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• December 19th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: A poem is not a puddle

  If you were going to write the 12 Laws of Poetry what would they include? Always make sure you have a pen and paper to hand? A poem is not a poem just because you say it is? In this article Jim Murdoch analyses two of his own poems and writes rules to accompany the writing of them. A bit of fun but…

• December 17th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  A poem is not a puddle

  I'm unsure how helpful this will be to anyone out there; in fact I suspect some of you might find it quite boring. But I've been meaning to try and cover this topic for a while and I'm hoping it mi…

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• December 14th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has added fullet to their friends list.

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: The Invisible City by Emili Rosales (book review)

  The narrator receives an old manuscript about an ambitious project dreamt up by King Charles III. The manuscript contains hints about a lost masterpiece by the Venetian painter Tiepolo, and the site of the Invisible City is where he used to play as a child. The Invisible City is a gripping historica…

• December 13th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  The Invisible City

  I am developing a growing respect for historical novelists. The lengths to which they go to personally authenticate every scrap of information in their novels has to be admired. While researching The…

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• December 11th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Fighting ghosties

  What happens when you read a poem? What factors come into play? We're all have different make-ups and have varied life experiences - how do these affect us when we're faced with a new poem? A discussion of the importance of schemata when deciding what a poem is and what a poem means.
  
  http://jim-m…

• December 10th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Fighting ghosties

  DISCLAIMER Before all you mental heath professionals start jumping all over me I do not pretend for one moment to be an expert or even well read on this topic. It did present its…

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• December 8th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Whiffling in Liff or what to buy a constipated logophile for

  Everyone who loves words loves books about all the weird and wonderful words there are out there that hardly ever get used: foreign expressions, colloquial terms, slang words, gobbledygook, technobabble, queer place names … and every year new books come out that collect these under various guises.…

• December 6th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Whiffling in Liff or what to buy a constipated logophile for Xmas

  If you're like me you will delight in the discovery of a new word, even one you might never find a use for, although sometimes a word is so good that you simply have to make room for it. I gave the p…

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• December 2nd, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Seeing Things by Oliver Postgate (book review)

  The Clangers, Bagpuss, Ivor the Engine, Noggin the Nog – these beloved children's programmes all flowed from the pen of Oliver Postgate and yet his work in animation only made up part of a fascinating life which is opened up for us in his autobiography, 'Seeing Things' which includes his time as a…

• November 29th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Seeing Things

  Oliver Postgate was a small man in a big world. He made small films – his business was in fact called Smallfilms – and never aspired to make big ones. He lived a quiet life mostly in small towns…

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Haiku and its related forms: an introductory essay

  Haiku has become increasingly popular in recent years. On the surface it's a simple form of poetry but thousands of words have been written about what an acceptable haiku is and most of these begin with a discussion of whether the number of syllables makes any difference in an English haiku. This es…

• November 26th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Guest Post: Haiku and its related forms: an introductory essay

  I've written a couple of posts about short forms of Japanese poetry (most recently Why I hate haiku) but I've always been acutely aware that I've been out of my depth. To that end a while back I aske…

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• November 24th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Death of a Superhero by Anthony McCarten (book review)

  Donald Delpe is your typical 14 year-old, obsessed by sex and not getting any. He's also not your typical 14 year-old in that he's dying of cancer. How he copes with this is by drawing superhero comics but like nothing DC or Marvel would touch with a bargepole. An odd book - part narrative, part scr…

• November 23rd, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Death of a Superhero

  Not since Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum has the pains of growing up been rendered this powerfully – Blick, Zurich I'm a kid at heart. Any book with the word 'superhero' in the title, the t…

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• November 19th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: English in its underwear

  What's the difference between an accent and a dialect and why not write in standard English so everyone can understand you? An examination of the work of a number of Scottish writers and poets who have decided more is to be gained than lost by this approach. That article also includes examples from…

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  English in its underwear

  Scots is English in its underwear. It's difficult to be pretentious in a language like that. - William McIlvanney McIlvanney has pointed out more than once that the lower down the…

