Many, many thanks to everyone who's subscribed and been reading these pieces of writing over the past year. For the time being I'm switching from fiction to non-fiction and you're very welcome to join me at https://communitycorner.home.blog
Wonkaland
If you want to learn the truth about a person, look at their reading material. All of Wonka's interests and obsessions were laid bare in the Reading Room; endless aisles and shelves stacked to the rafters with esoteric miscellany and madness...
I was his Companion
There is a single question most commonly asked when people discover who I am, who I was. The interest is not in me, of course, but in the company I once kept; the celebrity whose familiar I had been. Who was the man in the iron mask?
Bob’s Place
I never quite know what to expect when Raoul Walsh appears. This time I’m surprised to see he has brought a friend with him; a short, scowling, barrel-chested, bald man...
The Tent for Lost Children
The stage has been taken down, the stalls all packed away, and the litter-pickers have nearly finished their sweep of the festival site, but here inside the tent for lost children things are not looking good...
The Ghost of Pancho Villa
"We're going to rob a bank," Raoul tells me. "What?" "Everybody loves a good heist. We're going to rob a bank..."
MOBD
I have always harbored a love of museums...
A Precious Little Thing
The Devil invited me over for tea...
Butch
“Butch is a little senile," Raoul confides in me, "sometimes he gets confused, forgets that he’s not on set any more..."
The Rounds
I'd better get my skates on. I'm running late and I haven't even started on my rounds yet...
Mammut Americanum
There's a true story that's now well known...
Rex
As soon as he had entered Morris’s home it was evident to Stripling that he was in the company of a fellow collector; there were poor specimens of the art everywhere he looked...
The Firebird
Taking to the skies with my long dead muse...
The Red Boy and the Tree
The Red Boy had never much cared for his neighbour...
The Priest
“Is it wrong,” I ask him, “to kill someone, if it means you're stopping them from killing innocent children?”
The Ticket
Raoul Walsh never liked rock music. Jazz was his thing...
All the Little Fishes
There in the back, in the glow of the fluorescent tubes, I catch her arm to steal a kiss...
Umami
Welcome back, Raoul Walsh...
A Bit of Chocolate
Every one of us shared the little we had ourselves. Every one of us but Walter...
Postcards from the Future
Wish you were here...
God’s Pantry
"So, um, what are you cooking this evening?"
Raoul Walsh
I'd be lying if I said I had asked Raoul Walsh to be my story-telling mentor. I really didn't give him any say in the matter...
Hell’s Radio
It has come to our attention that some staff have been deviating from the station’s Official Playlist. This is NOT acceptable...
The Red Boy and the Scary Lady
One day the Red Boy and the black and white dog were stopped in the street by a scary lady...
The Laundry Lady
"Look at them," she said, "like little lost souls spinning round..."