Stories

Five travellers in a small Ford travelled across the Ardennes. The Hautes Fagnes. The High Fens. The fifth traveller, strapped in a car seat, cried with hu ...More

She chewed her biro, and read the evaluation form. “On a scale of one to five, five being highest, how much did you enjoy this activity?” One. “On a sca ...More

because of their size they gather crystals and clouds sharp and sparse collections of sun-catchers until that first nasty week in June then they l ...More

Jerry and his friend, Ross, were playing in Jerry’s sandpit. Charlie appeared. “What are you playing?” Charlie asked Jerry. “Planes.” Jerry ...More

The car drove up the highway, the inside temperature was like 1000 degrees. .             “Mum ….” came the nagging voice of my bratt ...More

“Book Lovers” by Adrian Tomine (2008) By Tom Gauld (2014) By Tomine (2007) By Arthur Getz (1957) By Arthur Getz (1962) “The ...More

I was two years old when I got my first bike It was better than your little trike We found it in the bushes My dad fixed it up for me He welded it back t ...More

Once I was riding on a weekend group ride. We were strung out along a straight, flat stretch of road. It occurred to me that the cyclists ahead ...More

When Ronald McGourvey and his family of shape shifters caught the 47 to Scarborough, nobody noticed. Timothy McGourvey had perfected becoming nitrogen-f ...More

Another bullet hissed over the dump. Ricky missed the seagull by a mile. He reckoned he shot good, considering the gun was tall as him. Jem wasn’t all ...More

Oh bicycle, Oh bicycle, I shall call you Amelia. Amelia, Amelia, I love you so. You carry me around. Amelia, Amelia, Riding you is divine. You are the r ...More

Being the middle child of five girls and three boys in 1940’s and 50’s in my native Ireland, I never had the chance to actually own a bicycle in ...More

The baby’s finally asleep.  The father is home from work. I haven’t been alone in days. This is it…. “She’s asleep”…”I’m just ...More

Hermione’s pockets may contain Pickled cockroaches, eel brain A collapsible telescope, brand new Flame in a jar, shines bright blue Socks for Do ...More

“And the prize for the bravest pirate goes to …” Greybeard, the oldest of all the pirates, held up a piece of paper and waved it around dramatica ...More

Pull-my-Finger the Giant only had one joke, probably like your dad or grandad. But he was very fond of it and he told it as often as he could. This ...More

The man finds the boy in a drainpipe and when he asks him what are you doing in there? the boy looks at him as if he should already know and says I’m loo ...More

A woman and a child in a boat. Her child, and her other child, and her other. Her three children. And one life jacket. She puts it on her youngest but her youn ...More

I never touched the gorilla, I say. I got better things to do. Then the park ranger plonks his canvas bag on the table and pulls out a tranquiliser ...More

His hatred of cordyline australis was spawned in his ancestry. When the council planted them along the coastal path he couldn’t sleep, so strong was his loat ...More

The dragonfly’s eyes are made up of multiple hexagons. Inside each hexagon is a black and white picture of my face. I’ve printed the photos from my files an ...More

My Granddad is a strange old man. He is cheeky, but yet, so serious, like a monkey, a very old monkey. A very old monkey who can’t climb, and w ...More

I went to London, once. I’d never seen snow before and on the first night it came spinning through the light of the streetlamps. I’d fallen for a guy ...More

Find the hidden sequence of words: the first letter of each makes the puzzle answer. e.g. he offers trust = HOT Sometimes fresh air feels like wak ...More

Help us build a map! We are mapping real places in New Zealand mentioned in books. Rivers, mountains, towns and cities, famous buildings and monume ...More

Trailing my clackity clack bumblebee Golly in the other hand, I follow the tall back of my Dad down the garden path. Full of questions, I shadow him into ...More

On Monday night I dream about Charlie Brown. He stands at the window watching Snoopy sleep on top of his kennel. Snoopy’s little tummy moves up and down as he ...More

I ate my brother. I was always fond of him, looked up to him. He was older than me. I measured myself against him. We stood back to back. At first I only came ...More

Google maps you take me though the underpass fast on my bike in the night my lights flash on the shapes of down and outs the louts, layabouts who sho ...More

It’s what I could do to help Fleur out. Family is family. The last Friday each month, we’d drive into the city from opposite directions, and in the mo ...More