Short Story of the Month, August 2020

For the fourth in our summer lockdown series, a story of desperation. What could be more appropriate? And you know that light at the end of the tunnel? It's an oncoming train. Yes, it's being so cheerful that keeps us going. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

August 2020: Unless He Is Born Again by David Butler

“April. A figure is loitering in the vicinity of the bus station of a provincial town. He’s not the only stranger in the bus yard. There are strangers with almost every arrival and departure. There’s nothing about this man to suggest he’s a foreigner. But all the same, something in his aspect attracts suspicious looks.”

David Butler

David Butler’s third novel, City of Dis (New Island), was shortlisted for the Kerry Group Irish Novel of the Year, 2015. His second short story collection, Fugitive, is forthcoming from Arlen House.

Unless He Is Born Again was originally published in ‘No Greater Love’ by David Butler (Ward Wood, 2013)

J.M. O'Neill "The invisible man of Irish letters"

Definitely putting "Duffy is Dead" and "Open Cut" on the to-be-read list. Strong London Irish interest novels. (Ed.)

Index of contributors to Willesden Stories

The Obscure Object of Desire

We’ve added this index of all the contributors to the Willesden Herald short story book series and Story of the Month.

Counting. Over the past sixteen years, Willesden Herald has published 139 short stories by 113 writers from Bosnia, Canada, China, England, India, Ireland, Nepal, New Zealand, Nigeria, Northern Ireland, Russia, Scotland, Singapore, South Africa, USA ans Wales. 

Daunting new security fence on Wood End Road

The new fence runs north from the railway bridge

The new fence is about 100 metres long

Scary anti-climb spike wheels

A small, abandoned (?) caravan behind a gap
subsequently blocked with four huge concrete cubes

That's one seriously mean fence! It would be interesting to hear from anyone who knows what moved Harrow council or whoever (TfL?) to erect it. It's a pity that the parkland and woodland around Sudbury Hill is not open to the public, as it is owned and used exclusively on three sides by the Post Office union sports club, John Lyons School and Harrow Cricket Club. However, we do have access to Grove Farm, and part of the Capital Ring, both nearby and a little further up Greenford Road (hiking boots on) to Horsenden Hill. "Mustn't grumble!?"

Update 2022: The site is protected for work on railway sidings, which is ongoing.

Short Story of the Month, July 2020

For the next in our 2020 lockdown series, we revisit the joint-winner of our inaugural short story competition. Some of you may be running around without face or leg coverings for the allowed daily exercise but it's not compulsory, you know. Happily, we can still stay home and read short stories. (Ed)

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

July 2020: Dodie's Gift by Vanessa Gebbie

“Later, in The Tinners, they sit together in Dodie’s corner on sagging burgundy plush cushions. He has bought her a cider, he drinks beer from the bottle. They talk. Dodie is half listening, looking at the scratches through the varnish on the table…”

Vanessa Gebbie

Novelist, short story writer, poet, Vanessa Gebbie has won awards for both poetry and prose, including the Troubadour International Poetry Prize, a Bridport short story prize and a much-coveted Willesden Herald short story prize. Author of ten various books, her novel The Coward’s Tale (Bloomsbury) was a Financial Times novel of the year, and her debut poetry pamphlet was selected by the TLS as one of the best of its year. She is commissioning and contributing editor of Short Circuit, Guide to the Art of the Short Story, editions 1 and 2 (Salt). She teaches widely. 

www.vanessagebbie.com

Dodie’s Gift was first published in Words from a Glass Bubble, (Salt Publishing, 2008)

"The author of “Dodie’s Gift” cares about character. It is a beautiful piece about two people circling each other, wondering whether to make contact." (Zadie Smith – Judge’s report, 2006)

Dreams for Safe Ireland - Women in Harmony

"All funds raised go to Safe Ireland, you can check out all the great work they do on their website https://www.safeireland.ie/ [...] A huge thank you to Kevin Cassidy and his team at Document Films for the beautiful video edit."

"Collaborators: Ailbhe Reddy, Aimée, Áine Cahill, Allie Sherlock, Caroline Corr, Elaine Mai, Emma Langford, Erica Cody, Eve Belle, Faye O’Rourke, Fia Moon, Imelda May, Laoise, Lilla Vargen, Lisa Hannigan, Loah Lyra, Melina Malone, Moya Brennan, Niamh Farrell, Orla Gartland, Pillow Queens, Roe, Róisín O, Ruthanne, Saint Sister, Sibéal, Soulé, Stephanie Rainey, Tolu Makay, Una Healy, Wyvern Lingo" 

"Musicians: Aoife Dennedy, Louize Carroll, Lucia McPartlin, Maria O’Connor, Maria Ryan, Sarah Lynch, Theodora Byrne"

Safe Ireland: "Can you imagine an Ireland where women and children are free from violence and abuse?" (Donate)

"Dreams" is a Cranberries song written by Noel Hogan and Dolores O'Riordan.

Train spotted

Chiltern Line train approaching, Sunday

Update a week later, a train going the other way

Tip the tips in the tip

I hereby renounce and disown all my earlier tips for writers. Except the good ones.

