It’s past one when I find her. I’ve been to midnight mass and, by the time the priest wished everyone a merry Christmas, it had started to snow. I nip out the back to collect my cardboard box and sleeping bag from behind one of the new gravestones, and that’s when I see her, pale […]
Category: Short Stories and Flash Fiction
Deep Pockets
‘Mother, why do we have to get up in the dark?’ my daughter whispered. I had warned her to be a mouse, to creep and stay silent. We didn’t want to be caught by the Witchmaster. I wore my skirt with deep pockets and filled them with bread, cheese and sachets of my special herbs […]
Voice
I close the cottage door with a soft click and turn onto the road that leads past cottages and bungalows. The smell of hot earth and sun-scorched hay stubble settles over the village’s fields and lanes, where wilting scarlet poppies congregate. Before the small hump-backed bridge, I turn right, feel prickles of dry grass through […]
The Quiver of Wings
A dull thud, the blue tit drops to the patio, and Anna hastens to open the French door before lazy cat George thinks a snack has dropped from heaven. She cradles the tiny, feathery body in her bare hands. No heartbeat. But a glimmer of sky is reflected in the jet of its eye. Anna’s […]
Ogden’s Extraordinary Emporium Episode 2
We waited until our evening meal was over, when Miss Pecksniff nodded off by the fireplace in her room, and then, warmly dressed in our outdoor clothes, left by the servants’ entrance. I locked the door and placed the key in my reticule. Bella and I clasped gloved hands and set off through wisps of […]
Ogden’s Extraordinary Emporium Episode 1
A sheet of printed paper landed at our feet, swept along with the autumn leaves by our governess’s skirt. Isabella – she preferred Bella – picked it up and read: ‘OGDEN’S EXTRAORDINARY EMPORIUM – ONE NIGHT ONLY’. The spidery black words filled us with anticipation. The address was not far from the house where we […]
Snow Globe Episode 11
Rosanna found a job editing with a British publisher and worked mainly from home. Mrs Allen stayed on and they became close friends, feeding off each other’s stories about Will. Sabrina visited every day and encouraged Rosanna to accompany her to coffee mornings with a group of friends, and soon she felt ready to tackle […]
Snow Globe Episode 10
The house was eerily quiet, except for the faint clatter of cups and plates as Mrs Allen set the table in the kitchen. It was warmer and cosier there, full of the love and sympathy of the only people who seemed to care about her. She did not make it to the undertaker’s; she broke […]
Singing in Space
Earth has been dead for a century, and all humans with it. Or so we believe. All that is left of the final expedition is our colony of souls on Mars. Only mouths are we. Who sings the distant heart which safely exists in the centre of all things? That is the question we ask […]
Snow Globe Episode 9
It was Mitch who booked her flight, packed her bags, and drove her to the airport. He arranged for Sabrina to collect her at Heathrow and promised to call every day. He organised a flight attendant to accompany her on the plane, and the kindly woman ensured that Rosanna ate and drank, and that she […]
writing in north norfolk 