Star and Crescent: News for and by the people of Portsmouth
  • HOME
  • NEWS
  • POLITICS
    • WANTED: PORTSMOUTH SATIRISTS
  • SOCIAL ISSUES
  • CULTURE
    • REVIEWS
    • POETRY
      • POETRY SUBMISSIONS
    • FICTION
  • HISTORY
  • EVENTS
  • ABOUT US
    • Contributors
    • Privacy Policy
    • Terms and Conditions
    • Corrections and Complaints
    • Comments Policy
  • YOUNG PEOPLE’S VOICES
Latest
  • [ 9th April 2026 ] Planetbuilding Blues: Space and Time Projects News
  • [ 9th April 2026 ] ‘I have to figure out a way to make it work,’ – New Portsmouth restaurant owner reflects on challenges, hopes and ambitions Social Issues
  • [ 27th March 2026 ] Pompey Climate Choir Protests Outside Barclays Bank News
  • [ 27th March 2026 ] Portsmouth Event Unites Community on the Climate Emergency News
  • [ 21st March 2026 ] Local Author to Publish Book on ‘Travel Anxiety’ Culture
HomePens of the Earth

Pens of the Earth

Fiction

Pens of the Earth: A Year of Lily’s Sunflowers

15th November 2019

By Annie Kirby On her sixteenth birthday, Lily Shah opens her front door and stands at the top of the steps leading down to the street. She can’t remember the last time she felt brave [… read more ]

Fiction

Pens of the Earth: A Celebration

14th November 2019

By Richard Salsbury She could go down to Canoe Lake, or sit on the esplanade with views all the way out to the Isle of Wight and the sounds of the swashing of the sea. [… read more ]

Fiction

Pens of the Earth: Walk of Shame

13th November 2019

By Helen Salsbury Day 1 That first day, he’s still half asleep. It’s raining, and he plods from lamppost to lamppost – nicotine light and dirty grey pavements – as fast as his banjaxed knee [… read more ]

Social Issues

Streets for People: How We Can Solve the Climate Crisis

12th November 2019

Our society faces some profound challenges, argues Megan Howson of Portsmouth Friends of the Earth. Climate breakdown is the major issue now but there are also other pressing issues such as poor air quality, obesity, [… read more ]

Fiction

Pens of the Earth: The Street Party

12th November 2019

By Christine Lawrence I’ve lived here for fifty years, brought my dear wife back here after we wed, watched children grow up and leave, saw them come back with their own little ones to visit [… read more ]

Social Issues

Pens of the Earth: Streets for People

11th November 2019

At Pens of the Earth’s launch night Helen Salsbury talked about rethinking the way our streets are used, and not just assuming they should exist for motorised traffic. Reclaiming streets for people can have an [… read more ]

Social Issues

Pens of the Earth: Trees and the City

1st November 2019

November sees the start of tree planting season, and the culmination of the Woodland Trust’s ‘Big Climate Fightback’ campaign which encourages everyone to pledge to plant a tree. But what might this mean in Portsmouth? [… read more ]

Fiction

Pens of the Earth: Drowning, Not Waving

31st October 2019

By “SC” She was meandering along the shore between water and strand line – the littoral, the Queen’s land. The beauty of the evening bypassed her, eyes at her feet, not the horizon. I wouldn’t [… read more ]

Poetry

Pens of the Earth: Southsea but Plastic-free

30th October 2019

by Alison Habens When the archaeologists of the future find the layers of flip-flop yoghurt pots our people left behind will they wonder what we wanted, how we got it, who we knew suntan bottle, [… read more ]

Fiction

Pens of the Earth: Fish of the Sea

30th October 2019

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 ]

Posts pagination

« 1 … 5 6 7 »

Latest News

News

Planetbuilding Blues: Space and Time Projects

9th April 2026

  Writer and planetary modeller David Angus details his latest projects, including Time Travel (and Dinosaurs) in Gosport. I’ve worked a lot on Jupiter’s moons, as you do. Callisto has already been mentioned in earlier [… read more ]

News

Pompey Climate Choir Protests Outside Barclays Bank

27th March 2026

Portsmouth Climate Choir performed their song ‘We’re Gonna Switch Our Bank’ outside Barclays in Portsmouth in collaboration with PSC and Trans Pride Portsmouth. Viola Langley reports. Members of Portsmouth Climate Choir sang a rousing rendition [… read more ]

News

Portsmouth Event Unites Community on the Climate Emergency

27th March 2026

Inflation. High food and energy bills. Food banks. War. Genocide. We live in dark times, but a glimmer of hope can be found through spirit and community. On a chilly but sublime Thursday evening in [… read more ]

News

‘The DWP Saved £180 Billion and They Can’t Pay Us £10 Billion’: Portsmouth WASPI Women Protest Pension Injustice

17th March 2026

The Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI) is a campaign group advocating for compensation from the Department for Work and Pensions for its failure to properly inform women of increases to their state pension age. [… read more ]

News

Portsmouth-based Palestinian Student and Family in Need of Financial Help

2nd February 2026

Abedelraheem Hamad is a talented Chevening scholar who was evacuated from Gaza by the British government to study for a Masters in Crisis and Disaster Management at the University of Portsmouth in September 2025. Over [… read more ]

Show Your Love!

Follow on Facebook

Stay connected

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram

About Star & Crescent

We are an independent news website written for and by the people of Portsmouth. We believe in journalism to create social change. Read more about us here.
Image show logo for Indie News Week, reading "Help Indie News Thrive: No news is bad news.
Pages
  • About Us
  • Contributors
  • Join the S&C Contributors
  • Be a Co-Editor
  • Wanted: Portsmouth Satirists
  • Poetry Submissions
  • Comments Policy
  • Donate
Categories
  • News
  • Politics
  • Social Issues
  • Editorials
  • Events
  • Culture
  • Reviews
  • Fiction
  • Poetry
  • Memoir
  • History
Popular on Star & Crescent
  • Is Austerity Bad For Portsmouth’s Mental Health?
    13th February 2017
  • Dear Anti-Abortion Protesters: An Open Letter to 40 Days For Life
    5th October 2017
  • The Rubbish State of Recycling in Portsmouth
    22nd February 2018
  • David Bowie: From South London to Heaven, Stopping at Southsea
    11th January 2016
  • Preventing Crime, Not Picking Up The Pieces: An Interview with Simon Hayes
    3rd May 2016
Find out how to report corrections and make a complaint here.
Star & Crescent is regulated by IMPRESS: The Independent Monitor for the Press CIC.

Copyright © 2017 - 2020 | Star & Crescent | All Rights Reserved