Holly Magill

      In praise of commercial radio and local taxis After you’ve flung yourself inside with your rain-soaked jacket, broken brolly half-mulched paper carrier bags, your crap clattered all over the backseat and down into the footwells where you know...

 Dave Simmons

      Excerpt from the interspecies internet, author unknown, circa 2036* My sky is a hole from which the bucket drops. Like all heretics, I am put to work processing stones. The task adds weight to our silence. Here in the half-light; a boulder rounds...

Paul Fenn

      Almost nothing To impress you, I became a seven-year-old son of Sparta. A little hard man, crayon marching down the page. Favourite colour – Grey. Favourite animal – Snake. Favourite food – Bread. Favourite drink – Water. Favourite TV show –...

Ruth Aylett

      Seven days God had been playing computer games for a chunk of eternity when he became aware he’d left creation in the oven for a long time forgotten to check what was going on in there. And that smell of burning was no coincidence he saw when he...

Chris Campbell

      The View From This Hospital Window I admire an empty bench for hours – then a glum couple sit to share strawberries. A pensive man pats his Jack Russell. Yoghurt white sky; life’s brighter now. I slurp weak coffee, push away the lunch tray, read...