Here are some of the reviews from readers: A great review here from Dandelion Girl: Views of a Dandelion Girl: Kissing Frankenstein & Other Stories And here from Annette Thomson: Nettie Thomson: Kissing… Read More →

The Flash-Fiction anthology is now available to order from Amazon

October 1st. Ruth’s baptism day. A chapel packed with friends, relatives and the plain curious. Only the front pew was empty. It was solid, sturdy, larger and grander than the others, its arms… Read More →

The work was hard; he had been digging all his life. The rewards were meagre, but enough to sustain his diminutive body. At least he had fulfilled his purpose in life, by producing… Read More →

On the planet Ibis, covered in turquoise ocean, a young warrior stood on a white beach looking to the sky tinged green and the harsh binary stars. The warrior’s name was Malock and… Read More →

Are you the lady who was travelling from Birmingham to Torquay on Friday28th October? We met at Gloucester and travelled on the 11.30am train to Paignton. You left the train at Torre to… Read More →

‘Emily.’ The policewoman is back. The hospital pillow crackles as Emily rolls her head away. ‘Tell me about Leo Tymoshenko.’ Words form ragged queues around the firestorm scars in Emily’s brain. ‘He was… Read More →

West London, traffic lights at red. On National Express 035 bus, sitting high up near the back, good view over the stopped traffic. My eyes light on floor to ceiling glass, the length… Read More →

The air in the house has become stale and still. Things keep going missing and they are pointing the blame my way. I didn’t take any trinket, I have more interesting things to… Read More →

From the way she scooped him from his buggy, shushed him, kissed his tears and hugged him all the way home, he might almost have been hers. Martha Williams Martha Williams lives and… Read More →

I flick my wrist and watch as the flat pebble slices its way through the air. The distinct arc of its flight is mirrored in the calm, silvery water of the pond. It’s… Read More →

‘It was bone-chilling cold, snow was sifting down from the sky. Through the blizzard I caught fleeting glimpses of light. I stumbled towards it. Eventually I made out the shape of a building,… Read More →

It’s an unlikely story I’ll admit, the first man to walk on the moon turning up at our village pub in North Somerset almost unrecognised twenty years on (this was 1989). He may… Read More →

He found her on the streets, wandering as lost and free as a ghost. He sat in the car smoking a roll-up and watched as she weaved through the legs of figures hunched… Read More →

‘Just another couple of pages,’ he promised, as the clock chimed one. A gulp of stewed tea the only reward for perseverance. ‘Half a page more, then sleep,’ he whispered as the clock… Read More →

The passengers of flight BA7098 flood through arrivals, fanning out in a sea of feet and faces, their eyes searching for that special someone on the other side of the barriers. When the… Read More →

Three little sisters played happily in the street. No fear of enemy planes this sunny day, the second year of the war. Annie held the reins, in which toddler Meg was firmly strapped.… Read More →

‘I told you, Mummy, I can’t do it. People will laugh!’ “No they won’t,” I say. ‘The words will lump in my throat and won’t come out,’ Joe stamps his small foot. ‘It’s… Read More →

‘Tickets please.’ The girl lifted her huge carpet bag on to the table and started rummaging, ‘Shit, it’s in here somewhere.’ The guard rolled his eyes, holding on to a seat to steady… Read More →

Yesterday was a very bad day. Today I’m better. I’m always better when I’m outside. Perhaps it’s the open space; perhaps it’s just that I’m not stuck in the flat running round after… Read More →

She sounds like a judge giving sentence. All she needs is a black cap and I’ll be meeting Albert Pierrepoint in the near future. ‘We’ve had all the tests back and there is… Read More →

It was still snowing. The old farmhouse door shoved open. Bjorn Martinnson gazed out across his land to a small coppice. He used to tend it and gather hazel for fencing. But a… Read More →

Is it really twenty six years; we both say “You look just the same”. What is it we recognise in each other, for we both wear time’s signs of age. The connection is… Read More →

One survives, one dies; now choose. Derek Thompson

Last human, online. Then instant message. Derek Thompson

Congratulations! I blanch, knowing I’m impotent. Derek Thompson

‘Oh for goodness sake, Mother, he’s a famous lepidopterist, he identified hundreds of species of moth when he was working in the Amazonian basin, he… Oh hell!’ Sally stood in the telephone box… Read More →

‘Christ, what was that?’ Frank doesn’t answer but turns over, pulling the duvet with him. I roll out of bed and peek through the blinds. ‘Sounded like a car back firing.’ ‘Not on… Read More →

‘Jesus … what the hell’s she got on?’ John looks round, then whispers, ‘She’s done a Jordan!’ The hotel’s not my idea of a wedding venue. I can still smell this morning’s bacon,… Read More →

The air is warm, for the first time this year. The sun is shining. He pauses and she realises he has led her to the kitchen shop. Like a bower bird outside his… Read More →

Ramses the First stared out the palace window, surveying the vast flat desert plain in the distance where his mausoleum was going to be. The sandy site was huge, stretching as far as… Read More →

He pretended not to look and I pretended not to see. Yet we both knew he was looking at her as she sauntered straight out the pages of a magazine and down the… Read More →

10:05 am, Walcot Street. The Christmas decorations are dangling and pointless in January daylight. She waits for him at the bottom of the steps. A thin band of ice contracts around her chest.… Read More →

His betrayer he never knew. The radio and explosives were quickly found. But neither stone-faced men in grey nor the terror of interrogation could break him; he breathed no word. Blindfolded, he sensed… Read More →

Jo had never told a soul that she had been terrified of wooden bridges, for as long as she could remember. It was the thought of wood splintering. She was scared of water;… Read More →

‘I think part of your problem, Steven, is that, on some levels, you don’t want to change.’ ‘That’s ridiculous. I have to. People expect me to.’ ‘Ah ah ah! Now, what did we… Read More →

‘Good morning, sir. Can I help?’ ‘I wish to buy lucky pants. Girl I chat in bar yesterday say “no” when I ask… you know. She laugh and say Dmitri not wearing lucky… Read More →

She wasn’t thinking of him lying in his plastic, hospital cot, sucking on his fists. From the window the rooftops had glittered in the January frost; New Year, New Millennium, New Baby. She… Read More →

On her hundred and first birthday she said, ‘I was the first actor to speak in a talkie, you know,’ and, ‘Boris Karloff, what a sweet man.’ ‘I want a dog,’ said her… Read More →

Wendy our water buffalo is blue. You never saw such a sad-looking creature, eyes as mournful as a plaster Madonna. We brought her from Romania. There’s plenty of rain here in West Wales,… Read More →

I am his peach. I sit, taut, watching him smile as he walks the length of day, and when the light is orange, he comes, swooping in with the promise of plates and… Read More →