David Mathews
In Sputnik at Christmas ...
... Anya did not get a call from her boy Piotr in Makiivka. Nor will she ever.
top of page
Search
David Mathews
- Jan 6
- 3 min
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...
12 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Jan 2
- 2 min
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...
12 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Oct 3, 2022
- 3 min
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...
24 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Jun 10, 2022
- 4 min
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,...
15 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Apr 22, 2022
- 1 min
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...
18 views1 comment
David Mathews
- Mar 23, 2022
- 3 min
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...
8 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Jul 27, 2020
- 3 min
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...
24 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Jun 17, 2020
- 3 min
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...
39 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Jun 6, 2020
- 1 min
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...
9 views0 comments
David Mathews
- May 2, 2020
- 3 min
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...
43 views0 comments
David Mathews
- May 2, 2020
- 1 min
'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...
3 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Apr 1, 2020
- 2 min
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...
26 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Apr 1, 2020
- 1 min
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...
40 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Mar 29, 2020
- 2 min
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...
14 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Mar 25, 2020
- 1 min
Eight legs good
Spare a thought for spiders. With all you folk isolated at home, I’m sure the brilliant sunshine, in the south, anyway, will show up a...
41 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Mar 20, 2020
- 3 min
A Ventilator of One’s Own
‘Wouldn’t it be great if we all had our own ventilators?’ I suggested this to Arthur as we Skyped at the end of the day. We were trying...
24 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Mar 15, 2020
- 2 min
Covid-19, The Delay Phase
Arthur was teasing me. ‘This is your time, old chap.’ As a serial procrastinator, I had to admit that my psychiatrist friend had me bang...
23 views0 comments
David Mathews
- Mar 3, 2020
- 1 min
Paul, where are you?
I spend an hour or so in a library from time to time, for a change of scene, to watch others nod off, pretend to work, wait for the rain...
14 views0 comments
bottom of page