Author: Leigh Banks

In the second part of his series getting your work published, Leigh looks at trials and tribulations of traditional publishing… ‘It was all going to so well until I wrote about pubs and drunken lamp-posts … oooh eck!‘ To remind you, Leigh says: “I‘m a writer, right!  (Click below to play video) “But at this… Continue reading A RUN-IN WITH A TRADITIONAL PUBLISHER AND AN ARMY OF DRUNKEN LAMP-POSTS

I‘m a writer, right! (Click below to play video) But at this moment in time I am going to have to chat – because the one thing a writer needs is a writerly arm! And I’ve just damaged mine … so writing is off the menu for a while. The next best thing is, let’s… Continue reading THE WRITE STUFF – AS LEIGH TAKES A ‘BREAK’

By Alena Dulakova, Tatras Escapes Carrie and I met around three years ago. We used to work together for an education franchise in Reading, UK. We clicked right away. You know when somebody just gets you completely and utterly from (almost) day one? We became very good friends … I have always talked about Slovakia… Continue reading Here’s to our mums – the beer bathing beauties!

What is wrong with our banks? Why do they think they can lie to us, strand us a thousand miles from home in a covid-ridden country, refuse to give us our money when we want it, leave us standing forlornly on the doorstep of a hotel with no way of paying the bill, render us… Continue reading No magic if you bank on penn-y and teller for your own dosh

Enigmatic troubadour Leonard Cohen discussed very little about politics in his 60 year career, only to say that he wasn’t cool with extremism of any kind. Leonard was happy being a politician of the broken heart. But his legal team believe that the urbane and charming poet would be fuming after Trump’s camp included Hallelujah… Continue reading Cohen’s legal camp warns Trump – you want it darker?

In a very small way we have just tasted what it is like to face racism. Don’t get me wrong, we haven’t had to cross from one land to another in a leaky plastic boat or feel our lives sweating out in the back of a rocking roasting truck. No. And we don’t have to… Continue reading I’ll let you be in my ‘Johnny Foreigner’ dream, if I can be in yours…

MSM has been having a good old laugh about UK minor celebs missing out on that trip to the land of Oz to eat worms and Witchetty grubs in a bug-ridden forest as that vomit-ridden scandalous travesty of modern entertainment keeps a welcome in the hillside for them! #i’maceleb #getooutofhere #antanddec #antanddick #celebs #jungle #oz… Continue reading A bit sheepish about those shower scenes as I’m a Celebrity heads for the Welsh hills!

Sex assault victims in Victoria, South-East Australia, have lost their right to use their own names when they tell what happened to them – and who did it! The changes to the Judicial Proceedings Reports Act, introduced in February, silence all sexual assault victims from ever speaking out under their real identities. These laws are… Continue reading Shame in Victoria … sex victims must stay anonymous to protect paedophiles

The other day I was mooching in a second hand book shop in Newport, Shropshire, when I came across a tome about my old home town of Wolverhampton (writes Andrea Martin-Banks). As I leafed through page after page of grainy black and white photographs of places I recognised – The Wolverhampton Airport at Pendeford, where I… Continue reading How size 13 winklepickers led to family’s lost picture

It’s a fact – fact-checkers say they have trumped Trump yet again! But does he lie? And, if so, why do so many people believe him? Many, like me, believe that Trump has “the temper of the true liar” like no politician in living memory. But maybe I’m just making that up – after all,… Continue reading Mr President, isn’t it just better to check the facts and tell the truth?