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by Dan Cross   Almost all eyes were facing forwards. My wife was on the stage. Her white skirt trembled in the draft of the old theatre. Her bare feet were flat against floorboards. She pulled her stocking-covered legs into her chest and rested her forehead against the tops of her knees. A ...

by H. B. O'Neil   All families have traditions on Christmas Day, I assume so at least. Ours has always been Church-Graveyard-Pub-Home-Queen’s Speech-Dinner-Puddings-After Eight Mints-Sofa-Doctor Who-Tubs of Chocolate-Mince Pies-Sherry-Irish Coffee and Zzzzzs. All pleasant, predictable, calm and cosy enough. I certainly wasn’t expecting anything different this year. The turkey had arrived in a ...

by C H Clepitt & Claire Buss   READ PART ONE HERE   “Oh, go on then!” Fiona reached into the bag, unfolded a piece of paper and laughed.  “Oh, Bill.  Showing your academic roots with this one.  Everyone ready?” They all muttered agreement and she began.  “The fellow made his living by the ...

by C H Clepitt & Claire Buss   It was said that it was the death of his wife that made Michael McAllister hate the badgers. Her passing, complications from emphysema, cast a bleak cloud over Greenwood Farm. She was the one who used to care for the animals, not just the ...

by Anita Belli   I awake full of the joys of spring until I realise it is Monday. I rush to the bathroom and throw up. It goes downhill from there, really. Run to Camden tube. Jump on first train along with hundreds of stressed commuters, then realise: right direction; wrong branch. Change ...

by Lynda Shepherd   “You can't sit indoors all day staring at a screen.” I can hear my son from three houses away; the battle, it appears, rages on. He told me he was tearing his hair out. “All she does is hang about the house, glued to her phone, listening to music or ...