Last weekend, we opened the doors to the new ACL Harlow and Library, welcoming residents into our exciting new facilities and learning environments. We were joined by Rt Hon Robert Halfon, MP for Harlow, and Councillor Tony Ball, Essex County Council’s Cabinet Member for Education Excellence, Lifelong Learning and Employability, as well as local Councillors,…
Long before blinking at the first glows of early morning light, he was already attuned to the sounds of the burgeoning island dawn. Blackbirds, robins, dunnocks and song thrushes had gathered as though re-forming an experienced choir for another perfect performance of their a cappella rendition of the new day’s anthem. If there was a…
Marianna eyes her guest carefully. Paul’s hair is curled and pulled into a ponytail and her lips, almost permanently pursed, are blood-red. Her face, as always, is flawless, and her bored, unblinking eyes are bordered by thick, tarantula lashes. Her expression is of indifference. It always is. Marianna knows Paula doesn’t like having Thanksgiving here,…
There I was at Fenchurch Street station, 7 p.m. as agreed, top of the escalators. And there he wasn’t. It had seemed a good idea at the time. His on line ad had sounded just the job: Tall, dark and handsome? Not me. Not that tall, more mouse than dark, and not that handsome. But…
Tar stirred. The dream had not yet left him entirely. Slowly, element by element, the world dissolved into its bleached palate of cold reality. First to go were the voices. Had there been words or only notions? Sensations felt beyond fingertips, ideas concrete as a crumbling arch. Next the faces, now featureless as a cloud…
Is that spinach in her teeth? I squint, looking closer when I realise she’s glaring at me. I panic, look down. I’ve read somewhere that you should never look a predator in the eye. Don’t poke the bear or something. Bears. Why am I thinking about bears? Concentrate. I squirm uncomfortably in my chair, trying…
The muscari bobbed in the breeze and the daffodils nodded as if approving of the child. All around the meadow a wind was whipping up as the sun gently made its way upwards in the sky, observing. He started to walk deliberately around the stones he’d placed in a circle. Slowly at first, then faster…
They met in Pizza Hut, or more specifically just outside the toilet. The shopping centre management, following government guidelines, had marked up which direction to walk. She began to walk the wrong way and someone shouted ‘follow the arrows love!’ Dorothea became confused about which way to go. She didn’t know whether to go back…
It wasn’t spiritual – Saul on the road to Damascus, St. Eustace and the gleaming cross of the hart in the wood. Nor scientific – Archimedes “Eureka” as his marble bathtub filled to the brim; Newton’s “ouch” as a falling ripe red ‘Ribston Pippin’ crowned him. I stood, awkwardly, facing Debbie Coutts; she was dressed…
They’d often see him gazing at his own reflection, minutes at a time spent in front of the mirror. It seemed to make him happy, alive. Awake. He didn’t have much happiness left in his life anymore. He smiled back at his youthful face, the strong jawline clothed in a thick, dark goatee. His eyes…