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| Fulham Palace Road, Tuesday |
Street art signed KOHLSEN, possibly Kai Ohlsen (signs the same way anyway see kohlsen.uk ), paper poster on metal utility connection box today. Also written on by someone else "SY was here". But whether it's genuine/original/a print is open to question. Saatchi Art online lists some paintings by Kai Ohlsen.
Fallen tree resting on a fence and overhanging a footpath and the road. It's been like that for more than a year. Whitton Avenue West, North Greenford, London Borough of Ealing.
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| Badly burned out car viewed from the front, parked in an un-overlooked part of the street |
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| Interior snapped through open side window |
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| From another angle it's seen that the engine and front are burned but the rear is not. |
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| From the rear it is seen to be a Toyota CH-R Hybrid. The Reg plate has partly torn off. "PE18 ----". |
I reported this to Harrow Council today through their online abandoned car reports form. (Ed.)
Having personally had a sad experience among the delirious people who speak in tongues that sound a lot like jazz scatting and are big into the laying on of hands, I can relate to this gripping tale of sex, mass hysteria, hallucination and snake oil. Oh, and love. (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month,
December 2023: Shimmer by Alan McCormick
… I’d just dropped out of university – thankfully no question of ever going back home after that – when shag-a-rent landlord Nick spoke to me in my bed and hooked me in: ‘You ought to come and hear him speak. He’ll make you feel good about who you are, and help you do things you never thought possible.’ …
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| Alan McCormick |
Just a reminder that we're always in need of new Short Story of the Month stories. There's no set deadline and when each month's story is selected, others in the inbox are released. Some may be carried over as possibles for a future month but generally turnaround is pretty quick, especially when compared to other publishers online.
There's no reading fee but we give a copy of one of our New Short Stories anthologies as sort of payment in kind. So although that's not cash, it's also not nothing - which is what many online publishers offer. At present we are out of copies of #12 but have a few #11 and some other back numbers.
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| Steve with mock-up WH in Gigi's. Photo by Vanessa Gebbie |
Please send your best wild or semi-tamed or even nice polite stories your parents would be pleased for you to marry to Willesden Herald Submittable and make my day. (Ed.)
Tuesday afternoon: A few moments with hardly any traffic on a wet overcast street lined with trees, including magnificent old oaks with the leaves turned their autumn colour and a few other sorts still green. On the left side of the street, which has no footpath, are the trees and fence that form the southern boundary of Sir John Lyon School's playing fields known as Sudbury Fields. To the right on a little slope down from the road are some 1930s Metroland semi-detached houses. The verge in front of the houses is planted with newish Italian alders, some much older tall ash trees and further along some winter cherry. (South Vale, Harrow, HA1)
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| The Green Cabin - café Greenford Road, HA1 |
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| Sign outside The Green Cabin |
"NOTICE
FREE MEALS FACILITY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE UNABLE TO AFFORD THEIR MEALS.
TIME - 3 PM - 6PM
ALL NATIONALITIES ARE WELCOME (STUDENTS/HOMELESS/OTHER)
THE MANAGEMENT GREEN CABIN"
The Green Cabin is on the same block as Sudbury Hill underground station, Greenford Road.
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| Shopfront in the process of transformation from The Flower Nest to CakeCo* |
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| Ladbroke Grove, Canal Way roundabout, North Kensington |
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| Whitton Avenue West |
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| Cover of the last ever phone book |
We've been delivering it to you from 1880 to 2024.
Harrow, our last book has landed at your door.
Final edition. Hold on to it forever.
(From Royal Mail/BT this morning)
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| Street drinkers' litter |
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| Street drinkers' tidy |
We didn't set out to unveil a ghost story for Halloween, one simply - now what is the word? - materialised. Or did it? You can decide for yourself and see what happens when a bow wave of that bittersweet feeling of "good friend doing very well for herself while I languish" coincides with an invitation to Venice. (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
November 2023: The House on the Rio de San Polo by Georgia Hilton
"...And he set off through the airport concourse with long strides, while Sylvie and I scurried behind him, like two country mice on our first excursion to the big city.
