this is a humorous tale of unlikely events taking the reader from darkest London to even darker Egypt via routes made more convoluted than expected by the hapless participants.Two ‘gentlemen’, I use the term loosely for these men, earn their comfortable if confined living by producing an archaeological …

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The Third QI Book of General Ignorance, by John Lloyd, John Mitchinson, James Harkin, Andrew Hunter Murray: #BookReview.

Subtitled 'Forget General Knowledge, here's the right stuff!'In common with the other books in this series, this isn’t a volume to sit down and consume in one go. It’s a pleasurable source of entertainment combined with education that deserves to be savoured so each tasty morsel provides the full flavour and nutrients to the knowledge …

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