Now incorporating The Sudbury Hill Harrow and Wherever End Times

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

Two billboards outside Greenford

edited

edited


unedited

Three views of two billboards, the top one from The Woodland Trust, advertising "Feeling crisis-y about the climate? Plant more trees" and the one underneath at street level, a palimpsest of bits of old posters stripped away. (12 March 2024)

Monday, March 11, 2024

Three poems from Day of the Flying Leaves (audio)

Bookmovie from Fonoteca de Poesia - Stephen Moran

  1. The Hunter-Gatherer Children of Dublin
  2. Eleven Homes
  3. Visiting Molly
The text is displayed smoothly to look like book pages turning. My reading, I don't know, not too bad. I'm grateful to Fonotexa de Poesia for this, which I consider an honour. (Steve)

Sunday, March 03, 2024

Short Story of the Month, March 2024

I love a story where you have to ask yourself "What is happening here?" And by the end you think you might know. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

March 2024: Outlaws by Neil Brosnan

It’s bizarre; four women travelling together and not a single word being exchanged between us. It’s not as if we’re not all acquainted: his sister is driving, my sister is the front-seat passenger, and the driver’s daughter is sitting beside me in the back – doing something on her iPhone.

Neil Brosnan
From Listowel, Ireland, Neil Brosnan’s stories have appeared in both print and digital magazines and anthologies in Ireland, Britain, Europe, Australia, USA and Canada. A Pushcart nominee, he has won The Bryan MacMahon, The Maurice Walsh, and Ireland’s Own short story awards, and has published two short story collections.

Friday, February 09, 2024

Mobile NHS Covid-19 Vaccine Van at Sudbury Hill

"NHS Health Review - Make Every Contact Count
Worried about your health? Come and talk to us."

"NHS Covid-19 Vaccination Service
Walk-in vaccines available here today ..."

Two parking spaces have been reserved for the mobile NHS vaccine van, seen here.
Greenford Road, North Greenford, next to Sudbury Hill station, outside Iceland supermarket.

Thursday, February 01, 2024

Short Story of the Month, February 2024

For February we have a story that touches on respect for local history and traditions and aspects of behaviour at home and abroad and people who are wonderful. So for once I have nothing funny to say in this intro. But I can assure you that it has nothing to do with interior design. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

February 2024: "My Yellow" by Amanda Huggins 

... Avril shakes her head. ‘I understand the thinking behind it – I know they don’t want Davy to be frightened of the sea – but sending the young bairn out there in this weather isn’t quite the same thing as getting back on a horse after being thrown. And the clothes? He’ll catch his own death dressed like that.’
I turn away from her for a moment, clenching and unclenching my fists as I try to hide my irritation. ...

Amanda Huggins
Amanda Huggins lives near Leeds and is the author of two novellas and several collections of short stories and poetry. Her work has appeared in, among others, Harper’s Bazaar, Mslexia, Tokyo Week-ender, The Telegraph, the Guardian, and on BBC radio.

She has won several awards, including the Kyoto City Mayoral Prize, the Colm Tóibín Short Story Award, the BGTW New Travel Writer of the Year, and three Saboteur Awards. She has also placed in the Harper’s Bazaar Short Story Com-petition, the Costa Short Story Award and the Fish Short Story Prize, and been shortlisted for the Bridport Prize.

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Tuesday: The magnificent trees of Westbourne Terrace

View down Westbourne Terrace from across Bishops Bridge Road waiting at a traffic light on red

On the point of action. The moment when an English traffic light turns red and amber.

TRAID charity shop, Shepherd's Bush

Three shop window mannequins dressed somewhat bizarrely


Wider view of TRAID shopfront

 "TRAID is a charity working to stop clothes from being thrown away. We turn clothes waste into funds and resources to reduce the environmental and social impacts of our clothes." 

Visit TRAID Shepherd's Bush for more details and how to donate or arrange a collection.

Monday, January 08, 2024

"Open storage," Wood End

Monday afternoon
This site beside the tracks used to be some sort of car breakers or suchlike. Then it was cleared and a sign went up and stayed for a couple of years, saying "Coming Soon - Clearview Homes." Now there's a sign outside advertising "Open Storage" with the number of square feet etc. The building just visible on the horizon is what used to be called Kellogg Tower, though it has a new name now it's been turned into flats. The intervening semi-wooded area is part of Grove Farm, a "local nature reserve". The railway is the Piccadilly Uxbridge tube line. (Wood End Road his afternoon)

Sunday, December 31, 2023

Short Story of the Month, January 2024

Our first Story of the Year 2024 is about a quest, a journey in a narrowboat over days and months, meeting a cat and people known and unknown along the way and asking them a question. Not the cat, the people. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

January 2024: Cranes by Alex Barr

Fidler took early retirement and spent a year restoring a narrowboat, but when the year ended was filled with emptiness and horror.
  His daughter came to stay and was shocked.
  ‘You look terrible, Father. You’re not yourself.’
  ‘Who am I then?’
  ‘Why aren’t you out on the boat on the canal? Why restore a boat if not to use it?’

