Fiction
All Aboard
By Sue Harper Sarah had signed up to go on a 10-day cruise. She had great misgivings about it: she might be stuck in a floating gin palace with intolerable bores, she might have a [… read more ]
fiction
Fiction
Wolf Moon: The Ranulph Fables Episode 3
By Anne Paton-Cragg The story so far New to Portsmouth, Ranulph the wolf has found lodgings with feisty fox Trixie, and the two of them have set up a stall selling “wild food wraps” on [… read more ]
Fiction
Wolf Moon: The Ranulph Fables Episode 2
by Anne Paton-Cragg The story so far A disappointing experience with rascally fox Tod has taught our hero Ranulph the need for circumspection. That doesn’t dissuade him from lodging with Tod’s feisty sister, Trixie. In [… read more ]
Fiction
Wolf Moon: The Ranulph Fables Episode 1
by Anne Paton-Cragg Introduction to Wolf Moon: The Ranulph Fables This is the first of six stories about a wolf called Ranulph, newly arrived in Portsmouth. Against the wishes of his mother and uncle, Ranulph [… read more ]
Fiction
Emily: A Portsmouth Story of Mental Health in the Great War
We present the opening chapter of Emily, Christine Lawrence‘s novel set in the Portsmouth Borough Asylum in the latter years of World War I. Based on real-life stories and events from the time, it was [… read more ]
Fiction
The Haircut
By Anne Paton-Cragg ‘If you book the middle seats we’ll be able to see the subtitles better,’ Fiona suggested. Subtitles? Singaporeans were always hopping between languages and dialects. English, the medium of education, was a [… read more ]
Fiction
Billy was a Socialist
By Pete Adams Silly Billy Was Billy silly? Billy felt silly. He believed he was a socialist and a committed anti-racist and was now being called an anti-Semite because the Labour Party said so – [… read more ]
Culture
Portsmouth Bookfest Interview with Christine Lawrence, Author of Don’t Step on the Cracks
Helen Salsbury interviews author and S&C regular contributor Christine Lawrence about her latest novel, a psychological thriller set in the homeless community in Fareham. Helen Salsbury (HS): Why did you write Don’t Step on the [… read more ]
Culture
Portsmouth Bookfest Interview with Helen Salsbury, author of Sometimes When I Sleep
Loree Westron interviews author and S&C Community Reporter Helen Salsbury about her debut novel, a contemporary coming-of-age story influenced by Victorian Gothic literature. Loree Westron (LW): I’ve known you for a number of years, Helen, [… read more ]
Fiction
Maybe Margate: A Story of Refugees and Humanity
In light of the recent tragedy in the English Channel, local novelist and S&C Community Reporter Helen Salsbury presents a short story reacting to the treatment of refugees and asylum seekers in this country. It [… read more ]