Fiction
A Sliver of Life
By Sue Shipp We’d just sat down from our labours when Old Roy appeared on the grass path running between the allotments, eating a nectarine, the other hand hidden behind his back. He slopped along [… read more ]
Fiction
Fiction
Socks
By Helen Salsbury ‘This Christmas,’ his daughter Keira said, ‘we want to get you something special. Not just socks.’ Outside, blood-red leaves were gathering in the concrete corners of the courtyard, swept off early in [… read more ]
Fiction
Better Shape
By Richard Salsbury As I strode past the orchard on Cornwallis Crescent I realised that the tingling in my hands and feet wasn’t going to disappear after a bit of exercise. I was on my [… read more ]
Fiction
FIRE AND BLOOD
By Wendy Metcalfe This morning will be my last meeting with Arthur. Arthur isn’t a man. I’ve had enough of them to last me a lifetime. Arthur is a tree. He’s a young, slender oak, [… read more ]
Fiction
Distinctly Native: I’m going to fight a seagull
Writer and blogger Nigel Horatio Norbit-Nelson claims to be ‘Portsmouth’s only true citizen’ for the sole reason that he was born here in the mid-80s and has never left Portsea Island since. As part of [… read more ]
Fiction
After the Storm
by ‘SC’ All Souls’ Day, approaching dusk. Park regulars nodded greetings as their dogs sniffed around each other. Claire would probably have recognised some of them, perhaps on smiling, chatting or patting terms. Maybe even [… read more ]
Fiction
A Brexit Timeline
By an anonymous contributor. Jul 2016: Britain holds a referendum, the result of which is to tell the EU to sod off. Dec 2020: Britain leaves the EU without a deal. Downing Street accuses the [… read more ]
Fiction
Lying in the Middle of the Road Through the Centre Ground: Brexity Dinosaurs
Born in Portsmouth but brought up above what later became the Granita restaurant in Islington, Marcus Median was one of the architects of New Labour. Elected as MP for Milton Park South-North-West in 1997, he [… read more ]
Fiction
Pens of the Earth: Portsmouth 2030
By Chris Walsh ‘It would have to happen to me, wouldn’t it?’ she sighed, plonking her smartphone on the table, its display cracked completely. ‘Vicki, careful!’ replied her mother. ‘You’ll scratch the varnish!’ ‘It’s Victoria, [… read more ]
Fiction
Pens of the Earth: The Future of Fashion
By Linda L. Hillborne Jacinta flicked through the clothes rail in the unconventional little boutique, which stood on the corner of Osborne Road in Southsea. A memory blinked across her mind. ‘Make do and mend,’ [… read more ]