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A Writer’s Best Friend
We all need a good friend, someone to support and encourage but also someone who will be unflinching when the time comes to tell us that we need to reconsider our attitudes or what we are doing. For a writer, in the first instance, it may be a partner or a colleague who shares a…
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The Hand That Rocks the Cradle
There are many unsung heroic people around the world doing their best to change things for the better. Just using the word ‘change’ is often a challenge to those in authority – who have shaped the world to best suit themselves and their peer groups, and those who seek change are mostly those who have…
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Chris Steele-Perkins
In 1978 the renowned photographer Chris Steele-Perkins made a trip to Wolverhamptonand visited some of my old haunts. He made a truly a wonderful collection of black andwhite photographs and it is worth checking out. https://theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/aug/28/chris-steele-perkins-my-best-shot-wolverhampton-reggae-club
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The Twist #5
On arrival at the Garda station, Don was told by the custody sergeant that he couldnotify a solicitor of his arrest, or one could be appointed if he wished. When Don gavethe name of the solicitor he wanted to be contacted the detectives standing at Don’sside started to growl menacingly that he was a man…
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The Irish-Jamaican Thing
There’s a long, not very well known, history of relationships between Ireland andJamaica that goes back to the very first years of when Britain took over the islands inthe Caribbean that were first claimed by the Spanish. Irish indentured labourers werebrought from Barbados around the time when there were only about one thousandAfrican slaves in…
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Yardies and Even More Badness
Unfortunately, with the passing of time the Yardie has become something of aromanticized figure but if you were living in the West Midlands when the Yardies werearound you would know that they were viewed as anything but. Theirs was a reign ofterror that was relatively short; a bit like many of their lives as individuals.…
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Twist Article #4
It was around midday before Don Blaney returned home from his uncle’s house and itquickly became obvious that he had missed a lot of excitement while he had been away.Don’s next-door neighbour called to him and said that he had found two partially burnedNorthern Bank pound notes in his garden and rang the police. On…
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Good Cops, Bad Cops, No Cops
There have been many deaths at the hands of police officers in Britain and the North of Ireland and numerous miscarriages of justice which do not have to be listed here. Instead, I want to highlight the countless daily exchanges between police officers and people of minority groups be that ethnic, religious, or people who…
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The Twist- Article 3
The Arrest In a work of fiction, particularly crime fiction, the story may include an event, a small, seemingly inconsequential event that leads to unforeseen consequences. And so it is with Don’s story but unfortunately this is no work of fiction and the consequences of this small action would prove to be catastrophic for him.…
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The Troubles Legacy Legislation
The Troubles Legacy legislation passed by the British Conservative government has been condemned by politicians of all shades in Ireland and yet goes mostly unremarked upon in Britain.
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Ralph Robb 