Alec Hepburn (@alechepburn)

Finally catching up with Uncanny Series 5 - Case 1 The Haunted Street is right up there with the very best! #uncanny #ghosts #hauntings

06.03.2026 20:47 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sundial in the Shade Birdsong heralded the start of a new day, gently ushering in the chilly, grey morning with a subtlety that was appreciated by all in the house. Gradually, eyelids fluttered open, fingers and toes stretched and alarm bells of the non-panic-filled variety coaxed the more resolute sleepers from their beds. The stillness of the night slowly receded into the furthest corners of the house, where it would watch and wait amid the daily hullabaloo.

A short story based on a startling discovery in my family history, which is also detailed here. I look back on the last time that I saw my father before he passed away and find some sort of closure. #writing #memories #blog #ghosts #history #murder #time #maryhepburn #redemption

06.03.2026 10:44 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

The picture shows a tabby cat lying on her owner’s chest as they both appear to be reading a book

Been taking it easy this week while awaiting a specialist appointment for a knee injury, so have been catching up on my reading with some help from Tabby, one of our 12 cats. Jodi Taylor’s Just One Damned Thing After Another meets with our seal of approval!

04.03.2026 21:25 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

We Might As Well Be Strangers Some 'handsome' devil modelling the 'just woken up' pose. Note the poster in the background complete with 'inspirational, religious quotation' and the commemorative Charles and Diana wedding mug on the arm of the chair. Neither provoke any level of fondness in my memories or would have any place in my adult life. Around 1992, while England were failing miserably at the Euros under Graham Taylor, Mother made the decision for all of us to move away from Horsham and relocate to move in with a man that she had been seeing for a while, Brian, who was a dead ringer for the guy from the ‘Courts’ advert that was doing the rounds at the time (the song went something along the lines of ‘then I sincerely hope to see you all in Courts’, which, given the area of Southampton in which he lived, took irony to a whole new level).

A new blog post in which we relocate from Horsham to Southampton so that Mother can make me homeless. Plenty of ups and downs before I reach the point of no return and finally break off contact, long after I should have. #mother #writing #memories #1992 #annushorriblis #life #homeless #horsham

03.03.2026 11:37 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

There should always be plenty of time for reading!

02.03.2026 21:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thank you! Hope that you've had a good week too!

02.03.2026 21:02 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Yes, he's probably the reason why I first got into horror along with a viewing of Stephen King's Salem's Lot when I was way too young to see it! I find some of his later work much easier to read and not so grim!

02.03.2026 21:00 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Busy but good, so I think I should be grateful! Plugging away at the next book, another chapter complete but I can't escape the feeling that it's taking forever!

02.03.2026 20:58 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I've gone back to James Herbert - have read The Rats and The Fog, both of which have stood the test of time reasonably well and are still as disturbing as they were when I first read them, especially The Fog. I might need to read something a little lighter next!

02.03.2026 20:56 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

I need to start setting a reminder! Late to the party as always 😂

02.03.2026 20:54 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Mother’s Ruin Edited in Prisma app with Mountain My relationship with my mother has always been a complicated one. Fundamentally, I think that she is unable to see past me as a ‘male Hepburn’ and as such I am a constant reminder of my father and everything that he did to her. Unfair, maybe? But as I said before, to me in some ways that’s understandable.

A look back at my relationship with my mother and the time I spent around the stoolball team that she played for. Includes a couple of missed opportunities and the realisation that certain political parties weren't for me. #writing #memories #horsham #stoolball #nineties #sussex #mothersruin #life

26.02.2026 12:58 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Completely agree. Both of my books so far have been based on moments in my life that I have felt needed sharing and I built complete stories around those moments. That compulsion is a brilliant driving force to write!

23.02.2026 21:04 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Not sure I could pin it down to one reason. To understand myself, be understood, make sense of chaos, hopefully entertain, provide comfort and encourage conversations around difficult topics. That’s just off the top of my head

23.02.2026 20:55 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Rotterdam (or Anywhere) A shot of Dartmoor that I took a couple of years ago. Not the bleak wilderness described below... It’s June 1990 and the torment of the whole GCSE ‘situation’ was coming to an end. Not only had I had to contend with my own shortcomings in the revision/retaining of information/examination processes, but some clown had also decided to schedule the beginning of the World Cup in the middle of the most important exams of my life.

I've finally finished my exams and find a job, where I get a punch in the face after messing around with a fire extinguisher. It's a time of change and I make the decision to leave Plymouth, but not before I make a break for freedom with limited success #plymouth #blog #writing #dartmoor #memories

20.02.2026 12:50 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Signed Memorabilia Raffle We’re giving supporters the chance to win some incredible pieces of Argyle memorabilia — all included in one raffle, with multiple individual prizes available to win. Prizes include: ⚽ Signed Home Shirt ⚽ Signed Away Shirt 🚩 Signed David Norris Mini Flag 🚩 Signed Micky Evans Mini Flag 🖼️ Fully Signed “We Are Argyle” Poster 🇺🇸 Graham Carey Match-Worn Shirt…

One Raffle, SIX Amazing Prizes!

