https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ Independent Publishing Community - Books, Essays, Poetry and Industry Truths. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/bridlington-a-town-that-sold-its-soul-and-forgot-to-collect-the-money/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/bridlington-a-town-that-sold-its-soul-and-forgot-to-collect-the-money/Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:34:11 GMTA blunt commentary on Bridlington in East Yorkshire: the faded Victorian seafront, fly-tipping, open drug dealing on a road locals call Death Row, and a town that stopped believing it could be better. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/ramsbottom-a-monument-to-mediocrity/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/ramsbottom-a-monument-to-mediocrity/Sat, 07 Nov 2026 09:14:20 GMTA scathing commentary on Ramsbottom in the Irwell Valley: its town centre, the East Lancashire Railway, Peel Tower, Nuttall Park and the World Black Pudding Throwing Championship. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/short-eared-owls-in-yorkshire/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/short-eared-owls-in-yorkshire/Sat, 07 Nov 2026 08:56:29 GMTDiscover where to watch short-eared owls in Yorkshire, from Spurn Point and Flamborough to the Humber Estuary. Identification tips, best seasons and wildlife photography advice. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/bonfire-night-in-salford/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/bonfire-night-in-salford/Sat, 07 Nov 2026 07:52:10 GMTA poem of Bonfire Night in Salford, from the borrowed fires of Pendleton to the rockets over the Irwell and the grey morning that follows. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-rime-of-the-ancient-red/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-rime-of-the-ancient-red/Fri, 06 Nov 2026 08:45:15 GMTA ballad of the fall of Manchester United. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/pike-fishing-controversies-in-england/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/pike-fishing-controversies-in-england/Fri, 06 Nov 2026 08:36:56 GMTLivebaiting, delayed striking, treble hooks, warm-water fishing, handling and culling: the practices that most divide pike anglers in England, and the arguments on each side. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/rosemary-turner/the-cotswold-arrangement/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/rosemary-turner/the-cotswold-arrangement/Thu, 05 Nov 2026 10:56:45 GMTA modern adaptation of The Marriage of Figaro: a comedy of marriage, infidelity, social ambition, concealed identities and the quiet struggle between those who possess inherited wealth and those who must work for it. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/david-albertson/hartlepool-nocturne/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/david-albertson/hartlepool-nocturne/Thu, 05 Nov 2026 05:48:45 GMTA dark tale of the Hartlepool docks, where a young wife kept under watch in a pebble-dashed terrace takes a lover, and decides she will never be locked in the dark again. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/louise/50-dates-of-grey/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/louise/50-dates-of-grey/Wed, 04 Nov 2026 18:54:40 GMTA funny, frank memoir of midlife internet dating, from Saturday nights at the disco and the end of a twenty-four-year marriage to fifty dates and the story of the frozen dog. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/cilla-cinderella/coal-shovel/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/cilla-cinderella/coal-shovel/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 08:00:00 GMTA tale of Hexthorpe, Doncaster, 1958, about the shameless young woman everybody knew as Coal Shovel and the lonely widower whose savings she set her sights on. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/nick/got-the-squeeze-on-him/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/nick/got-the-squeeze-on-him/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 07:59:00 GMTA school show and tell on a grand scale, with the school board, the heads and the dignitaries in the audience, and nobody but Charlie and Beth knowing what is about to happen. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/how-to-start-drinking-coffee/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/how-to-start-drinking-coffee/Tue, 03 Nov 2026 05:15:00 GMTGermany, 1991: an interrail trip, a rat the size of a dog, and a sleepless night in the Heidelberg youth hostel that ended with a first cup of coffee. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-rhyme-of-burnhams-voyage/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-rhyme-of-burnhams-voyage/Sun, 01 Nov 2026 09:49:30 GMTA political ballad in the spirit of Coleridge. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/trini-windsor-dale-montgommery/bike-handle/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/trini-windsor-dale-montgommery/bike-handle/Sat, 31 Oct 2026 10:49:21 GMTA tale told by a woman who lived in Hexthorpe, Doncaster, in the 1950s, about the notorious local girl everybody knew as Bike Handle. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/odyssey-and-mr-tambourine-man/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/odyssey-and-mr-tambourine-man/Sat, 31 Oct 2026 07:48:01 GMTReading Dylan's 1964 song as the Odyssey turned inside out: a journey with no Ithaca, and a singer who is not a danger to be resisted but a guide to be followed. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-broken-and-the-brave/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-broken-and-the-brave/Fri, 30 Oct 2026 12:28:16 GMTA poem on surviving, recovering, and turning back to help those still in the place you once stood. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/from-callaghan-and-thatcher-to-the-management-of-decline/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/from-callaghan-and-thatcher-to-the-management-of-decline/Fri, 30 Oct 2026 09:36:33 GMTBritish politics once had to manage factories, coal and the currency. Today it manages perceptions. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ag-munson/my-first-hunt/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ag-munson/my-first-hunt/Fri, 30 Oct 2026 08:34:30 GMTA first grouse hunt in the Westfjords, and the problem of getting the bird back off the ice https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/jill-freeman/the-crown-of-ashes/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/jill-freeman/the-crown-of-ashes/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 10:20:17 GMTA failing gymnastics club, a controversial cosmetic surgery, and a hidden relationship. Denise built an empire on appearances. Mara wanted the truth. Neither of them realised what the truth would cost. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/proper-tea-for-proper-blokes-why-the-artisanal-coffee-shop-i/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/proper-tea-for-proper-blokes-why-the-artisanal-coffee-shop-i/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 10:00:15 GMTThe greasy spoon is the engine room of the nation. The artisanal coffee emporium is beard oil and damp grass. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/benjamin-jones/the-iron-wind/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/benjamin-jones/the-iron-wind/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 10:00:00 GMTA tale of obsession, steel, and the Severn Estuary. In 1824, Thomas Telford nearly drowned crossing the river to reach his lover. One hundred and forty years later, the bridge he dreamed of would finally span the water. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/wassily-kandinsky-yellow-red-blue-1925/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/wassily-kandinsky-yellow-red-blue-1925/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:53:31 GMTAn exploration of geometry, colour, and the spiritual forces that shaped one of the Bauhaus's most important paintings. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/trevor-brent/the-quantum-bond/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/trevor-brent/the-quantum-bond/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:40:52 GMTA scientist on a frozen moon makes first contact through a single entangled particle, and must choose between protocol and connection. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/piccadilly-gardens/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/piccadilly-gardens/Sat, 24 Oct 2026 09:26:56 GMTPiccadilly Gardens, a poem by Gemma Bright, capturing the rain-soaked misery and quiet isolation of a Manchester afternoon. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/i-killed-a-man-once/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/i-killed-a-man-once/Fri, 23 Oct 2026 11:54:31 GMTA dream, a house in Portland, and a kitchen knife that felt too real. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ricky-walters/the-darling-of-bradford/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ricky-walters/the-darling-of-bradford/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 06:59:31 GMTA dark comedy in five chapters, loosely adapted from Anton Chekhov's The Darling. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-wet-route-home/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-wet-route-home/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 06:34:40 GMTThe Wet Route Home, a poem by Tracy Singleton. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/why-busking-on-the-headrow-is-rubbish-now/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/why-busking-on-the-headrow-is-rubbish-now/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 06:22:46 GMTThere was a time when walking down The Headrow in Leeds meant you might hear proper singing. It is just a racket now. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/mark-rolandson/the-magpie-of-agecroft/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/mark-rolandson/the-magpie-of-agecroft/Sun, 18 Oct 2026 06:14:07 GMTA sharp lesson in Pendlebury about flattery, a silver watch, and the price of seeking approval. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/poetic-duels-viking-times/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/poetic-duels-viking-times/Sat, 17 Oct 2026 15:10:54 GMTHow Viking poets fought with verse rather than swords, and why the duel survives in Iceland today. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/rhapsody-in-blue/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/rhapsody-in-blue/Thu, 15 Oct 2026 15:22:15 GMTA poem on Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, from the listener's seat. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-philosophical-perambulations-of-a-superior-mind/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-philosophical-perambulations-of-a-superior-mind/Tue, 13 Oct 2026 15:09:38 GMTA perambulation through Leeds in the company of the greatest minds history has produced, and the one it has yet to recognise. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/liam-barrantine/the-fifth-of-november/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/liam-barrantine/the-fifth-of-november/Tue, 13 Oct 2026 09:34:52 GMTA modern Leeds thriller. A group of men meet in a quiet Alwoodley house to plan an act of violence for the fifth of November. One of them begins to have second thoughts. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/head-ransom/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/head-ransom/Tue, 13 Oct 2026 04:47:38 GMTThe 10th-century skaldic poem Egill Skallagrímsson composed overnight to save his life, with the Old Norse and the Penguin translation. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ag-munson/the-knocking-on-the-door/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ag-munson/the-knocking-on-the-door/Tue, 13 Oct 2026 04:41:17 GMTA chemist in post-war Munich, a pot of soup left on a lit stove, and a knock at the door in the middle of the night that no one can explain. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/do-i-miss-my-brother/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/do-i-miss-my-brother/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 19:20:16 GMTA short elegy for a brother who died at birth in 1959. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/diana-randel-claire-blake/the-sunsets-over-rydal/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/diana-randel-claire-blake/the-sunsets-over-rydal/Sun, 11 Oct 2026 07:48:49 GMTA chance encounter by the water becomes a promise that lasts a lifetime. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ag-munson/the-falcon/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/ag-munson/the-falcon/Wed, 07 Oct 2026 17:14:57 GMTA tale of misadventures while hunting https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/commentary-on-composition-viii-by-wassily-kandinsky/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/commentary-on-composition-viii-by-wassily-kandinsky/Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:38:13 GMTPainted in 1923 during Wassily Kandinsky's tenure at the influential Bauhaus school, Composition VIII stands as a landmark masterpiece of geometric abstraction. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-watchtower-and-the-inferno/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-watchtower-and-the-inferno/Thu, 01 Oct 2026 13:38:13 GMTReading Dylan's 1967 song as a modern, compressed version of the structural logic of Dante's Inferno. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-salford-routine/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/the-salford-routine/Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:51:55 GMTA poem about Salford — the drizzle on Pendleton, the walk along the Quays, and the quiet conviction that somewhere else the real life is happening. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/jackie-hilloughby/the-duke-of-rutland/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/jackie-hilloughby/the-duke-of-rutland/Tue, 29 Sep 2026 13:34:40 GMTA Victorian romance: the Duke of Rutland falls for an actress who refuses to be reshaped by his world. At Belvoir Castle, in a garden maze, he learns that loving someone is not the same as owning them. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/from-heath-and-wilson-to-the-politics-of-the-present/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/from-heath-and-wilson-to-the-politics-of-the-present/Fri, 25 Sep 2026 11:04:58 GMTOn Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, devaluation, the three-day week, and why the modern political class has inherited the problems without the patience. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-last-great-skill-of-accountancy/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-last-great-skill-of-accountancy/Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:54:13 GMTOn AI, the death of billable hours, and why the only skill the profession has left is explaining why being replaced is an exciting opportunity. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-nasty-uppishness-of-jumped-up-literary-agents/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-nasty-uppishness-of-jumped-up-literary-agents/Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:40:03 GMTOn the velvet rope, the jargon, and why becoming a literary agent does not make you the Archbishop of Literature. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/manchester-arndale/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/poetry/manchester-arndale/Fri, 25 Sep 2026 10:17:03 GMTA Saturday afternoon in the Manchester Arndale, seen without sentiment: phones, screaming kids, a bloke asleep by the cashpoint, a thousand lives jammed into one bad building. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-metaphysical-decrepitude-of-the-common-market/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/essays-and-articles/the-metaphysical-decrepitude-of-the-common-market/Fri, 25 Sep 2026 08:46:32 GMTA Nietzschean, Marxian and Freudian excavation of Kirkgate Market — on fishmongers, butchers, bakeries, the stink of ordinary existence, and one man's quiet certainty that he alone has understood the place. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/terry-farland/the-anchored-dead/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/terry-farland/the-anchored-dead/Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:14:18 GMTA gale breaks at three in the morning and leaves a silence heavy in the lungs. By dawn, something has drifted through the gap at Robin Hood's Bay — no lights, no hail, just a shape in the fog. A gothic novel of the North Sea coast, its photographers, its fishermen, and the dead who refuse to stay anchored. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/mark-rolandson/the-man-who-praised-too-much/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/mark-rolandson/the-man-who-praised-too-much/Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:58:43 GMTA sealed sandwich, a bench outside St Augustine's, and a man who knows exactly what to say. Freddie has not eaten since yesterday and he wants Charlie's lunch — but he does not ask for it. A short story about flattery, favours and the price of wanting to be liked. https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/diana-randel-claire-blake/the-lake-that-loved-us/https://talesfromaharrogatecaravan.co.uk/diana-randel-claire-blake/the-lake-that-loved-us/Thu, 24 Sep 2026 08:34:50 GMTMolly arrives at Lake Windermere looking for quiet, and finds a man carrying two coffees and looking lost. What follows is a lifetime — a marriage, an argument about an anniversary, and the same bench beside the same lake, fifty years on.