Carol Naylor's REVIEW it...

My breath spirals skyward, steam rings inflating and slowly dissipating like some magic trick performed with a cigarette and a balloon................. A number of local writers living in Spain have contributed to this selection of short stories covering different genres, extremely readable for autumnal evenings, relaxing as the sun sets. Just the tonic. Say no more! The One That Got Away by Michael Barton can be read on a number of levels. It shows Jack's resilience and maturation in dealing with his parents' divorce, his journey from laggard to leader. Dad was labelled as an absent parent and blamed for his son's spiral into anti-social and unacceptable behaviour at school. The idea of togetherness in separation isn't anything like the ideal situation that Jack's father envisages. He wants to be reunited with his wife, however, she has made other plans: sleeping with the boss, Dave, has paid off and she has been promoted. So, the togetherness is an oppor

The painting which I am currently working on will be called Guernica. By means of it, I express my abhorrence of the race that has sunk Spain in an ocean of pain and death.                                                                                                                     Pablo Picasso Like the great artist, Boling painted his sprawling mural as a fictional piece, emphasising how closely-knit and struggling Basque families were irrevocably disfigured but not completely destroyed by the Spanish civil war. The story inevitably shows un-necessary human suffering and loss coupled with acts of heroism and amazing fortitude of the nobler characters who miraculously survive the atrocities during the destruction of Guernica in 1937. Even before 1937 Picasso wanted to shatter art and reshape it. Sadly, the opportunity came and in his rage he created his famous painting. He appears in the story and expresses his anger verbally to German soldiers as well as through his pai