Preston Crime Fiction Festival Programme Cover Venue – Freemason’s Hall, Preston City Centre. I have been to science fiction, fantasy and horror conventions since the late 1990’s but this was my first crime writer’s festival, and I thoroughly loved it. It won’t be my last. While there are crime writing celebrations around the UK, most notably the annual Theakston sponsored annual event at The Old Swan in Harrogate, (the venue chosen for its links to Agatha Christie), this was

Books Containing my published writings With nearly 500 poems written (85 in Print, two Haiku books out (about 550 self-published – three in general print),135 stories penned (31 in print) Four short film scripts, (two of them filmed), 21 short play scripts, (9 of them staged, one three times, two twice), plus a plethora of non-fiction, talks, etc, my personal writing output is quite prolific. My non-fiction Pub Sign books are my most successful work to date commercially and f

Sign (no longer used) for (Ye Olde) Blue Bell Pub, Church Street, Preston, Lancashire From pirate and smuggler’s den To a hiding place for notorious highwaymen It’s amazing how many times Pubs have been linked to all sorts of crimes. Many a crook has hidden in a bar to avoid police pursuit, And magistrates refuse license to a known house of ill-repute Where a customer picks up or even takes a room with a prostitute Likely to steal his money and leave him destitute. He wouldn’

2013 Scribner Press. Spoilers Book Cover For Doctor Sleep Brave of King to write a belated sequel to one of his most iconic novels, The Shining, and a pretty good novel it is too, though not without its flaws. The book is very much a sequel to King’s book and not the Kubrick film, which King loathed with a vengeance. Decades on from the events at the Overlook Hotel (destroyed in the original novel), Danny Torrence has followed his father, Jack into alcoholism, partly to bl

2021 Bardale Press Fight For The Future book cover. Photo taken by me. Spoilers The first of the Ransomed Hearts werewolf quartet, set in a fictional Lancashire town in the early 1960’s, proving to be a disappointing werewolf romance. Twin brothers, Anthony and Tomas, arrive in Bardale, a fictional, quaint Lancashire farming town, and their ancestral routes. The brothers are musicians, who earn a living through playing in bars, and working on the farm. They are werewolves, se

Beer And Books Book Club Review – Megan Lindholm – Wolf’s Brother. 1988 Voyager Books. Spoilers Wolf's Brother Book Cover The direct sequel/continuation to The Reindeer People, taking up right where the first volume left off. This was chosen with great enthusiasm as the Beer & Books Book club group at Vinyl Tap, Preston, Lancashire, attendees (myself included) universally loved the first book. While this is still a very good read, I personally didn’t feel it quite lives up to

Friday 28th My 2026 Diary Caught up on some of my writing. Got paid early as Monday being a bank holiday the banks will close then. Visited The Blue Bell pub in the city centre for the first time since its reopening. Disappointed to be refused permission to take photos due to the Brewery’s draconian opposition to use of phones, laptops or computers in any of their pubs, even though the staff and regular customers are allowed to ignore the rules. Added my reaction to my Tripad

One of the Granny Turisimo trio riding/dancing round Preston Market. Saturday 15th August 2026 An eclectic street art display by Granny Turisimo today here in Preston, with three ‘ladies’ riding round dancing in and as motorized shopping carts in the market area. Great fun. Afterwards, I went to the nearby cinema to watch both The End Of Oak Street and Spiderman, Brand New Day back to back. (See the film review entries at the end of the diary). Tuesday18th August 2026 After a

My 2026 Diary 2026 Saturday 1st August Nuisance neighbour yelling at his phone and running up and down stairs all afternoon. Monthly food delivery from a major supermarket in the evening. Sunday 2nd August S Werd open mic poetry /spoken word event at the Vinyl Tap pub in Preston. Becca Sharples - Hostess Of The S- Werd Poetry Events Monday 3rd I attended a diabetes structured education programme - a one day workshop on dietary and exercise advice for Diabetics, which gave me

My 2026 Diary/Desk planner Monday 19 20th July 2026 Writing catch up days. Tuesday 21st July 2026 - Home Invasion Incident. Terrifying start to the day. I had an intruder at 7am this morning. A guy looking stoned out of his head casually walked into my flat (I usually leave the door unlocked when I'm in as it's easier to get out in an emergency). He walked right by my bed (it was daylight by then) and started heading for the toilet - I had to demand three times that he tell

