David Mathews
No Pit Pony
You know the stories – or you think you do. Coal has nearly gone, bittersweet, for it needs to go, God knows, but God knows too that men...
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David Mathews
Jan 191 min read
Brambling by the railway
The lovely people at Sky Island Journal have included a piece of nonsense by me and an imagined poet resembling R S Thomas in their...
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David Mathews
Jan 111 min read
Worth the trip?
On account of a herring gull, I took train and ferry from Bath to County Wexford for an autumn night to read a short story at the...
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David Mathews
Dec 13, 20232 min read
Murmur of Discontent
'Now what’s all this about some echo, dear chap?’ said Sir Arthur, pouring me a glass of something cold, bone dry and grassy. On the...
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David Mathews
Sep 21, 20232 min read
A touching story
I don’t mind a hand on my arm, as such. I’m not averse to touch, happy to feel a bare hand on bare skin, in the right place at the right...
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David Mathews
Jan 11, 20231 min read
In Sputnik at Christmas ...
... Anya did not get a call from her boy Piotr in Makiivka. Nor will she ever.
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David Mathews
Jan 6, 20233 min read
Letter from Sputnik. Because life ain't simple
SNT Sputnik, Tomsk Oblast 6 January 2023 Моя дорогая Наташа, Столько неприятностей ... My dearest Natasha, So many troubles. Where to...
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David Mathews
Jan 2, 20232 min read
Sir Arthur writes to Putin: please die
There was a time when I hoped to have a short story published in Russian. Why? In admiration of Chekhov. One of my scone stories would...
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David Mathews
Oct 3, 20223 min read
Awkward for Andrei
I hadn’t seen my good friend Sidney for a long while, what with one thing and another. But last evening there he was, on my doorstep...
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David Mathews
Jun 10, 20224 min read
In Praise of Scones
Off to Story Saturday at Clifton Library tomorrow with the excellent Claire Reddaway and Elaine Miles. I'm reading a story about a long,...
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David Mathews
Apr 22, 20221 min read
You can't have too many poems about hippos
I'm reading my poem 'Hippopotamus Cambrensis' at Caffi Soar in Merthyr Tydfil tomorrow, 23 April at 2pm. It’s a launch for Arachne...
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David Mathews
Mar 23, 20221 min read
More Fish Tales
In Welsh it is Môr Hafren, but old salts from England are very proprietorial and insist we call it the Bristol Channel. When we were...
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David Mathews
Jul 27, 20203 min read
The Columnist Manifesto
Sir Arthur’s grandchildren have been entertaining him. He’s getting over the pulled muscle from trying to follow the online fitness guru...
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David Mathews
Jun 17, 20203 min read
Priti Patel, Primo Levi and my dodgy hip
I walked last Saturday morning along the path of the old Somerset and Dorset Railway. At one point I turned sharply to chat to a cheery...
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David Mathews
Jun 6, 20201 min read
Casting with W.B. Yeats
O yes, ‘tis a great year for the trout. A friend driving through France observed that insects are thriving this year. Now, to what...
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David Mathews
May 2, 20203 min read
Don't Mix with Metaphors
‘It won’t do, dear boy. You can’t write “a mountain of a project took off”. It won’t do.’ I had asked Arthur to look over an essay I am...
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David Mathews
May 2, 20201 min read
'Every Donation Counts' read by Eamonn Fleming
Frank sleeps here and there, sometimes in the night shelter. You’ll recognise him around town by the bright new laces in his boots, but...
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David Mathews
Apr 1, 20202 min read
Arthur has a cough
No temperature, you will be glad to hear, and he is at chez Whatnot anyway, having laid in a store of decent claret, cheese and...
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David Mathews
Apr 1, 20201 min read
Cecile Joan Charrot
A friend died last week. We hadn't seen her for years, which might seem remiss on our part, but these things happen. She was still a...
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David Mathews
Mar 29, 20202 min read
On the oche
'Fancy a game of darts, Dave?’ Sidney had phoned, sounding rather chipper. Darts? Had my old buddy missed a couple of government...
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