Month: May 2011

You're in Guatemala, in a minibus apparently powered by reggae and with an air conditioning system that is approximately as effective at cooling air as a child blowing into an oven. The road is cracked and uneven, baked dry by months of relentless sun, and as you sweep towards Belize the bare tyres of the… Continue reading Real Magic Realism

After being the focal point for a cynical media-orchestrated campaign motivated solely by the desire of newspaper editors to be allowed to gossip freely about where footballers put their penises noble campaign to preserve our right to freedom of expression, I couldn't help but notice that as he ages Ryan "Giggsy" Giggs looks more and… Continue reading Ryan Giggs And The Wheelies

Written for a flash fiction challenge - word limit of 350 words, title "No-one Cares".“Did you hear the news?”“About the assassination?”“Attemptedassassination.”“I heard about it on the radio. Terrible, isn’t it?”“Awful.”“I can barely believe it.”“Did you hear how they did it?”“They planted a bomb, didn’t they?”“They planted a bomb in a briefcase.”“Oh, a briefcase, yes. I… Continue reading No-one Cares

If you read my flash piece Seeing Things then you'll know that the main character is called Anatoly Meliakoff. I like this name. It has just the right sound to it, just the right right rhythm and shape. It took me a while to find first and last names with the right combinations of syllables… Continue reading Top ten character names

Written for a flash fiction challenge - word limit of 250 words, title "Seeing Things".   See The Great Meliakoff's LAST EVER performance!said the posters. Anatoly Meliakoff was the greatest magician of his age. Crowds would flock from miles around to see him, and word of his coming would travel ahead of him like fire… Continue reading Seeing Things

Totò Schillaci, from i-azzurri.comPeople of a certain age, who remember simpler times when music came on CDs and people wore mullets without a hint of irony and Rambo could fight happily alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, may recall with some horror the 1990 World Cup.Famous for Frank Rijkaard spitting in Rudi Voller's perm, a spectacularly… Continue reading A title without a story

Thanks to Peter Seal, the Tunbridge Wells Writers group now has its own website: http://www.tunbridgewellswriters.moonfruit.comv1.0 will incorporate biographies, writing, contact details and other flim-flam from the members. v2.0 could include blogs, writing resources and social media doodahs. No-one knows what v3.0 might involve. Frankly, the whole thing is terrifying.

Moved over onto Blogger...

I always suspected that I would be famous. Even as a young child, with my parents fussing as parents will and my older brother forging a path before me from which I would deviate as soon as I was able, I knew somehow that my name would be repeated by others in hushed tones. Urgent,… Continue reading Debut novel – excerpt