John Welford
Bio
I am a retired librarian, having spent most of my career in academic and industrial libraries.
I write on a number of subjects and also write stories as a member of the "Hinckley Scribblers".
Stories (501/0)
The Waiter's Tale
He was very good at waiting. It was something that he’d been doing all his life, in one way or another. His mother once told him that he’d kept her waiting for more than three weeks before he’d made up his mind to be born, so perhaps that had helped to set his life in its apparently inevitable course. Like Micawber, he had a definite idea that one day something worth having would turn up, and in the meantime he was prepared to wait. There seemed little point in taking hasty action to move things along.
By John Welford3 years ago in Fiction
Turandot, by Giacomo Puccini
The plots of great operas are often difficult to fathom, partly because opera composers are generally more interested in writing great music than telling a believable story. The plot is merely a peg on which to hang arias, duets and choruses. Opera plots are often absurd, with unlikely happenings, impossible coincidences and ridiculous characters right, left and centre. On the other hand, some operas are also great dramas. See what you think about this one:
By John Welford3 years ago in Beat
The Adventure of the Empty House, by Arthur Conan Doyle
The Adventure of the Empty House was first published in the Strand Magazine in October 1903 and later collected in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, published in 1905. Arthur Conan Doyle had “killed off” his famous detective Sherlock Holmes in The Final Problem, published in 1893, and finally gave way to public pressure to bring him back from the dead, which he did in this story.
By John Welford3 years ago in Geeks
Claude Lorrain and his classical landscapes
Claude Gelée (c. 1604/5 to 1682) acquired the name Lorrain from his birthplace in eastern France, although he spent virtually all his life after 1627 in Rome. He specialised in landscape painting, being fascinated by the scenery and ruins in the countryside surrounding Rome and also being inspired by the quality of light in that part of Italy. He developed a means of including the sun as the direct source of light in his paintings, thus sending foreground and middle-distance objects into sharp relief. His method of composition was to use sketchbooks on his many trips into the countryside and to build his studio paintings around these sketches, many of which were highly detailed.
By John Welford3 years ago in Geeks
Mr Overcoat Has a Few Suggestions
William Shakespeare recognized the knock on his office door. This heralded a visit from Cameron Overcoat, his agent and also the impresario in charge of what happened at the Globe Theatre. Will put down his quill and waited for whatever nonsense was bound to be about to come his way.
By John Welford3 years ago in Fiction