Robert Garnham

      Even better than the real thing You invited me to your flat. You looked ever so pleased with yourself. Your flat was a part of an older building near the park which had a beautiful lake in the middle of it, you wouldn’t think that we were in...

Paul Attwell

      Chablis in Pyjamas Order placed, we counted from four weeks ‘til the eve before. Excited, we planned our seven-day lay in. Then it came. Memory foam and micro pockets plus the base. Bliss! We dressed it in white Egyptian cotton And placed padded...

Melanie Branton

      Going South To Morden There’s a doll’s house-sized grief when I read a book and add a character to my list of favourite names, then remember that I’ll never need it now. I’m as eggless as a vegan cooked breakfast, I’m a photocopier out of toner,...

Gill Lambert

      Peach For Anne Boleyn My velvet skin turns gold to blush. He waits till just before my flesh turns sour, falls, reveals the stone beneath. He rips each layer with his teeth and I can feel him tasting me, licking round the edges so he doesn’t waste...

Imogen Forster

      Crocodile in the Underground A skein of children in neatly matched pairs, name-tagged, wearing luminous baldrics and carrying shiny identical satchels, tittup side by side behind their class teacher, overseen by a motherly rearguard. A lag-behind...

Rowan Lyster

      Weatherproof In the weeks before the windows arrive from northern Norway, where they really understand triple glazing, the house is porous. Puddles form and evaporate on the flagstones, laundry is trailed straight through casements, clouds are...