Rendition of a Life, Transposed
People sometimes ask, for fun at a bar, or boredom on a long journey, a silly question. “Gun to the head – Lose your sight or lose your hearing?” My answer was always hearing. I can live without bad music in [...]
Audacity in Authorship
By J.B. Priestley There is one certain characteristic of contemporary literature which everyone must have remarked, but to which it is very difficult to give a name. It is straining language to call it this or that quality; yet a name [...]
The Sender by Tom Baum
He was a young man and not in his right mind. Other than that, he wasn’t sure of anything. The skin on his hands was wrinkle-free, white as no-fat milk, two heads taller than the cars rolling past, and his scratchy [...]
Letter from the Sunset Limited
December 28, 1999 L.A. Dear P_____, Here I am on a train, double-decker type, sign called Los Angeles by my window, two seats by myself, half-empty train with folks less anxious than a plane, and I've decided to write this train [...]
The Electric Jesus
Somewhere in the deepest level of Hell there is an infernal machine churning out positive affirmations, uplifting sentences, wise sayings and motivational outpourings. Serried ranks of demons then attach them to various images rendered at 72 dots per inch, including, but [...]
The Pleasure of Writing
By AA Milne Sometimes when the printer is waiting for an article which really should have been sent to him the day before, I sit at my desk and wonder if there is any possible subject in the whole world upon [...]
Under The Skin by Michel Faber
Under the Skin by Michel Faber is a novel that slipstreams science fiction, but remains in literary realms due to the author’s careful theming and character journey. His first novel, written when he was forty years old, Faber had returned from [...]
Just A Perfect Day (A Brexit Lament)
FRIDAY 15th In the dark, the sea roars. Hannah is screaming like a cut pig, and Jess is hurling the sodden sandwiches into the night. James and Sarah are looking at the carnage. James hoists the sun umbrella’s rusted enamel point [...]