Category Archives: Uncategorized

(first published in Potato Soup Journal, July 5th, 2021) At first when I died, it was rather predictable. Beginning with that out-of-body-experience thing: I’m hovering, up near the ceiling, in the local Accident & Emergency Department, looking down on a rather battered and splattered me, plus an attendant nurse and junior doctor. Then it’s theContinue reading “Agnostic Preview by Michael Bloor”

Michael Bloor (first published in Ink, Sweat & Tears, June 26th 2021 – National Flash Fiction Day) As they’d agreed that morning, the three old women met again at the crossroads on the heath, when the sun was sinking. They were beggars, clad in beggars’ rags. War was once more in the land and beggars’Continue reading “Stirring Ambition”

Michael Bloor (first published in Scribble, No. 90, pp.67-72, Summer 2021) A group of raucous, young, Edinburgh lawyers and bankers, with a collective misplaced sense of entitlement, were drowning out civilised pub conversation (‘Hey Charles, why did the woman cross the road?’ – ‘Search me Alistair, how the hell did she get out of theContinue reading “Wee Willie Winkie and the Sma’ Glen”

Michael Bloor (first published in The Drabble, April 10th, 2021) Like many toddlers, John was asked what he wanted to be, when he grew up. Surprisingly, John answered that he wanted to be an Old Age Pensioner. He’d been spending time with his Grandad, who had his own shed. In his mid-teens, John secretly decidedContinue reading “Ambition”

Michael Bloor (first published in The Cabinet of Heed, March 30th, 2021) There was no phone signal in that narrow valley. Three days of heavy rain had caused the river to burst its banks and flood the road, just above the bridge. The flood swept the car half off the road and into the hedge.Continue reading “The Long Shadow of the Coal Tip”

Michael Bloor (first published in Literally Stories, March 5th, 2021) I came across the manuscript below in a second-hand shop in Simla, the former British hill-station in the foothills of the Himalayas, among some papers previously belonging to a Victorian military surgeon. The ms was seemingly written in Bombay (now Mumbai) and signed by CaptainContinue reading “Captain Carey’s Luck”

Michael Bloor (first published in The Drabble, Feb 7th 2021) Sir Francis Bacon (1561-1626), Lord Chancellor to James I, was a pioneer of experimental science. Yet his report of one of his most famous experiments, showing that boiling water freezes faster than cold water, was scoffed at by fellow scientists for three hundred-odd years. Bacon’sContinue reading “Sir Francis Bacon’s Belated Vindication”

Michael Bloor (first published in Idle Ink, FEBRUARY 6, 2021) April 8th, 1974. I’m setting this down on paper and placing it in a tin that I’ll be burying under one of the gooseberry bushes. If things don’t work out, I’d like there to be a proper record of what happened… Strangely, the root causeContinue reading “Under the Gooseberry Bush”

Michael Bloor (first published in The Cabinet of Heed, Jan 9th 2021) The train pulled into Aberdeen station just after midnight; it was almost empty. As I walked along the carriage to the exit door, I noticed the bag lying on a seat: one of those re-usable bags that the supermarkets sell. Quite bulky –Continue reading “The Talisman”

Michael Bloor (first publication in The Drabble, DECEMBER 10, 2020) Patrick, my friend and neighbour, and myself were arguing back and forth about our literary heroes: Is their influence always for the good? I spoke in their defense, citing Robert Burns fostering the belief of every Scot that ‘A Man’s a Man, for A’ That.’Continue reading “Heroes”