@abrackenbury.bsky.social
Poet & broadcaster. New non-fiction prose book, 'Village', OUT! Witches and wheelbarrows: women's history in my village, 1841-1971: cheerful survival! To buy, search for ALISON BRACKENBURY VILLAGE AMAZON
An epic venture, Mandy! Well done!
08.12.2025 21:19 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Early morning birdspotting in Gloucestershire can be surprisingly rewarding.... Very best Sunday wishes!
07.12.2025 10:36 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0LINK to open the villagers' doors...
www.amazon.co.uk/Village-Surv...
Why did my clever & talented Great-Uncle Walter have to recreate his village's lost Christmas play...in his woodshed? Find out! The Kindle/phone/computer edition of my non-fiction prose book, 'Village' is FREE today, Sun Dec 7. The Plough Jags are at the door...
LINK IN COMMENTS!
Just a few days to catch Radio 4 The Verb on trains! Bella Hardy sings, @carmenmarcus.bsky.social takes us to Saltburn station with her son, Patrick McGuiness @padrig.bsky.social crosses Europe & Don Paterson's @dharmabam.bsky.social's dog patiently waits in a ghostly signal box. LINK IN COMMENTS!
05.12.2025 18:10 β π 4 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
The choice of songs on BarronBrady's new album is superb. Their own haunting songs, with 'the Last Wolf' howling at Devon lorries...& ecstatic traditional 'love songs', sung with lightness and grace. In 'Jock o' Hazeldean', Walter Scott provides a thrilling happy ending!
LINK TO BUY IN COMMENTS!
It's a joyful day - blue skies in December! -when favourite musicians produce a new album. In BarronBrady's 'Love Songs', Roz Brady is in marvellous voice, with Si Barron's guitar in delicate duet. Spell-binding!
LINK TO BUY IN COMMENTS
Respectable cats deplore the antics of dancing dinosaurs (see previous post...)
05.12.2025 12:55 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0It is December. Time for dinosaurs to dance....
05.12.2025 12:54 β π 0 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
In the last week, I have listened to 3 Gothic radio dramas, culminating in 'The Castle of Otranto'. a) I now think in Gothic plot terms: 'run through the tunnel, just one mad nun & one murderous Count to go'... b) PLEASE don't stand behind me & shout 'Boo'...
03.12.2025 21:18 β π 5 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Cautionary wildlife garden tale! I normally don't tidy borders in autumn, but red valerian invaded pavement so had to trim 1 plant! TWO overwintering caterpillars fell out! Hope they're unhurt & survive in leaf litter.. Butterflies are so scarce! No more tidying till spring! Very best garden wishes!
03.12.2025 16:47 β π 6 π 1 π¬ 0 π 0Much to enjoy here... look out for D.A.Prince's deliciously witty contribution
CLICK ON CAKE FOR POEMS!
www.snakeskinpoetry.co.uk
Happy Birthday, Snakeskin Poetry Magazine, generously edited by George Simmers & lighting up the Net for THIRTY years! After 5 years of work on my prose book, 'Village', I have a bulging bag of unfinished poems. But I had to finish one for the Snake!
LINK IN COMMENTS!
CLICK ON CAKE FOR POEMS!
'We're a battered troop of wicker beasts.Our poet-gardener- not noted for good taste- used to set us in borders & fuss daily over our primroses- which the snails ate nightly! Now we're ferried, reverently, from garage to step.Time-consuming? Yes, but don't worry! She would only be writing poems...'
30.11.2025 19:40 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0So sorry I can't be there! I very much enjoyed Stella's contributions to @pnreview.bsky.social. And I remember the magnificent Lit & Phil from a tour when I was on a postgraduate library course in Newcastle- fifty years ago! Very best bookish wishes!
30.11.2025 18:23 β π 3 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0That is splendid, Rennie, & inspired me to look up 'steam punk': far more sophisticated & artistic than I'd imagined, yet oddly reminiscent of my kitchen half way through particularly chaotic cooking... especially as there is minor memorabilia on its walls from the age of steam railways! Good luck!
30.11.2025 17:59 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0Thank you! How fascinating.The
19th century in Lincs was far more eventful than I knew before I researched: much violence AND cooperation in my village. (I wish I'd heard some of the music, like a leading Methodist's homemade fiddle!) I've sent you a brief message about ancestors! Very best wishes!
'Village is a glorious, generous compendium. A selection box of delights and a romp through stories, censuses.. & revelations,
that overlap in layers, like a coloured tissue-paper lantern... full of the most beautiful, poetic languageβ
Review @nicolawriting.bsky.social
LINK TO BUY IN COMMENTS!
The Kindle/phone/laptop edition of 'Village' is FREE to download today Sunday 30 November! Meet the villagers!
LINK IN COMMENTS
'December, 1854. A hard winter in Lincolnshire. The lane-side trees, at the village edge, are caves of white above the dark figure, bundled in shawls. She has seen many things in her calls at cottages. But never before a woman on fire...'
Alison Brackenbury, 'Village'
What next? LINK IN COMMENTS!
I admit to being enchanted...especially as the Notes suggest to me that the tree was grown in the South of my own county, Lincolnshire! Very best seasonal wishes!
29.11.2025 12:05 β π 1 π 0 π¬ 0 π 0
Powerful edition of Radio 4's The Verb. Rare insights from doctor, soldier & poet Tim Hodgetts. Eloquent Russian anti-war writing introduced by Julia Nemirovskaya and Robert Chandler. Inspiring, and finally warmed by a wise love-letter to experience from @holliemcnish.bsky.social! LINK IN COMMENTS!
29.11.2025 11:50 β π 5 π 1 π¬ 1 π 0
Sorry this is so early- please accept as a gift of light on a dark day! Normally, I'd never name companies,but this generous present is via Bloom and Wild . Their flowers last ages,they pack with NO PLASTIC (even food sachets!) & some items like this come in a box which comes through the letterbox!
29.11.2025 11:05 β π 8 π 0 π¬ 1 π 0
