JOHN MARTIN

They say every cloud has a silver lining. Mine came in the form of a silver-coloured spanner. For years, my wife has shunned my handyman skills. I don’t know why. I am always the first person to put up my hand when something needs fixing. “Don’t be ridiculous, John,” she always says when something breaks… Continue reading Looking the part

We normally keep our distance from the Morris dancers at the National Folk Festival. This year we are taking that to a whole new level. We’re not even going to be able to see them from a distance. For some years my wife and I have been regulars at the folkie in Canberra on Good… Continue reading Keeping our distance

We’ve laughed our way through Blokes on a Plane and Blokes in Donegal. Now brace yourself for Blokes in the House, a series of short stories which will trace the new lives of my three elderly characters from the funny Windy Mountain series. That’s right. Oodles, 85, Wish-Wash, 83, and The Mayor, 82, are thrown… Continue reading Blokes go into quarantine

Has anyone thought what we’re going to look like when eventually we emerge from our houses? I think it’s quite possible I will come out looking like Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show. I can handle the prospect of long straggly hair and a seriously bald forehead. It’s the expectation I’ll be able… Continue reading Hair despair

I am sure readers will have many other stories about good Samaritans appearing in this time of need. This story will go down in my family folklore. My older sister Kate has been living and working in sunny Western Australia for a while but her sons and grandchildren live in the island state of Tasmania… Continue reading Dave, you’re our hero