Book Review – Luke Rhinehart – The Dice Man 1971 Harper Collins. Book Club choice for July 2026. Beer & Books book club, Vinyl Tap, Preston. Spoiler alerts. Book cover - Luke Rhinehart - The Dice Man Though not recommended for the group by myself this is a book I am very familiar with and one I stumbled on in a very unusual way. How do you decide what book you would like to buy or read? If you are like me it will be because; 1/. You read other work by the author 2/. You liked

Thursday 2nd July My 2026 Diary A trip to the pub for the weekly quiz though it was cancelled through no fault of the pub as too few turned up, thanks to the football of the World Cup. I had a nice night out chatting with staff and customers and reading with a few beers. Vinyl Tap pub sign, Preston Friday 3rd July Disappointed to see that my concerns over an offer to perform movie themed poetry at a film festival later this year remains in Limbo nearly eight months after bein

Beers I Enjoyed In May 2026 X13 Beer Clip - Dave Day Beer Brew York – Marice The Otter 3.9% ***** Don’t know if they just mis-spelt Maurice or not but a great beer, roasted finish feel to a traditional bitter, with toffee, caramel and toast add ins. Toffee and caramel I could taste but no sense of toast. Given that the ingredients of bread and beer are the same (yeast) not sure how toast is added or at what stage of brewing. Are toast crumbs sprinkled in? How well or lightly

Me in performance - Photo by Andy N. The vast majority of creatives, and their potential publishers, promoters, agents, and public performance or promotion supporters are fantastic people to meet and interact with. Occasionally, I meet or collide with dreadful ones though, where egotism, Narcissism, laziness or discrimination can cause all manner of problems. Bad Writer Practice Talking a great deal about work in progress which rarely exists in any form, coming up with ideas

Book Cover for the Twelfth BHF Book Of Horror Stories Edited by Andrew Llewellyn and Ian Talbot Taylor. 2026 BHF Books. All proceeds to Once Upon A Smile. Spoiler alerts Not an unbiased review as the collection includes my short story, Fresh Dead Flesh, about ghouls feeding on the dead on an English Civil War battlefield, driven to urgent measures as the fighting seems to be drawing to a close. My story is superbly illustrated by Smuzz, and most stories included have great ac

1966. Gollancz Science Fiction Masterworks & other editions. Spoiler Alerts Book Cover - Daniel Keyes - Flowers For Algernon The Vinyl Tap’s wonderful book club has books chosen randomly from suggestions offered by its members. This month, the book picked was one I selected, having read it some years back, and I was confident that it would be well received. The Handmaid’s Tale author Margaret Atwood once upset her readership by denying that her dystopian novel was ‘science fi

Diary Monday June 1st 2026 Pub Sign - Vinyl Tap Bad start to the day with a very leaky stoma, and mild vomiting. Just had a few slices of toast which I coped with OK. I had multiple parcel deliveries, mainly new shower equipment, as my old shower curtain and shower head unit were worn out. Tesco food delivery later on in the day. My 2026 diary/day planner Diary Tuesday June 2nd 2026 Felt much better health wise today. More Amazon deliveries, mostly a new duvet and covers for

One of my smiley Stoma Bags She insisted on swimming in the sea With her stoma bag visible for all to see sticking up over her bikini briefs On her visit to the Coral reefs Friends supported her brave display Other beach users looked away Mumbling disapproval and disgust Pointed, stared, moaned and fussed Whispering so she wouldn’t hear them speak Aloud their worries that her bag might leak She walked down to the water and started to wade Ignoring the protests, with her bag d

Daniel Defoe - The Further Adventures Of Robinson Crusoe - Rushed out in months to cash in on the success of a genuinely great book, the sequel has Crusoe sailing round the World converting 'savages' to Christianity. Friday is killed within a few chapters and Crusoe is completely indifferent. Some of my book shelves Stephen R Donaldson - The 7th Decimate - Tolkienesque twaddle. In a realm where wizards control six decimating powers, fire, Earthquakes, water, etc, one side o

Film Screening Event - a very short, even abrupt film made by students at the University Of Lancashire. The cast, crew and many of their friends came along to support the screening, making this one of the liveliest events to date. The Vinyl Tap Pub Sign, Ashton, Preston Copied from my online diary for this period. https://arthurpeterchappell.wixsite.com/homepage/post/diary-saturday-23rd-to-sunday-31st-may-2026 The film tells of the formation of a rock band after a Gregory’s G