We’re running ONE raffle with multiple signed Argyle prizes to be won:

👕 Signed Home Shirt
👕 Signed Away Shirt
🚩 Signed Mini Flag – David Norris
🚩 Signed Mini Flag – Micky Evans
🖼️ Fully Signed “We Are Argyle” Poster
🇺🇸 Match-Worn USA Shirt – Graham Carey

🎟️…

18.02.2026 12:53 👍 1 🔁 1 💬 0 📌 1

Been without power since around 6.45 this evening and repairs not due to be completed until 3am. Reliving the seventies isn’t much fun…

16.02.2026 22:54 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Thank you - it’s hugely appreciated. Trying to make some sense of chaos! Nice to know that people are reading!

14.02.2026 11:05 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Picked up The Rats by James Herbert yesterday, haven’t read it since I was at school. No pun intended but I devoured it within 24 hours. So gruesome and hits hard early on. One of my favourite authors.

13.02.2026 22:57 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Sweet Molly Malone The programme cover of the first Argyle match I attended back in 1987. Whisper it quietly, but when I first discovered football, I became a Manchester United fan (I suspect to my father’s disappointment, he would have loved nothing more than for me to follow in his Sunderland-supporting footsteps). I have no idea why I followed the Red Devils and perhaps that’s part of the reason why, on February 14th, 1987, I fell in love with Plymouth Argyle.

It's thirty-nine years tomorrow since I made the switch to following Plymouth Argyle after spending my early years as a Manchester United fan. Here, I look back on my first trip to Home Park #pafc #utba #football #plymouth #memories #sport #manchesterunited #mufc

13.02.2026 13:40 👍 4 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Real Gone Kid One of the few photographs of myself that doesn't fill me with embarrassment. Needless to say, at an all-boys school, opportunities to engage with girls were limited. At the time, the premises on which Devonport High School was situated were shared with a mixed school, Tamar High School, which was attended by a few of the students from Pennycross and, of course, the much-maligned apple of my eye, Joanne Kenny.

Judgement arrives in the form of GCSEs and I am horrendously underprepared. I look back on a few sporting moments and my final days at #devonporthigh in #plymouth #trouble #schooldays #memories #life #writing #english #exams #gcse #loneliness #neurodiversity

11.02.2026 12:05 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I’ve no doubt that some of the teachers I didn’t get on with were really good - and often I was at fault! Not sure about the chalk duster at the head though!

06.02.2026 19:31 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Things Can Only Get Better While my early days at DHS were a bit of a mixed bag in terms of discovering who I was and ultimately who I wanted to be, an unpleasant memory surfaced recently that I’m hesitant about sharing…but this is supposed to be a look back on all that I remember, warts and all, so to speak. I’ve already considered the fact that I had a gob on me when I was younger and there were occasions during my time at DHS where I earned a well-deserved whack or two from my peers as I traversed the fine line between being funny and being a complete tosser.

A continuation of my recollections of my school days at Devonport High School. A time when I'm shamefully at my worst, still finding trouble and taking on a starring role in a Christmas Carol. #writing #memories #plymouth #schooldays #dhs #stories #devonporthighschool #christmascarol

06.02.2026 16:24 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

So difficult, this was my era…

Warriors of the Deep (yeah, I know)
Enlightenment
Caves of Androzani
Kinda
Earthshock

But I could have probably picked at least another 5

06.02.2026 14:06 👍 3 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Brilliant performance from the Argyle women's team #pafc

Really up against it at 1-0 down early on but showed determination, class and maturity to fight back and comfortably close out the game. An absolute joy to watch.

01.02.2026 16:51 👍 6 🔁 0 💬 1 📌 0

Just take a moment to read what you’re about to post…one of my favourites from this month

30.01.2026 14:12 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Good as Gold (Stupid as Mud) A recent image of the playing fields at Devonport High School My first year at Devonport High School (where all first-year students were affectionately and more often than not less-than-affectionately known as ‘scruffs’) was arguably my most productive in terms of output and behaviour. I was keen to get on and experience what would be my first taste of prolonged stability in an educational establishment.

A look back at my early days at Devonport High School in Plymouth. Includes a puerile but mildly amusing incident with the headmaster and a few memories of Physics and Chemistry lessons... #schooldays #memories #devonporthigh #dhs #PDA #trouble #teachers #classics #physics #chemistry #plymouth

30.01.2026 11:52 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

This ref is horrendous tonight

27.01.2026 20:22 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

A tense second half with no shortage of effort from every player to secure a deserved win. Christ knows what sort of team we'll put out on Tuesday though...#pafc

24.01.2026 15:03 👍 1 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

I’ve Come for My Award I’ve been trying to collect my thoughts before moving on to the next part of my story. Walking through my early years has left me feeling bruised as I have uncovered more memories than I expected and reliving the times when I was on the receiving end of violence or worse has saddled me with a deep, cloying sadness that I am unable to shake off.

Where I learn a harsh lesson regarding swearing and the fact that Palmolive doesn't taste very nice. I also make a stand many years later. #memories #childhood #swearing #writing #blog #life #punishment #survivor #violence #family

20.01.2026 11:13 👍 0 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Fascinating to see this and consider the decisions that were made for the final edit. Three incredible actors in one of the best scenes in the history of the show. Thanks so much for sharing this!

18.01.2026 19:37 👍 2 🔁 0 💬 0 📌 0

Alec Hepburn

Latest posts by Alec Hepburn @alechepburn