Features
Short Stories
Afterlife
The airport bus lumbered along pot-holed streets lined with flimsy huts and gawping villagers. Judith shrank from the window, glancing warily at her fellow travellers. ‘Sunny Singles Solutions’, the…
The House Sitter
The house was even bigger than Shirley remembered; bigger, grander, more beautiful. There were eight broad stone steps up to the front door. At the top she paused before slipping the key into the lock…
The Farewell
The traffic was bad. Of course the traffic was bad – a Friday on the M4 – what had she expected? Louise gripped the steering wheel. Max, tired from his business trip, would be irritated if she was…
The Lunch
The kite hung in the air, wings hunched, head down, its beak a dagger aimed for the plunge. Connie let her gaze linger, too numb to care about the potential peril of keeping her focus off the road…
The Stranger
It began on the train. The sudden extraordinary intimacy of eye contact. His eye-lashes were a feathery brown, the irises they guarded greeny-blue pools. Eyes you could dive into. Oh-oh, Maggie…
The Treat
Celine wore a coat of her mother’s for her walk to the park that day, a classic purple one of which she had always been rather fond, with large gold buttons and wide velvet lapels. The velvet was dull…
The Crossing
It was blowy on deck but Bella was in the mood for it. She held the railings and watched the chop of the water, the tears arriving, as they had every day for five weeks. Susie and Rick. Her Rick. She…
Physics and Chemistry
The restaurant looked busy. Tanya hovered at the entrance, recalling the details of Mike Halford’s profile. Fair-hair, blue eyes, athletic build. Aged thirty. A teacher. Shy. Steady. Single. In search…
Guardian Angel
Love at first sight. It’s supposed to exist isn’t it? Eyes locking across a crowded room, wafting invisible chemicals, instant soul-mates and all that twaddle. When Brian and I decided to get married…
Articles
For the Love of a Dog
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING FOR THE LOVE OF A DOG Every life has its peaks and troughs, but I have always been an optimist. Ms Look-On-The-Bright-Side. Ms Tomorrow-Is-Another-Day. Even when my marriage imploded…
Under One Roof
During the dark days of early motherhood I sometimes used to console myself that in a mere eighteen years it would all be done with: weaned, potty-trained, educated, my two sons would give us a cheery…
Finding My Voice
The most dispiriting aspect of growing older is the loss of that once taken-for-granted luxury of getting better at things. Sport, memory, eyesight – even tiddlywinks will become a challenge in the…
Howards End
HOWARDS END by E M Forster It’s corny to say a book changed your life and also, perhaps, a little hard to believe when the book concerned is not at first glance an epic firework of a thing, but a…
Losing My Father
In February 1997 I experienced a moment of the purest exultation I have known. I was standing on a Mexican beach at the time, looking out to sea, feeling the ebb of silky warm water pulling and…
Gap Year - A Mother's Story
‘So what exactly are you afraid of?’ prompted a longsuffering friend, once my nineteen year old son and his rucksack had departed for South America and I had confessed how the fact of his six foot two…
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