Never Mind the Beasts

Website of surreal-absurd writer Marcus Silcock

about

Born in Portadown, Northern Ireland, Marcus Silcock has made his home in such places as Turkey, Poland, Italy, South Korea, the United States, Spain, and the United Kingdom – experiences that inform his surreal-absurd stories.

Tag: Milton Keynes

  • COFFEE HALL

    Worzel Gummidge is on the telly. The father has a new calling in the new church to convert more converts, and also a job in London, driving a train in the underground. There is also Bletchley, a swimming pool with a slide, and hot chocolate, from the machine. He learns how long to brush his…

  • MILTON KEYNES 2

    Here is an another excerpt from Part One of my novel, Never Mind the Beasts, coming this month (May 2020) from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. Religious conversion, E.T., a used Chopper, the dole, government housing, wow comics, the toothbrush lesson, Jesus Christ Superstar, rugby and fire hoops, hammer and piggy, a millennium falcon.

  • MILTON KEYNES 1

    Field Day, the magic of bathtubs & Milton Keynes roundabouts, a pet gerbil, Copperfield Middle School lunch room, a popped football, peer pressures, Bletchley swimming pool, hot chocolate from a machine, brussel sprouts, a man in the bushes, play dough and Worzel Gummidge, a rock through an old woman’s window.

  • JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR

    In the 1980s I lived in Coffee Hall, in Milton Keynes. Near coffee Hall, there was Bean Hill. The underpass between Beanhill and Coffee Hall was painted with a Wizard of Oz theme. Magic! I went to Copperfield Middle School, now closed since 31/3/2004, and there was a special teacher: Miss Foster. It was the…

  • WANKER

    The crowd is dangerous, and also liberating, but mostly dangerous. A mob. When you’re younger: peer pressure. When I lived in Milton Keynes, Coffee Hall housing estate, there was a place for playing football, next to the playground. I showed up in my red Liverpool kit. Liverpool was everything, especially Ian Rush. I wanted a…

  • God is Watching You

    Here is a small excerpt, from my novel in Microfiction, Never Mind the Beasts, forthcoming in May 2020 from Dostoyevsky Wannabe. This one takes place in Milton Keynes, England, after the conversion, before immigrating to America. It is called “God is Watching You.”

  • Survival of the Fittest

    Long ago, in another lifetime, I lived in Milton Keynes, England, on a government housing estate called Coffee Hall. Long ago, in another lifetime, I was knocked down by a car, in Portadown, with a poke in my hand. Long ago, in another lifetime, with my childhood friend Tina Adams, playing a game of stepping…

  • HAMMER AND PIGGY

    Here is a story from Milton Keynes, England, in 1982, Coffee Hall Housing Estate. It is close to Christmas and after Guy Fawkes. Everything is shiny, especially the new 20P coin, an equilateral curve heptagon. This microfiction is from Never Mind the Beasts, my novel in flash fictions, forthcoming from Dostoyevsky Wannabe in April 2020.

  • THE BOMB, THE DEMONS, AMERICAN HAMBURGERS

    The opening, for now, of The Autobiography of Don Whiskers. My novel in progress (partly a memoir). It begins in Northern Ireland and then moves to Milton Keynes, England. And then a trailer park in Vallejo, California. Don Whiskers is the main character.  

  • ENGLISH TRIFLES

    I have long admired the trifle. It is the crown jewel of English sweets. I often remember it at Christmas. I felt a bit of nostalgia for the trifle when I lived in America. My memories are often connected with Milton Keynes since that’s where we moved when we “immigrated” from Northern Ireland. I put…

  • BLUE LIGHT SPECIALS AND PLACENTAS

    A short excerpt From my recently finished novel NEVER MIND THE BEASTS. Will be sending it out to publishers/agents soon. Fingers crossed. Never Mind the Beasts is a 1985 coming-of-age story of Henry, a recent immigrant from Portadown, N. Ireland. Told in the style of vignettes, we move inside the mind of Henry as he…

  • one of my poem plays published in Everday Genius

    YIPPIE: . . .  love publishing genius and everday genius . .  a happy camper. . . thank you Adam . . . check it out: http://www.everyday-genius.com/2011/06/marcus-slease.html