At the dock, we could see the long queues of tourists waiting for a vaporetto. The water was inky black, and nothing was visible out in the lagoon except for bobbing lights in the distance. A mineral smell rose up out of the dark water. Engine noises were some way off. ..."
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| Georgia Hilton |
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| Spotted near Sudbury Hill, Harrow (18/10/2023) |
The single flower is small but not tiny with four petals and inner layer of petals emerging. The petals are magenta with darker stripes a bit like Common Mallow and the leaves are oblong densely veined and with finely jagged edges. So far the Plantnet app and RHS online have failed to match this plant with any other. [It must be rare, no? Ed.]
Update
The same plant two days later (20/10/2023)
The flower has opened out and looks a bit different. Thanks to Anonymous for the comment below, which seems to have solved the mystery. Quote: "It looks like an Annual Clary (also known as Red Topped Sage) to me. Usually found around the Mediterranean and not Willesden Green." Of all our millions of readers, Anonymous was the first to come up with a sage answer to the query. [Ed.]
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| Ripe strawberry seen growing in Harrow, October 10th, 2023 |
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| This is the ripe strawberry from the previous photo, now in hand. |
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| The scene today after yesterday's fire that destroyed the Rising Sun inn |
Usually very busy Greenford Road has been closed in both directions at the junction with South Vale outside the old Rising Sun, since a fire at the inn yesterday. The roof has been completely destroyed. As well as police manning the road closures, gas and electricity workers are working around the site. There was still no direct vehicular access from Harrow Road to Greenford Road or vice-versa as of 2pm, Tuesday, October 10.
The Rising Sun consisted of a hotel, bar and Sri Lankan restaurant. Careful renovations were made in recent months to the oriel window, which can be seen in the picture (above) in the middle above the entrance.
The Rising Sun inn has been there in one form or another since 1874 according to Pub History, which lists previous owners and dates. Not to be confused with our journal's former Willesden haunt, The Rising Sun on Harlesden Road NW10, a former coaching inn, which dates from 1871.
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| The view from South Vale |
"I often think of Larkin’s poem, Afternoons, and the young mothers and how ‘something is pushing them/to the side of their own lives’. This feeling informs Living a Little. That and my memories of growing up on a Birmingham Council Estate and the sense of having escaped a ‘life less lived’ when I left home." (Jackie Morris)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
October 2023: Living a Little by Jackie Morris
‘Seems like only yesterday me and your Daddy were coming over on the ferry. Love’s young dream. You should have seen your Daddy then,’ Mam exhaled her cigarette. Smoke drifted over the children’s heads. ‘Your Nana had him down to be a priest, but I couldn’t have him going to waste like that.’
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| Jackie Morris |
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| Clare Starling |
You may find yourself returning to this chapbook many times, and depending on your mood, you might laugh at Pokémon in the Cemetery or sympathise with the passerby carrying a bunch of flowers.
At the Soyer Tomb
Grade II Listed by English Heritage
You evolved your Woobat
into a Swoobat
You dropped into the cold
eager as a dog
There are poems with a complex structure, such as the side-by-side feelings of "In the Dark" or the dense imagery and oddness of "Escape Room". There's frustration in "Waiting for CAMHS" and relief of a sort in "On the Threshold". There is strangeness in plenty throughout.
But the last of the feelings I would like to mention, from the myriad I could choose from if time allowed, is one I'm not sure how to describe. It comes in the poem that has its name in the second line of the last stanza.
you were so proud of me
you called me The Bee Saver
I think it was the honour of my life
"Magpie's Nest" (Wildfire Words, 2023) by Clare Starling is available for pre-order post-free within the U.K. and with reduced postage to addresses overseas.
"Frisch weht der Wind / Der Heimat zu, / Mein Irisch Kind". Is this what billows my sails? Is it anything to do with Prigozhin? No, it's the joy of reading a marvellous story about people and places and the lives lived today, in all their complex history and entanglements. (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
September 2023: Fresh Blows the Wind Homeward by Jaki McCarrick
Emily stood at the window and looked down at the illuminated town. It was Saturday night and she could hear sirens.She looked eastwards, away from the passing police cars, and to where she could make out a cargo ship, inching its way across the Irish Sea. …
Jaki McCarrick is an award-winning writer of plays, poetry and fiction. Winner of the Papatango Prize for New Writing for her play Leopoldville, Jaki’s play Belfast Girls was developed at the National Theatre Studio, London and has been staged many times internationally. Shortlisted for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize and the BBC Tony Doyle Award, Belfast Girls made its New York premiere at the Irish Repertory Theatre in 2022, and opens in Buffalo, NY, in 2023. Her play The Naturalists premiered in New York in 2018.
