Bren

A question of perception

After, naked, panting; towelling stinging sweat from our eyelids, we stepped outside through the open French windows into the still-warm August night. A quick sideways glance: he as relieved as I to no longer be the focus of intense female attention. Relieved it had ended – honourably? Yes. That could honestly be said.…[Read more]

Byrd

‘Somewhat overshadowed by Tallis.’

‘Sorry?’

Janet looked up from the score at Penrose who was holding his copy at arm’s length. His other hand grasped his lapel as though he was striking the pose of some learned patrician. Probably just what he was doing, she thought. She felt a twinge of guilt, but also resignation. If only he hadn’t in…[Read more]

Well done all, especially Raine. I thought it was a bit special.

Congratulations Raine – so uncomfortably vivid! – and to all of you who managed to fight down an adversary, real or fictitious. And thank you Knicks for competition and comments.

Doug

I could be expelled, or even stuck in a young-offenders institution, but, honestly, I can’t see how they’ll ever pin it on me.

Doug isn’t a nice kid. At ten, he’s the spitting image of his dad; spitting being the operative word. He’s well on his way to being as big as him, too. Which is big.

Doug hates all the other kids at school.…[Read more]

Not exactly ‘Overcoming Adversary’

Truth is, I can’t think of anything big enough in my life to count as ‘adversity’. (If it was big, I either ignored, walked painlessly around, or didn’t even notice it.
So I’m giving you, ‘My writing journey‘, which is as close as I can get.

If we’re talking about ‘proper’ conscious writing; wanting to set d…[Read more]

Knicks, you very closely echo my thoughts about participation in the comps (and in the Den as a whole, to be honest, despite Ath’s striving to make it a more use-friendly site) but I think the answer IS just to press on with setting one – if we join the non-participants, they have us beat.
And yes, I do know how Life leaches away time, am well…[Read more]

I should spend less time on the test site and more here. Cracking story, Knicks. Well done. Thanks for the competition, Sandra. I found it tough but fun.

December destined to be a quiet month, I suppose, and very few of you seemed to have suffered from the prurient curiosity about the activities of Jack and Jill’s activities I did, Nevertheless the two entries submitted were a pleasure.
Ath’s trawl through several nursery rhymes returned me to childhood, browsing through books illustrated by the…[Read more]

Just realised deadline is today – I’ll be back ASAP to read and muse over a decision.

I did actually consider putting in something about rationing, but decided that I’d make my point more vividly by keeping it simple and sticking to one issue.

Rather more distressing than your neighbour, I had an e-mail argument a few months back with my oldest friend (I haven’t seen him for a couple of years, and perhaps it’s just as well), who…[Read more]

Also “An IOPC spokesperson told PA Media: “We can confirm that on 17 December we received a referral from the Metropolitan police service [MPS] of a complaint about an alleged party at Downing Street in December 2020.

“Having fully assessed the referral we have decided it is invalid and we have returned it to the MPS to handle as it det…[Read more]

Absolutely!

I do not like wearing a mask when I go shopping, but it is a tiny hardship compared with, say, passing on the virus if I unknowingly had it, to somebody else. I’m so tired of hearing people, my neighbour for instance, declaring that he will “never” wear one in a shop because he’ll “never catch it that way”. He’s a tree surgeon and…[Read more]