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• November 16th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: The Wrong Miracle by Liz Gallagher (book review)

  This is book about ordinary things, getting you hair done, having breakfast, going to church and eating gobstoppers. It's about childhood, the strain of being part of a family, the joy of sex, the question of love, the problems surrounding married life and life's little and not-so-little losses. It…

• November 15th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  The Wrong Miracle

  Everything is a miracle. It is a miracle one does not dissolve in one's bath like a lump of sugar – Pablo Picasso This is book about ordinary things, getting you hair done, having breakfas…

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• November 12th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Beckett the tinkerer (part two)

  A look at various productions of Samuel Beckett's play 'What Where' and a consideration of why he made the changes he did to his own productions. The post also includes a short video of Beckett talking about the play and a picture of a page of the play in Beckett's own handwriting. 'What Where' is c…

• November 9th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: The Search by Maureen Myant (book review)

  During WW2 the Czech village of Lidice was completely destroyed per orders directly from Heinrich Himmler, the men were executed on the spot, the women sent to Nazi concentration camps and the younger children conditioned to think and act like Germans and then sent to German families looking to adop…

• November 8th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  The Search

    Before I get down to the nitty-gritty of reviewing this novel we need a short history lesson: Lidice (German: Liditz) is a village in the Czech Republic just north-west of Prague. It is b…

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• November 6th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has bookmarked: Beckett the tinkerer (part one)

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Beckett the tinkerer (part one)

  Samuel Beckett had a reputation for objecting to productions of his plays that differed from what he had written. Many people now feel that his texts should be treated as gospel. The facts show that Beckett was himself guilty of tinkering with his own works making sometimes quite drastic changes in…

• November 5th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Beckett the tinkerer (part one)

  We're not entirely restrictive. We're not . . . conservers of museum pieces. Not at all.  — Edward Beckett There is a school of thought (passionately held by many) that holds…

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• November 4th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Travels in the Scriptorium by Paul Auster (book review)

  An old man wakes alone in an almost empty room, unable to remember his past. The only clues to his identity are a manuscript, a pile of photos and a visitor called Anna who sparks memories of forgotten love and tragedy. Is this a cell or a room in a hospice? Is he prisoner or patient? A mystery abou…

• November 1st, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Travels in the Scriptorium Part II

  I have spent my life in conversations with people I have never seen, with people I will never know and I hope to continue until the day I stop breathing. - from Paul Auster's acceptance speech…

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Travels in the Scriptorium Part I

  I knew very little about Paul Auster when I bought this book. I knew the name. I knew of him and that he was a respected, probably American, author. It was certainly why I picked the book up although…

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• October 29th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has bookmarked: Where are all the poetical prodigies?

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Where are all the poetical prodigies?

  Music has its Mozarts, art its Picassos but what about poetry? Where are all the poetical prodigies? What is there about the nature of poetry that stops youngsters creating works of genius? There have been young poets in the past who have been successful, a few have even become successful as adults…

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Where are all the poetical prodigies?

    If you were asked to think of a prodigy, who would jump to mind? I would suggest that that list would be topped by Mozart. Wee Wölfi began to play the harpsichord when he was 3. By 5 he was…

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• October 26th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov (book review)

  The Master and Margarita can be reasonably called the greatest novel to come out of Communist Russia, a work of magical realism, a pre-apocalyptic novel, a love story, a biting political satire or simply a damn good read if you can get over the fact that most of the names are thirty-odd characters l…

• October 25th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  The Master and Margarita

  When God created light, the first shadow was born – tagline to the film Shadow Builder   This is a very long review so for those of you reading this in your lunch hour let me cut t…

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• October 23rd, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Memories of Spike (part two)

  Spike Milligan was a pioneer and quite rightly can be called the father of modern British comedy. This part of the article concentrates on his radio work with The Goons, his film work including his cameo in Monty Python's Life of Brian and his many books of humorous poetry.
  