Alex Barr
Alex Barr’s
recent short fiction is in Tears in the Fence, The Lampeter Review, The Interpreter’s House, New Welsh Reader, The Last Line Journal, Otherwise Engaged Journal, Sixfold Fiction, Mechanics Institute Review, Litro Magazine, Feed Literary Magazine, Reflex Press, Samyukta Fiction, and Streetlight Magazine. His short story collection ‘My Life With Eva’ is published by Parthian in Wales, where he lives.

You might be interested to know that Alex Barr is a previous contributor to Willesden Herald publications, having provided the story “Homecoming” chosen by Maggie Gee as a prizewinner for New Short Stories 5. His poem “Southernmost Point Guest House” also became the eponymous title for that anthology of poetry. (Ed.)

Wednesday, December 27, 2023

New cake shop, Sudbury Hill

CakeCo "Honestly Delicious Cakes" cakeco.co.uk
The ever-changing local shopfronts clustered around Sudbury Hill tube station. CakeCo replaces The Flower Nest, which replaced Doreen's florist. In the same couple of blocks there are three Polish supermarkets and an upstairs Polish restaurant, another cake shop, an Iceland, three fried chicken shops, two kebab shops, a fish-and-chips shop, four barber shops plus one "nails and beauty parlour", about ten Asian grocers, newsagents and greengrocers, another florist, dry cleaners who will also cut keys and mend shoes, a launderette, a betting shop, an undertakers, two estate agents and a glazier, a cards and photocopying shop, a pharmacy, a Chinese herbalist, a vape shop and a pub. There's a tiny coffee shop with chairs outside and a small newsagents kiosk on the sides of the station entrance. 

Up until a year or two ago there were two hardware shops, a bank, and a Chinese takeaway, another pharmacy and a Wenzel's sandwich shop, all now gone. Barclays Bank, which occupied a large frontage was replaced in the last year by a Budgens supermarket, which lasted no time and has now rebranded as another Mieszko supermarket, of which there now seem to be three with the same name. A member of staff in the former Budgens, now rebranded Mieszko, elicited that Tesco owns both Budgens and Mieszko. Tesco Mieszko/Budgens Shmudgens! (If anyone knows otherwise, please enlighten us. Ed.)

Saturday, December 23, 2023

Burnt-out car update

"Abandoned car notice" stuck on burnt-out car

This was reported to Harrow Council on 3 December. They've now stuck a notice on the burnt-out car. "To the owner of the car with registration number PE18*: This car appears to have been abandoned." No kidding!?

* I've been trying to tell them it's "PE18 UXS" but I can't get through to them. (Ed.)

Tuesday, December 19, 2023

Burnt-out car update

Burnt-out car, a black Toyota CH-R reg PE18 UXS, Cavendish Avenue, HA1 
Still there Monday 18 Dec. Harrow Borough Council abandoned car report ref. 723333, reported 3 Dec, acknowledgement received 7 Dec. (More photos and details)

Tuesday, December 12, 2023

Willesden Herald Stories of the Year 2023



Tuesday, December 05, 2023

Street art, Kai Ohlsen?

Fulham Palace Road, Tuesday

Street art signed KOHLSEN, possibly Kai Ohlsen (signs the same way anyway see kohlsen.uk ), paper poster on metal utility connection box today. Also written on by someone else "SY was here". But whether it's genuine/original/a print is open to question. Saatchi Art online lists some paintings by Kai Ohlsen.

Fallen tree overhanging footpath, North Greenford


Fallen tree resting on a fence and overhanging a footpath and the road. It's been like that for more than a year. Whitton Avenue West, North Greenford, London Borough of Ealing.

Sunday, December 03, 2023

Burned out car, Cavendish Avenue, Harrow today

Badly burned out car viewed from the front, parked in an un-overlooked part of the street

Interior snapped through open side window

From another angle it's seen that the engine and front are burned but the rear is not.

From the rear it is seen to be a Toyota CH-R Hybrid. The Reg plate has partly torn off. "PE18 ----".

I reported this to Harrow Council today through their online abandoned car reports form. (Ed.)

Update 7/12/2023

The car is still there today. Noticed in the following photos that the missing part of the registration number plate is in the interior. It's possible to deduce from the photos that the reg is PE18 UXS and a check on the DVLA website shows that this car matches, i.e. a black Toyota hybrid etc. Harrow abandoned car reference: 723333.

Interior (rear). Note the part of the registration plate in the bottom left corner.


