Arts
The Swaling, Part One
I began to obsess about Mr Reginald Stein on the evening that a party guest, a Mr Hong Gildong, tried to read Mr Stein’s Turkish rug. My wife thought him ill. Our student maid, Rose, [more…]
Mystery
Fiction
The Rendezvous
It had been dicey over the Big City. The flak had been murderous on the run-in and the radar predicted, master searchlights seemed to have had an unnerving accuracy that night. You could tell the [more…]
Fiction
Némésis – Part 7
Ash Shaddadi, the Syrian Governorate of Al Hasakha, December 2017 When Major Halward woke up the following morning there was frost on his sleeping bag. It was still dark while he pulled on his boots, [more…]
Fiction
Némésis – Part 6
Ash Shaddadi, the Syrian Governorate of Al Hasakha, December 2017 They crossed the Kahbur River about five kilometres south of Ash Shaddadi at 08:45 the next morning. Ripley had picked up on the mood of [more…]
Fiction
Némésis Part 5
Northern Iraq and the Syrian Governorate of Al Hasakha, December 2017 Ripley lay in the tarpaulin hammock, underneath an overhead poncho they had used to keep the sun out of her eyes. They were sensitive [more…]
Literature
A hell of a commute
This is a tale of what was once my daily commute for a few months during the 70s. Admittedly, not one of the Mogadishu Express to Kings Cross or the hell of the M25 car [more…]
Authoritarianism
From Draft to Bookshop – A Journey
Almost two years ago this weekend my wife and I, rather nervously, drove into a small Devon village on our way to visit a family that I had only met through Going Postal but who [more…]
Fiction
Joe Malone, Part Twenty
“Is that the letter?” Lady Vanessa asked him. She had been very quiet. But suddenly sat forwards and peered at the envelope. To Sir Marmon-Herrington Bixby esq. Which was normal enough. Though the word, WANKPUPPET [more…]
Fiction
Joe Malone, Part Nineteen
Sir Alan agreed with Mandelson. “Marmon has a file full of metaphorical green ink letters. All sorts of evil wished upon him.” “I didn’t see any such file in his home,” I told them. “That’s [more…]