Rachel Robbins
Bio
Writer-Performer based in the North of England. A joyous, flawed mess.
Please read my stories and enjoy. And if you can, please leave a tip. Money raised will be used towards funding a one-woman story-telling, comedy show.
Stories (168)
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Miss Havisham's Bathroom. Winner in The Forgotten Room Challenge.
Fran had been told she couldn’t really call herself a stand-up if she hadn’t done The Black Lake Pub gig. So, she had signed up and agreed to a car share. Twenty minutes from Manchester and fifty years back in time, in daylight the area might have been called stone-built picturesque. On a February evening, with an empty field to the left and the dark waters to the right, it was Gothic isolation.
By Rachel Robbins4 months ago in Fiction
Plainclothes (2025). Top Story - October 2025.
Plainclothes is my kind of film. I take along my 1940s imaginary screenwriter persona, and she complains about not being able to smoke in cinemas. But I reassure her, reviews have been mostly positive, and it won an award at the Sundance Film Festival. I knew I wanted to see it from the trailer. It is a small budget, independent film, with a small cast, telling a story that could easily be overlooked or dismissed. My kind of film.
By Rachel Robbins4 months ago in Geeks
Dear Susan
Dear Susan Not sleeping again? Is that because of me? Can you see me at the edges of your bed? Dark, hooded, darting in the corner of your vision? I bring with me an atonal cello soundtrack that vibrates your chest. I’m so close you can hear the bow cutting the strings.
By Rachel Robbins4 months ago in Fiction
Torn Between Two Services
I’m calling myself neuro-typical here, because I don’t meet any diagnosis criteria. I certainly don’t experience any of the long-term issues around social anxiety and isolation that my daughter does. But I have been called ‘quirky’ all my life, which is why I may have been slow to pick upon the real problems my daughter experienced during adolescence. I assumed she was just a bit idiosyncratic, plough-your-own-furrow kind of a gal, like her mum. Rather than an introverted, needing a system, not comfortable in social situations person, like her Dad.
By Rachel Robbins5 months ago in Families
One Battle After Another
I’m not an action movie kind of a gal. I don’t like violence on screen. I’m also not a fan of a long movie. If you can’t tell the story in under 2 hours are you sure it’s not a TV series instead? (I’m looking at you Eddington). So, when I initially saw the trailer for One Battle After Another, I wasn’t convinced it would be for me.
By Rachel Robbins5 months ago in Geeks
Self Esteem
Last night I went to see Self-Esteem (aka) Rebecca Lucy Taylor in concert at the Manchester Academy. I thought about writing a normal review of the gig. You know the kind, where the author writes a little background to the act, talks through some highlights/low points of the performance and then gives a star rating and a pithy epithet to round it all off.
By Rachel Robbins5 months ago in Beat
Watching “To Kill a Mockingbird” in 2025. Top Story - September 2025.
This is not a review. I’ve just been to see the UK touring production of Aaron Sorkin’s adaptation of Harper Lee’s “To Kill a Mockingbird”. If you have never read the book, seen the 1962 film, or been lucky enough to catch the current tour, please do one of those before you read my paltry words.
By Rachel Robbins5 months ago in Geeks
