Controlling her anger was one thing. But it didn’t stop her ramming his car. Nathan had been dead for a year. The …
Long hard unclean. The day. The coffin. Encrusted by the wind in topsoil. White soil. Freckling my black skirt. My mother’s …
8 Min Read
‘It’s rising too fast, we’ll drown if we don’t get out now,’ Pearl cried as you sloshed through the sodden hallway. That …
9 Min Read
Christmas eve was its usual self: expectant, dissatisfied, drunk. But still a glass half-full. Sahara leaned her tired shoulders against the …
15 Min Read
Ava has been on the light rail for about two hours, possibly more; she’s not sure. A guard waved at her …
8 Min Read
A schoolroom, North Yorkshire, 1840 I begged Charlotte to teach alone today; I cannot bear the girls’ scathing eyes. She tells me …
5 Min Read
The light changes: red for the cars, a little green walking man for us pedestrians. Then the little man changes into …
16 Min Read
You wave at them from the end of the street. The sun pours into your eyes like lava but you’re certain …
7 Min Read
The kiss was tingling. She’d waited all night, watching him across the room, his face glittering red under the disco ball. His …
2 Min Read
The shooting started at around 4.30 pm; most of the neighbourhood mothers had herded their kids inside and were probably doing what …
13 Min Read
That Dickens bloke lied. Yes, it was the worst of times, the best of times, etc etc, and yes, the world was …
13 Min Read
I never saw the murderer that Christmas day. Bonnie did, and Moss – or so they said. Mama told me not to …
15 Min Read
See this woman. Maybe viewed as doing okay by some. Lives in a cramped rented flat near Botany with her two …
25 Min Read
After the funeral the girl’s mother won’t let her go near the old man who has been sitting at the back …
8 Min Read
Hell is other people. – Sartre There’s no denying it: Vanya’s a hero. Brave and fearless, he returned from the …
15 Min Read
I. I am going to Turkey. Post covid, of course. When – I don’t know. Where – mainly Istanbul. How …
11 Min Read
Please, he says, as sternly as possible. A bit too sternly though: he hasn’t used that tone for years. He flinches, …
8 Min Read
And, after all these years, she still can’t touch it. Snow. It makes it difficult, living in a mountainous atmosphere. Every …
6 Min Read
Your neck is on the guillotine. Its sharpness gleams above you, the base is already cutting into your throat. You’re choking …
9 Min Read
‘What you get is no tomorrow’ David Bowie, Fame After her best friend was killed in the Paris restaurant by ISIL …
10 Min Read
…A Tale Told in Triptych… CHAPTER 1: WHITE TSARINA After they told me my boy was a haemophiliac I believed I …
11 Min Read
‘I didn’t expect you this early, Dad.’ She was as brittle as usual, a blonde shadow, sitting stiffly in the velvet gold …
8 Min Read
You’re in the air, swirling, when a face gazes from the tiles below. Hitting the water, your perfect half-twist dive is knotted …
1 Min Read
‘For chrissakes, put it away!’ We winced as Aunty Vi bellowed at my cousin again, her voice as subtle as a dying …
13 Min Read
From the other side I watch them enter the church. Sitting at the altar, beside the priest, just near the satiny …
6 Min Read
‘Loonies speak their own language, like educated people.’ The Tree of Man, Patrick White Let’s just walk, let’s just …
11 Min Read
It was my first time. The rifle was slippery in my fingers, and Jojo laughed when I nearly dropped it. I’d seen …
5 Min Read
‘It’s hurting,’ mumbled the old man. He shuffled in the seat, closed his eyes to the fluorescent light above him. The …
3 Min Read
The stadium roars like a thunderbolt. So loud her chest vibrates. Are the heavens pulsating? Is it war out there, or just …
9 Min Read
‘I’m telling you, garbagemen can deal with anything. The smell of corpses, shit, rotten eggs. The worst stink in the world, …
10 Min Read
Ilse cowers; her body trembles. All because she knows, immediately, who she has collided with while rounding the blitzed corner. Despite …
5 Min Read
Deedee’s been losing weight. She stands and watches herself in the mirror. Runs her hand down the sides of her nightie …
10 Min Read
Days and days and days and days have passed – years really – and yet people still look at him strangely when …
8 Min Read