‘Amo, amare, amavi, amatus’ The TV screen is grainy. The school collars and accents starched and restrained. The colour absent. They watch the old new clip with ill-concealed shock. ‘See that, Lily? You could have had to learn Latin by rote. If you didn’t parrot everything out, you got the cane.’ Lily squints at the screen. ‘Where are the girls?’ ‘Hmph. Good point. Anyway get your nutrition assignment done before dinner. Easier than Latin at least.’ Lily raises an

The tour bus continued to trundle down the forest road. The tour guide continued to trundle through his spiel. 'Of course,' continued...

We met in July, got engaged in August and moved in together in October. We knew we were perfect together, fitted hand in glove. Two birds...

‘I want to be one’ Tommy blubbed. ‘I want to be a big one, a bright one. One with a big tail and bright wings,’ he sniffled, whipping snot over the back of his hand. ‘Mummy let me be one, I wanna I wanna,’ jumping up and down on the spot so mummy’s tea and cucumber sandwiches bounced on the plate and sloshed into the saucer all at once. Mummy tried to push the white triangles back together, rescuing one of them from its soggy saucer resting plate. ‘Mummy mummy pleeeease’

“Dance, lance, prance, France.” “What ARE you on about?” “Chance, trance, glance…” “Gibberish! Pure. Utter. Gibberish.” “Crance, hance,...

The boys grew up in Germany in a small donut-shaped village on the windiest peninsular in the world. The wind got up each morning before...

France once Left now turning Right gutter ideals sewer mentality growing nasty children thank you family Le Pen we have to encompass the...

Unfortunately, “France” as a prompt didn’t stimulate on its own. Enter the search engine, but I’m going to need a strange fact. What to...

Tobit France. What kind of name is that? The name my mother gave me. And the last name a bastard forebear gave himself, probably wanting...

There was a time when I used to travel a lot – I mean snails do a lot of travelling. Most people don’t know that. But, we have houses and very little luggage and food can always be gathered, and eaten on the way. It’s a lovely lifestyle. I remember once after I slithered inside a wooden crate full of yummy lettuce. I munched and munched until I fell asleep, all cosy and warm. It was a long time in that crate, but with food and dark warmth, it was lovely. I just ate and sle

The concrete kerbside is not the least uncomfortable of substances. Ahoy Sailor You are amorphous matter Sit on this concrete. Sit on...

The garden was so much better when we got home. At least, that’s what the dog would have us believe. There is now a convenient path...

Octopus’s Garden is a very shady grotto. Cedric hides in the back and nibbles on small larvae and crustaceans he has gathered this morning. He has his pipe and slippers and his favourite coral armchair, the one with the round boards so he can rock back and forth, watching the vista of the reef just outside his door/window. He has been here for many years, is well known for his poetry and short stories, and his once-a-month storytelling at all the swimmy kiddies in the area.

Worms slithering, bees buzzing and cicadas chanting. I wish I didn’t have to walk this way. I should have gone to the cinema with Gertie....

Pink, red, white, blink the rhododendrons Like the flush of sunwarmed shoulders As we clamber under the leaves into our own private fort...

Do you have a safe space, real or imagined in which to retreat when the world is crowding in, the lights too bright, or everything is...

at first luxuriant now overgrown in its time replete with a goodness that only the Earth could provide the shadow falls across the garden...

Shit. What am I going to do if this goes tits up? It’s my first proper heist with the Barnsley Boys and I have everything to prove. Got to be honest, not happy with my ‘Posh Nonce’ nickname. Anyway, the target is the new outpost of the Camden Crawler. They had the cheek to set up practically in our backyard. Can’t say as I blame the bosses for losing their shit. Why Michael had to pick me to be the main muscle I have no idea. He had an evil glint in his eye. Mind you he alw

(3 mins) She slowly crept through the slightly open window to the small room. Sitting in the dark, she spun her body and let each of her children off. One by one the 347 scurried off her long translucent body as her legs, all eight of them, spread and panted to hold both onto the frame and the cornice. (17 mins) Billy the Cart Careening down the hill his billycart started to wobble badly. The ball-bearing wheels spun and threw sparks off the gravel-embedded asphalt. ‘Oh

(3 mins) The roo stood tall in the grass. ‘This is how you pretend to be a stump,’ she told her joey. Joey could not sit still. His ears twitched. He looked over his shoulder. The human turned their head. ‘Look, kangaroos!’ ‘Way to go, Joey. Way to go.’ She leaned back on her tail. A tale of marsupial parental disappointment. (17 mins) ‘I felt I was being thrown off a cliff. It was terrible. I can’t believe they did that to me.’ ‘Really?’ He looked dismally down at