Dark Christmas Films

Christmas lights are going up, along with burglary rates, energy bills and collective blood pressure. It must be that magical time of year again, so let’s celebrate with a list of festive films for the broken idealists among us who need their fix of sarcasm and cynicism to keep them going over the following month.…

By ajreid22 1st December 2016 0

Day at the Zoo

An experiment in combining poetry, music and film: three things by which I have been besotted since I first experienced them.  I’m no film-maker, but editing these public domain clips into something that vaguely makes sense was really satisfying, somehow.  I’m used to working with words and music, mostly, but working with the visual felt amazing.  All…

By ajreid22 30th May 2016 2

Who is Dianne Doyle?

Dianne Doyle is the antagonist of my novella A Smaller Hell: based on a department store manager I worked with.  She used to get kicks out of reprimanding staff and subverting our relationships.  A maestro of negativity, she’d often lure us into making mistakes, just so that she could degrade us. The longer I worked…

By ajreid22 26th November 2015 0

Heswall Graveyard

Heswall shore: a muddy beach/marsh in the north west of England that will always be in my heart.  As well as being my playground since I was a little boy, I’ve worked, fought, bled, cried, fallen in love and broken up there. When I was a personal trainer, I used to have a client who was a wealthy venture capitalist…

By ajreid22 22nd September 2015 0