Another view of the interior today (front)

Wednesday, November 29, 2023

Short Story of the Month, December 2023

Having personally had a sad experience among the delirious people who speak in tongues that sound a lot like jazz scatting and are big into the laying on of hands, I can relate to this gripping tale of sex, mass hysteria, hallucination and snake oil. Oh, and love. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month 

December 2023: Shimmer by Alan McCormick

… I’d just dropped out of university – thankfully no question of ever going back home after that – when shag-a-rent landlord Nick spoke to me in my bed and hooked me in: ‘You ought to come and hear him speak. He’ll make you feel good about who you are, and help you do things you never thought possible.’ …

Alan McCormick
Alan McCormick lives in Wicklow. He’s trustee of InterAct Stroke Support who read fiction and poetry to stroke patients. He was recently awarded an Irish Arts Council Literature Bursary to work on a collection of memoir essays. His writing has been published in The Stinging Fly, Southword, Banshee, Best British Short Stories, Confingo, Sonder, Popshot, Exacting Clam; and online at 3:AM Magazine, Fictive Dream, Dead Drunk Dublin, Words for the Wild and Époque Press. His story ‘Fire Starter’ came second in 2022’s RTÉ Short Story Competition, and ‘Boys on Film’ was runner-up in this year’s Plaza Sudden Fiction Prize. www.alanmccormickwriting.wordpress.com

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Submissions for Short Story of the Month

Just a reminder that we're always in need of new Short Story of the Month stories. There's no set deadline and when each month's story is selected, others in the inbox are released. Some may be carried over as possibles for a future month but generally turnaround is pretty quick, especially when compared to other publishers online. 

There's no reading fee but we give a copy of one of our New Short Stories anthologies as sort of payment in kind. So although that's not cash, it's also not nothing - which is what many online publishers offer. At present we are out of copies of #12 but have a few #11 and some other back numbers. 

Steve with mock-up WH in Gigi's. Photo by Vanessa Gebbie
If your short story is selected, you will be in good company. It would be lovely to pay contributors real money but Willesden Herald publishing has what is generally termed "no visible means of support." What we do have is boxes with brand new unsold books.

Please send your best wild or semi-tamed or even nice polite stories your parents would be pleased for you to marry to Willesden Herald Submittable and make my day. (Ed.)

Friday, November 24, 2023

Thursday, November 23, 2023

Autumn comes to South Vale




Tuesday afternoon: A few moments with hardly any traffic on a wet overcast street lined with trees, including magnificent old oaks with the leaves turned their autumn colour and a few other sorts still green. On the left side of the street, which has no footpath, are the trees and fence that form the southern boundary of Sir John Lyon School's playing fields known as Sudbury Fields. To the right on a little slope down from the road are some 1930s Metroland semi-detached houses. The verge in front of the houses is planted with newish Italian alders, some much older tall ash trees and further along some winter cherry. (South Vale, Harrow, HA1)

Wednesday, November 22, 2023

The Green Cabin - Sudbury Hill

The Green Cabin - café Greenford Road, HA1

Sign outside The Green Cabin

"NOTICE

FREE MEALS FACILITY FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE UNABLE TO AFFORD THEIR MEALS.

TIME - 3 PM - 6PM

ALL NATIONALITIES ARE WELCOME (STUDENTS/HOMELESS/OTHER)

THE MANAGEMENT GREEN CABIN"

The Green Cabin is on the same block as Sudbury Hill underground station, Greenford Road.

Friday, November 17, 2023

Doreen's Florist, 149 Greenford Road

Shopfront in the process of transformation from The Flower Nest to CakeCo*
Before the "CakeCo" there was "The Flower Nest" and before that there was "Doreen's" florist, 149 Greenford Road, as you can see from the old shop sign newly exposed today and soon to disappear again. It's hard not to think that those old shop signs were so much nicer than the new. 

* The photo has been artificially straightened.

Thursday, November 16, 2023

Justice for Grenfell sign, Ladbroke Grove

Ladbroke Grove, Canal Way roundabout, North Kensington

The photo shows a London black taxi, a painted sign JUSTICE FOR GRENFELL painted in stylised white block capitals edged with red, along the height and length of a black hoarding that spans under two huge billboards, the most prominent one being an outsize one for Barbie the movie, Canal Way roundabout, Ladbroke Grove, North Kensington today.

Soon-to-be Bald Cypress

 

Whitton Avenue West
Bald Cypress getting ready to live up to its name, all foliage turned to rust, Wednesday, North Greenford

Wednesday, November 15, 2023

The Phone Book (final edition)

Cover of the last ever phone book
The Phone Book

We've been delivering it to you from 1880 to 2024.
Harrow, our last book has landed at your door.
Final edition. Hold on to it forever.

(From Royal Mail/BT this morning)