The Written Word Group

Lily has one year left before sitting in  her GCSEs and will be taking her mock exams after Christmas. She goes to the library after school to revise and also to keep warm. Her house is cold, damp and has poor lighting which prevents her from keeping focused on her studies. Lily was born in the poorest and most  deprived parts of Liverpool where unemployment is high and crime is the profession for many youngsters. She is the youngest of three children, all living at home. Her oldest sister Olivia finds it difficult to keep jobs longer than four weeks. Her brother, Leo, has no ambition either and has never worked a day in his life. He is the favourite son and he does no wrong in his mum's eyes. He is always asking for money to keep his drinking and smoking habits.  Susan, her mum, cleans public toilets early mornings and does the washing in the afternoon for the residents at a nursing home. George, her father, also has two jobs. He is the washer upper...

Lidia woke up early on Easter Friday. It was the Easter long weekend and all ten BBQs in the picnic areas were booked for the entire week.     She checked that everything was spot on and ready for the clients when they arrived. Her perfectionism and keen eye for detail has made the business successful.  She went through her usual checklist:  BBQ areas cleaned and stocked with coal - checked  Bins emptied - checked Patio areas swept - checked  Shop stocked with essentials - checked  "I can't believe it seems only yesterday Rob bought me this land," she thought, "and now, five years after returning to my homeland, we are on the map under the name Parque Copihue in Peñuelas."   She was finishing her routine check on the last picnic area, when the first family showed up. To her surprise, it was the same couple who had stopped five years earlier to ask if the place was open to the public while they were having a BBQ. She re...

Joseph Millerton had always felt lucky. Born under a glowing star, is what his mom used to say. He would win prizes at school. And when he went to work for the Ford Motor company, on his first day there, he won a new car in a country wide Ford lottery. It was around then he started wearing green. Luck of the Irish his workmates would say. As they tried to avoid selling him any on-going lottery ticket. It didn’t help. During a heavyweight boxing match the odds on one of the boxers winning on points was enormous. So, his workmates fixed it, so Joseph got that option. And oh, how they laughed at him. And oh, how they cried when the said boxer duly went the 15 rounds and won the fight. Getting engaged he decided he needed to cash in his Prize bonds. But he could not get it done in time, which resulted in Joseph winning a substantial amount at the next draw. He won another car. Then he won the lottery. £2million on a lucky dip. When interviewed on local radio, as to how he would spend his...

Up at the crack of dawn. Wrapping Max up for the cold weather outside. A train and a bus trip three times a week. To ensure we snared a place in our local kindergarten. We'd moved from the centre of Copenhagen to Ishoj. Which lay, way out in the suburbs. And we could not get a place for Max. So, we kept him in the Copenhagen kindergarten and Ishoj had to pay.  Which meant our trip three times a week. Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Out early in the morning. Back home and then back out in the afternoon to pick him up. It suited me perfectly as I was unemployed, between jobs as they say. This blackmail pressure was put on Ishoj to come up with a place, as they had to pay full wack for the Copenhagen kindergarten. I was on the final leg of our bus journey one morning, when I saw her. She was on a big Christiania bike and had a kid in the front. I would have known her anywhere. She was as sharp as a tack and had been studying to be a lawyer when I met her. Met her mom and her divorced da...

Day One - Monday 28 April  My son, Pablo came to see us for a few days from the UK. His quick visit was coming to an end, and the day before his departure we went to La Pequeñica for lunch. This is the only place that has alfajores in this area, which are one of my favourite cakes since childhood.  The coffeeshop is often buzzing with people at that time of day, but today  there was an eerie feeling in the air. Monica, the waitress, told us there was no electricity and that the coffee machine and the toaster weren't working, in case we wanted tostadas. I didn’t give much importance to the power cut as we often had them in this part of Almeria.  “Oh don't worry,” I said to the waitress, in Spanish,  “We'll have one orange juice and one bottle of water, please. It's too hot out there anyway to have coffee, ah, and two alfajores please.” As we sat down near the window, I remarked to Pablo:  “Here we go again, another power cut. You kn...

  The Written Word Group in association with Bar Esperanza are proud to present:  A Night of Music, Story Telling & Poetry. Date: Thursday 14th May 2026 - 5pm Location: Bar Esperanza Avenida Andalucía, La Alfoquía  (next to / junto a Arboleas Oil gas station) Contact:  642 52 21 01 (To book a table) Expectations: High This Story & Music Night, is about connection: between voices and listeners, between memory and imagination, between the stories we share and the music that we carry within us. A storyteller isn't just a narrator—they're our oldest guides . In ancient Ireland, they were as valued as kings, and ever since those first campfires were lit at the dawn of time, they’ve been our teachers, our entertainers, who nudge the world toward change. Each performer brings a little piece of their own journey, and hopefully together we’ll shape something that only exists here in this place at this time at this moment. May you hear a poem that stays with you, a son...