America is sliding toward autocracy. — Mrs. Braebrooke, our classroom teacher, rolled down a map of the world from its anchorage on the ceiling. The width of the map stretched almost across the room. She held a long thin cane in her hand, similar to one dad might tie up tomatoes, and pointed to a large…

A collection of many lives. I was a great kid. I could always be found up a tree, always in demand by other boys because I’d lead them into mischief. I felt like the untidiest boy who ever lived, wearing scarecrow clothes, piling autumn leaves higher than any other boy in class. I grew up thinking that every new day would bring another tree to climb, more leaves, and everything would be special and grand and fine.

There’s not much to know. I’ve been fortunate. Now I write. — I started life in an orphanage. Actually, not strictly true, I started life being hidden beneath a shrub on a roundabout in Gants Hill, Essex. I was found by a young couple leaving the Odeon cinema (since demolished) having spent their evening watching a Spencer Tracy movie, Edward, My Son. …

Dad has been dead six weeks. Mum is tough, but tender. It has sunk in that the man we both loved most in the world is no longer walking in the door or acting like he’s lost in the kitchen. — Pt: 1 Pt: 2 Pt: 3 Pt: 4 Pt: 5 Pt: 6 Pt: 7 Pt: 8 Pt: 9 Pt: 10 Pt: 11 Pt: 12 Lights flash in the darkness. I’m not sure I’m doing the right thing. I could be seated on a bench in the West End of London…

Born in 1949, in the tiny hamlet of Boggs-Honking on the west coast of Scotland, best-selling author and pig farmer, Alec Ferguson, though relatively new to writing, having taken it up the day before yesterday, was enthusiastic about his writing career. — Alec’s latest novel ‘The Day I Killed Big Mac’, is causing a sensation in literary circles and is likely to reopen the investigation into the death of Mac Intosh, one time Mayor of Boggs-Honking. His body was found two years ago in Crouchdown-on-the-Marshes. Mr. Intosh died in shitty circumstances.

….and maybe why you should, too. — In my day! (Cliche’s, don’t you hate them?) Getting a book published for the first time had to have a draft that stung the publisher into believing they had found a best seller. The hope of them finding that best-selling author, the rest of us mediocre authors ever get a…

A joust that ends in a different way from that of legend — Guinivere, about our fling in Camelot, I suspect the only suspicion comes from Sir Guy. But honestly, Guy’s a defeated champion, a man fallen. No fanfare meets him, no banners flying, he’s just another nobleman carrying no sway. A splintered lance, not one a king can have close to hand. …

Seeing and feeling the way America has become for me. — In just a few, very long years, I’ve maintained the thought I will again be happy living here in the United States. This stupid weariness in the world, decisiveness, and constant torment will soon disappear, and I’ll return to having 200 happy days in a year and not 20. Today…