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| Jaki McCarrick. Photo © Bobbie Hanvey |
Jaki’s plays have been published by Samuel French, Routledge and Aurora Metro and have been translated into Swedish and French.
Her debut fiction collection The Scattering was shortlisted for the 2014 Edge Hill Prize and includes the Wasafiri Prize-winning story, “The Visit”. In 2020 Jaki was shortlisted for the An Post Book Awards Short Story of the Year Award (Ireland) for her short story ”The Emperor of Russia”. Jaki was Writer in Residence at the Centre Cultural Irlandais in Paris in 2013 and at the University of Leuven, Belgium, in 2022. She has written critical pieces for the Times Literary Supplement, The Irish Examiner, Poetry Ireland Review and other publications.
Longlisted in 2014 for the inaugural Irish Fiction Laureate, Jaki is currently working on a novel, a second collection of short stories and the screenplay of Belfast Girls.
A fascinating insight into the process behind producing calm, unbiased, understated, yet admirably generous text online concerning topics that make your blood boil and steam come out of your ears. (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
August 2023: Notes on a ‘Masterpiece’ by Ian Critchley
“… despite the fact that I’ve long dabbled in song-writing, it’s rare I discuss music. Today, though, I’m going to make an exception for Whistling in the Dark, the new album by indie flavour of the month Christ’s Cavalcade.”
[I could say more about my song-writing, I suppose, though probably nobody’s interested]
Ian Critchley is a freelance editor and journalist. His fiction has been published in several journals and anthologies, including Neonlit: Time Out Book of New Writing, Volume 2, The Mechanics Institute Review #15, Structo, Lighthouse, Litro and Storgy. He has won both the Hammond House International Literary Prize and the HISSAC Short Story Prize, and been shortlisted for the Exeter, H.G. Wells, and Plaza short story competitions. His journalism has appeared in the Sunday Times, Times Literary Supplement and Literary Review. He can be found on Twitter @iancritchley4, and his website is iancritchley.wordpress.com.
Ian Critchley
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| Photo: Anton Chekhov reading The Seagull to the Moscow Art Theatre company c.1898 |
Many of his deeds and adventures were set in Willesden as this copiously illustrated account by @thegentleauthor recounts. https://t.co/Kx15EpXR5M https://t.co/VCnVDbGn7h
— Stephen Moran (@stephen_j_moran) August 4, 2023
Many of the deeds and adventures of notorious highwayman and amazing escapologist, Jack Sheppard, were set in Willesden as this copiously illustrated account by The Gentle Author recounts.
It's still there now, though marked "Closed" on the@Harrow_Council
— Stephen Moran (@stephen_j_moran) July 13, 2023
website (image below). The handwritten asbestos warning sign is dissolving in the rain. Still no safe way to walk around the corner from South Vale to Wood End Road. Incident nr 17753144 #Asbestos? #FlyTipping https://t.co/dyxIddFgWQ pic.twitter.com/UKk2eYUWJV
I reported the fly-tipping incident on advice from @Harrow_Council on Twitter. The fly-tipped rubbish is still there and cordoned-off on the path, despite the incident being marked "closed" on the Harrow Council website. There is presently no safe way to walk around the blind corner of South Vale and Wood End Road, as the footpath is only on one side of the road. (Ed.)
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| I saw this pile of fly-tipped rubbish on Friday where it is on Wood End Road, HA1, 7/7/23 (Ed.) |
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| As of today (8/7/23) someone has put added a warning label: "ASBESTOS do not touch" |
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| Today the footpath at the junction of South Vale and Wood End Road has also been cordoned off. |
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| Earlier picture of the sign seen in the background in the photo above. It has been there for months. It says "Why are you dumping rubbish? ... Don't be a tosser." |
Intriguing. You might find yourself wondering what exactly happened in this short story. Don't look at me. (Ed.)The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
May 2023: Against the Grain by Anita Goveas
“She expects to get caught and almost confesses every Friday. But if there’s anything her father talks about, it’s tradition and family and maybe the way he sustains that is by only looking at what he wants to see.”
