Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries Ahead of them, the road lays out broad and straight. Tulips on the embankment are holding strong; clouds high and stratus smeared. Jack is driving, as he always drives, because Mary’s migraines are rare but unpredictable, and because Jack, they both know, has problems ceding control. He is […]
Fiction
Stuck in the Middle
Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries “Applying for a visa extension?” the man behind the plexiglass in the Holborn post office asks you. “Yes,” you say, slightly out of breath, clutching a crumpled letter from the Home Office. Your stomach had started churning as soon as you saw it this morning and you had […]
Incident at the Castle
Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries [Content trigger warning: suicide] There was an incident at the castle. Someone fell from the walls. Or jumped or was pushed. Jason says we must have a look. It will be so much fun. When we get there, there’s already a cordon of blue ticker tape and a […]
Mating Habits
Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries While Louie fumbles with his zip, I lay a newspaper down on the floor of the Wendy House. I can’t help but think about next week’s presentation while he does it: a conference paper on the mating habits of waterbirds in the Bering Sea, specifically their fidelity to […]
Damilola
Image: © Courtesy of Manchester City Galleries Damilola with eyes the colour of sepsis, Damilola with surname like a hieroglyph no one can decipher, Damilola with underwear on back-to-front dawns on his knees begging for virtue, naps upright from Clapham to Charing Cross, thumbs the biblethick in-tray, laughs almost. Damilola wonders whether Mrs O’Donoghue will […]