  http://jim-murdoch.blo…

• October 21st, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Foe by J. M. Coetzee (book review)

  This is the (supposedly) true account of Robinson Crusoe related by a woman, Susan Barton, who shared Cruso's last year on the island. She relates her account to the writer William Foe hoping that he will turn it into a book. Foe agrees but wanting his book to sell he appears willing to play fast an…

• October 18th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Foe

  History is nothing but a certain kind of story that people agree to tell each other – J M Coetzee   Titles are odd things. How do you decide on a title that will encompass a comp…

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• October 17th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Memories of Spike (part one)

  Spike Milligan was a pioneer and quite rightly can be called the father of modern British comedy from his ground-breaking early work with The Goons through his work on his various Q series and onto his many comic novels and yet there is still more to him as this article discusses and illustrates wit…

• October 15th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Memories of Spike (part one)

  I've been trying to write this blog for over a year now. I kept meaning to start it but then I couldn't find my keys and then I realised just how much material I had to work with and the very thought…

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• October 11th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Black Spring

  Plots and character don't make life. Life is here and now, anytime you say the word, anytime you let her rip. – Henry Miller I have had a copy of Henry Miller's Tropic of Capricorn on my…

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Wanted: a home for used poems

  How many times do you read submission guidelines and discover that they only want new poems? Most of the time. But why? There are so many magazines and ezines on the go and most of them don't have the greatest readerships so what is the chance of people chancing upon your poem in both places? And if…

• October 8th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Wanted: a home for used poems

    This post is not original. The original is in the recycle bin on my laptop. There's a copy in my 'Sent Items' and a proofread copy in my wife's 'Sent Items'. Oh, and there's a copy on my test…

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• October 7th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Dead End Road by Richard Wink (book review)

  This is a very accessible collection of poetry. This is the kind of book that people who say they don't like poetry should have a look at. And when they do they'll probably criticise it for not presenting them with all the facts: Surely half the poem is missing. Where are the punch lines or the payo…

• October 5th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Dead End Road

  A poem should be able to skim the surface before descending underwater – Richard Wink You notice this especially in winter. You're on a bus, all is dark outside, and then you pass someon…

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• October 1st, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Aggie and Shuggie 20

    Maggie: Ma! Ah'm seein stears. Aggie: Ah've taud ye befair, ye spend fear too much time i…

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• September 29th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: The Shadow of a Smile by Kachi A. Ozumba (book review)

  Ozumba not only writes about a big important subject, corruption and imprisonment in Nigeria, he does so with consummate skill and humour. The Shadow of a Smile is a compelling novel that centres around Zuba, a complex and fascinating character who is wrongly imprisoned accused of theft. Ozumba has…

• September 28th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  The Shadow of a Smile

    I've been quite lucky over the past few months to receive a goodly selection of recently published books to review. This has exposed me to writers I might never have read otherwise and, for t…

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• September 24th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Poetry for kids (part two)

  Is no one writing new nursery rhymes or are there simply quite enough? There's a list on Wikipedia but there isn't one with a date later than 1915. How come? The thing about nursery rhymes is that so many of them, and the ones that have lasted, are nowhere near as innocent as they sound. Can you ima…

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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Poetry for kids (part two)

  Link to part one.  Here's an interesting chart for you: I've cut the chart off at four entries because that's all there were. Is no one writing new nursery rhymes or are there simply quite…

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• September 20th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new entry on: The Truth About Lies

  

  Aggie and Shuggie 19

    Sketch of a haggis in the wild (Marag fabulosus)           Maggie: Da!…

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• September 19th, 2009
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  Jimmy4559 has posted a new broadcast: Stranger than Fiction by Jim Murdoch (book review)

  The universe has ended – again – and God is not pleased. So he has instructed Truth and his colleagues (beings in charge of . . . well, everything really) to sort it out, which means interviewing everyone who has ever lived to try to find out what went wrong. One of these is the miserable hero o…