Tom Langlands Photography Blog

I am delighted to have won the writing competition organised by Autumn Voices in partnership with Playspace Publications and Rymour Books and inspired by the Living Our Dying book and project - see https://playspacepublications.com/living-our-dying/ The competition was for a piece of poetry, short story or short memoir of no more than 500 words on the theme of Living Our Dying. My piece - Fleeto's Funeral - won the competition and I was also invited to read a second piece of my writing of my own choice. As the first piece revolved around the death of a goldfish, I chose for my second piece another flash-fiction story about a goldfish! Both stories are replicated below. I hope you enjoy. Fleeto’s Funeral       by Tom Langlands It was the death of a goldfish thirty years ago that changed my perception of life and death. Our children were seven and five years old when Fleeto was found floating upside down in the fish-tank. I don’t think it was their first pet to have died but it was

Annan Through a Pandemic Coronavirus has changed all of us in one way or another. Decades and even centuries from now future generations will read about this pandemic and because we live now in a digital world where photographs and video footage are commonplace they will be able to see what it was like for our generation. Of course, different people will have different experiences. Such experiences will be influenced by cultures, beliefs and a 'sense of place.' It was the desire to record a specific 'sense of place' that was the inspiration behind Annan Through a Pandemic. I moved to Annan in 1983. Like most people I enjoyed delving into the town's history and in particular I loved looking at old photographs of the town from Victorian times. Those images with people dressed in the clothes of their era allow us a glimpse of what it must have been like living back then. I've seen faded images of townsfolk sitting around the Fish Cross or horses and traps going alo