Diversions

Hot off the press, two terrific anthologies, in each of which I am delighted to have a story. Story Cities from Arachne Press (order...

China’s pioneering Chang'e-4 lander finds lorry-carrying ship in deserted moon crater 'Ramsgate'. Finding made by UK Department of...

We were homeward bound one night on the deep Swinging in my hammock I fell asleep, I dreamed a dream and I thought it true Concerning...

I inadvertently jumped the queue at our bakery yesterday, to loud complaints. ‘Who do you think you are, a Romanian?’ and ‘Watch it, lad,...

… hundreds of them, in front of a door at the old distillery at Frongoch, near Bala. On 7 November my shortest of short stories tells of...

I have been suspended. The shame of it. I’ve never been suspended before, not being a footballer, nurse, GP, socially awkward school...

Sir Arthur* is back from the South of France. A little sea bathing, walks in the hills of Provence and some photographs and theatre in...

They even hum a version of it in the Home Office, so I’m told by my ever-reliable contact Blame the Germans, blame the French, Blame the...

‘You used to be a researcher, didn’t you, Dave?’ Sidney had come round at the end of last week to settle our bet from Christmas re the...

The 100 stories in the Imperial War Museums' series commemorating the end of the First World War are in a new form, a centena: 100 words...

Interesting folk, photographers, when you can pin them down. You look at old family photos, and pick out your father’s Auntie Nellie and...

My chum Arthur (Sir Arthur Whatnot) is mightily upset. I'll tell you in a minute what's tipped him over the edge, but being the chap he...

Arthur phoned, Sir Arthur Whatnot, to tell me that he is thinking of retiring from psychiatry. ‘But what will you do, Arthur, apart from...

I warned you, didn’t I, in my scone stories, how deep the feelings ran in this vicious cream-on-first/jam-on-first argument? Now National...

Do you fancy being cloned? Last week – on 25th January – news broke that scientists in China have cloned two monkeys, bringing the...

The oceans are full of plastic. And the same in space? Well, not yet, but there's a load of rubbish up there, and one day soon we will...

‘What’s happening to the world, Dave?’ I had popped round to wish my good friend Sidney a belated Happy New Year. I hadn’t seen him since...

My friend, psychiatrist Sir Arthur Whatnot, had taken rather too much Madeira last night, and was being indiscreet. (You may remember...

My story, Flick'ring Shadows, is part of this year's Solstice Shorts festival. Some subjects for stories are riper than others. I haven’t...

The kind people at Nottingham Writers’ Studio have chosen to read my Flick’ring Shadows among a set of short stories and poems...