Author Archives: mickbloor3

by Michael Bloor (first published in Literally Stories, 26th May 2023) I think it’s quite common for people to chat to their dead parents/spouse/buddies from time to time. In Andy’s case, he would chat to his dead dad, usually when the car was stuck in traffic. Andy’s dad had been a no-nonsense kinda guy andContinue reading “Hindsight and Occupational Choices”

Reviewed by Michael Bloor (first published in Literally Stories, April 9th, 2023) These days, poor old Morris (1834-96) must be swirling like a dervish in that quiet Oxfordshire churchyard. These days, the sad truth is that the great pioneer socialist writer, printer and publisher is largely remembered as a designer of curtains and wallpapers. MorrisContinue reading “My favourite forgotten book: ‘The House of the Wolfings’ by William Morris”

by Michael Bloor (first published in Literally Stories, March 27th, 2023) Most British towns and villages are ancient foundations with Roman remains, ruined castles, and the like. Not so Daleforge. Before the 1840s, there was just the forge and the smith’s cottage. Butthen, in quick order, came the pit, the rows and rows of workers’Continue reading “Jack o’ Diamonds”

(first published in Literally Stories, March 12th 2023) One of the most striking exhibits in the National Museum of Scotland is an eight foot, two ton, twelve hundred year-old, intricately carved slab of sandstone – the Hilton of Cadboll Stone, a Pictish standing stone originally from Easter Ross, in the north of Scotland. The PictsContinue reading “A Strange Stone with a Strange History. An Essay by Michael Bloor”

by Michael Bloor (first published in Free Flash Fiction, February 22nd 2023) Did every 1960s British secondary school have a murderous gym teacher? Was there a special hush-hush government establishment for turning trained, wartime, SAS killers into post-war cricket umpires? I only ask because, over and again, in occasional conversations with strangers in bars andContinue reading “Nemesis”

by Michael Bloor (first published in The Grey Sparrow Journal, 31st January 2023) Arthur Frankland was sick. In all his thirty-five years in the Home Office civil service, he’d never before been off work for more than a couple of days at a time. Now, he was suffering from psoriasis, chronic insomnia, acute anxiety, andContinue reading “The Innocent Accomplice”

(first published in Literally Stories, 19th January 2023) by Michael Bloor After the cremation, I felt I had to get away. I found a Perthshire country house hotel on the internet, situated in one of those mysterious winding glens that end abruptly in a wall of rock. The hotel advertised itself as ‘a mecca forContinue reading “The Smoothing Stream”

by Michael Bloor (first published in The Potato Soup Journal, 6th December, 2022) I’m 75 years old and, at the time of writing (October 2022), President Putin is threatening a nuclear war, my boiler is misbehaving, and governmental fiscal foolishness is knocking a big hole in my pension pot. So why am I so bloodyContinue reading “May, 1967”

by Michael Bloor (first published in Literally Stories, 28/11/22) A while back, I was reading an account, by the poet and journalist James Fenton, of the fall of Saigon (aka Ho Chi Minh City) in 1975*. In the middle of the despairing mob outside the US Embassy, begging to be evacuated, as the last ofContinue reading “An Historical Footnote”

by Michael Bloor (first published in Free Flash Fiction 26/11/22) My walk took me into the old quarry by the east bank of the Allanwater, a pleasant, sheltered place on a windy autumn day – my usual stopping place to eat my lunch (on this occasion, a small pork pie and a banana). I wasContinue reading “Double Dating”