Anita Goveas is British-Asian, London-based, and fuelled by strong coffee and paneer jalfrezi. She was first published in the 2016 London Short Story Prize anthology, most recently by the Cincinnati Review. She’s on the editorial team at Flashback Fiction, and is a submissions reader for The Selkie. She tweets erratically @coffeeandpaneer. Her debut flash collection, ‘Families and other natural disasters’, is available from Reflex Press, and links to her stories are at https://coffeeandpaneer.wordpress.com
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| "Two heads are better than one" (S.M.) |
In my version: [Am] Oh father dear [C] I often hear you [F] speak of [Em] Dub, [Am] about [F] Its coffee smells, its [C] Book of Kells, its [Em] billion pints of [Am] stout. [F] The thanks and please, the [C] ocean breeze, and [Em] colleens by the [Am] ton. [Am] Then tell me, Dad, [C] what was so bad, you [F] left old [Em] Bally [Am] mun. In original lyrics: [Am] Oh father dear, [C] I often hear you [F] speak of [Em] Erin's [Am] isle [F] Her lofty hills, her [C] valleys green, her [Em] mountains rude and [Am] wild [F] They say she is a [C] lovely land where-[Em]-in a saint might [Am] dwell [Am] So why did you [C] abandon her, the [F] reason [Em] to me [Am] tell.
"In the Spring a young man's fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love" according to Tennyson. Well, it's April, and I'm not young, so I think I will just turn lightly to this short story about the hazards of same. (Ed.)The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
April 2023: Dr Takotsubo, and My Heart by Mike Fox
“I walked along the corridor. Her flat was on the ground floor of a large Edwardian conversion, and seemed to stretch back a long way from front door to garden. It was light and airy in the morning sun, with a particular quietness. I imagined that few, if any, arguments had taken place there.”
Greenford Road near Sudbury Hill today #Photo #HighStreet #Harrow pic.twitter.com/3of52YpppS
— Stephen Moran (@stephen_j_moran) March 14, 2023
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| South Vale, Harrow |
I have reason to suspect that when studious geeks at school try the same psychedelic drugs as the seemingly cool popular kids, the effects may be more extreme. This story is a trip in more ways than one. (Ed.)
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
March 2023: The Paradox of Fossils by Michelle Christophorou
“It was Jim who suggested the magic mushrooms. He knew a guy in Lyme. This was the summer of 1990, just before I left for university, when I was still green as common eelgrass. Fiona said her parents would be away the following weekend, so we could do them at hers.”
You can follow Michelle on Twitter @MAChristophorou.
And so at last we come to February, the fifth month of 2023. Ed.
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
February 2023: The Rings by Marion Urch McNulty
Marion Urch McNulty is an award-winning artist and writer. Her first novel Violent Shadows (Headline Review) was published in the UK in 1996. Her second novel An Invitation to Dance (Brandon 2009). Various short stories have been published in Ireland, England, Canada and the US. Her video works are held in galleries around the world and archived by the University of Dundee.
The Rings is part of a collection of short stories titled Of Love and Other Miracles which playfully subverts the lives of the saints.
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| Photo: Shiny bottle-green shopfront of new local Budgens supermarket |
We're back with a new series of original short stories online. Don't worry, the reprints are still there somewhere on the menu too. And what better way to start the year than with a tale of young people in a northern town, somewhere near the sea and the eternal question about staying or leaving. Ed.
The Willesden Herald Story of the Month
January 2023: This One-Trick Town by Amanda Huggins
“There was a far-off shimmer to the north, and Da told her it was the glow of Newcastle, luring the unwary with her swagger and shine. Annie knew he’d made it up, that you wouldn’t be able to see the city lights from so far away, but she went along with it unquestioningly, as though she believed every word.”
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| Amanda Huggins |