Fiction
The Empty Road
By Margaret Jennings Madie dressed in slouchy trousers and an old tee shirt. No work today. No work for an unknown amount of her future and she was determined to stay healthy. A walk with [… read more ]
fiction
Fiction
Dowdy Street
By Sue Shipp Dowdy – that’s what they call me. Dowdy! They can’t be bothered to give me my full name – James Dowdy Street. No. All I hear is: cut through Dowdy, turn left [… read more ]
Fiction
Compost Heap
By Sue Harper Sarah’s partner remarked: ‘I do hope someone cooks dinner.’ That seemed rather a passive-aggressive formulation, Sarah thought. Why not ask her outright? After all, she did it every single day. ‘Will you [… read more ]
Fiction
Summer Magic
By Joan Farnell With a whirring of wings the pigeon took to the air, startled by the crunching of my feet on the gravel path. It was quiet here underneath the trees in Foxes Forest. [… read more ]
Culture
Book Review: The Dark Nest by Sue Harper
S&C Arts Correspondent Paul Valentine is impressed by a funny, irreverent, macabre and inventive new book of short stories by Sue Harper, local author and Portsmouth University Emeritus Professor of Film History. If you thought [… read more ]
Fiction
The Cat Catches a Pheasant
By Christine Lawrence Standing on his hind legs, sure he’d heard a sound from the other end of the garden, he stretched his neck, sniffed the air and listened. His eyes were not his best [… read more ]
Fiction
Sky Food
By Sue Harper After the Great Blizzard, Portsmouth looked like the North Pole. Snow was six feet high in the streets, deeper where it had drifted, and little narrow walkways were excavated where people could [… read more ]
Fiction
Planting Nature – A Walk In The Woods
By Bruce Parry It’s when I went off track across a wild bit that I found a full size walnut tree…just on its own, not with others, just on its own…just there in the middle…on [… 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
Pens of the Earth: Fish of the Sea
by Eileen Phyall ‘Plastic free,’ he said scornfully. ‘Don’t be ridiculous. You’d put us back to the 1940s.’ ‘When there were no cars parked on this road and you played in the streets,’ Moira said. [… read more ]