Ossian

"I want to be like Frank O'Hara" by Martina Evans

I’ve never leaned in a club doorway,
my poems in my pocket like Frank.@MartinaEvans6 reads "I want to be like Frank O'Hara." pic.twitter.com/mfB4iNfLNf

— Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation (@BrinkerhoffPoem) May 28, 2020

Short Story of the Month, June 2020

In the second of our 2020 lockdown series, you are the writer. Have you ever missed a step on the stairs or turned back in fear? Have you ever given someone a piece of your mind? Are you an object of desire or the subject? Stay home. Ed.

The Willesden Herald Short Story of the Month

June 2020: Imagine that this Page is Empty by Nick Holdstock

“As Richard tends the first patient of the evening – a young woman with black eye make-up and an arm wound – he thinks of the pills, safe in their bottle, doubly safe in his jacket, safer still in his locker. The arm wound is self-inflicted. It is too precise.”

Nick Holdstock is the author of The Casualties, a novel, and several books about China.

“Imagine that this Page is Empty” is from his collection, The False River (Unthank Books, 2019).

Jasmine is here

A sunny trellis

Jasmine in the afternoon

The fragrance

--

S.M. 

"Progress" - old shop/new shop. Does London still exist?

This is what became of the Kingsland Cafe in the KIngsland Rd, as depicted by @eleanor_crow https://t.co/yTcQCQko5R pic.twitter.com/CbnKV18PJW

— Spitalfields Life (@thegentleauthor) May 17, 2020

Luka Bloom at the Aloe Tree, 22 March 2020

Perfect lockdown session in a gorgeous empty shop in Ennistimon, County Clare. "Don't be so hard on yourself."

Short Story of the Month, May 2020

Looking for respite from the lockdown? 

You've come to the right place. 

Ed.

The Willesden Herald New Short Stories Story of the Month
May 2020: The Time Capsule by John O’Donoghue

“They all fell silent for a moment. I could see them trying to look into the future, to imagine themselves as adults, married maybe, perhaps with families of their own, working away in jobs like Uncle Tommy in the Post Office, or Auntie Lizzie in the nursing before she was married, or gone to England, like my mother and father, or even further afield.”

John O'Donoghue

John O’Donoghue is the author of Letter To Lord Rochester (Waterloo Press, 2004), The Beach Generation (Pighog Press, 2007), Brunch Poems (Waterloo Press, 2009), Sectioned: A Life Interrupted (John Murray, 2009), Fools & Mad (Waterloo Press, 2014), and The King From Over the Water (The Wild Geese Press, 2019). Sec­tioned was awarded Mind Book of the Year in 2010. His journalism, essays, and reviews have been published in The Observer, The Guardian, The Times Educational Supplement, The London Magazine, PN Review, Acumen, and Orbis. He lives in Brighton and teaches Creative Writing at the Brighton Writers’ Centre.

The Time Capsule comes from The King from Over The Water (The Wild Geese Press, 2019).

Who’s Afraid of the Cold East Wind?

Herb Robert trembles,
not because the wind is strong
but because it's crazy.

Dandelion has wet himself
but won't let it get him down,
he's been through worse.

Rosemary doesn't know where to look,
it's all a bit of a mystery,
why do they bother?

Violet doesn't know why.
Poppy says don't be afraid.
Veronica says you should.

April shivers, a beast
has walked over her grave,
she hides in the chestnut tree.

Primrose lies low.
She sighs, she hopes
that May may come, come May.

--
Stephen Moran

Story of the Month Submissions: Open

Partly as a response to and respite from the 2020 Coronavirus lockdown blues, we've reopened the submissions window for Story of the Month. It would be great to hear from writers who have not been featured before in this online series.

Stories previously published in print but not online will be considered. Please advise details so that acknowledgement of the original publication can be included.

There's a rolling deadline of the second-last Friday of every month but often select the featured short story before then.

There is no reading fee. Recompense is limited to one copy of our latest anthology. Copyright: apart from permission to display it on our website online, you retain all rights in your story.

For full details please visit our Our Submittable page.

Northwick Park Hospital update from local MP - Covid-19

523 people hospitalised with #Covid_19 at Northwick Park (& sister trusts) have been discharged since March 4th. Tragically 364 people have died there. 250 people still being treated as of yesterday. I can only begin to imagine the sense of loss (1/2) https://t.co/Zy2nAFHff1

— Gareth Thomas MP (@GarethThomasMP) April 18, 2020

Source Ref. MyLondon.news

Beckett - a Quinn Martin production starring Sam Beckett

"A short lived detective drama from 1972. Never caught on with the American public."

With Andre the Giant as Little Bim, Jean Paul Sartre as Walleye Molloy and Jean Cocteau as Huggy Bear

"...cut together by playwright Danny Thompson, cofounder of Chicago’s Theater Oobleck." Ref: Open Culture. Via Martin Doyle on Twitter

The Flemings - world's most entertaining video!

"DAY 143 of isolation 😂🤣 ....can ye all do me a favour and just STAY AT HOME please ❤️😭" (Tadhg Fleming)

What a joyful performance and history of rehearsal by a wonderful family group!

Les (Non-)Miserables - "One Day More"

"A family from Kent who shared a video of their living room performance of a lockdown-themed adaptation of a Les Misérables song have become a sensation online. Ben and Danielle Marsh and their four children changed the lyrics of One Day More to reflect common complaints during the Covid-19 lockdown. They say the video, which has gone viral, was intended to give friends and family a laugh during this stressful time" (Guardian News - YouTube)

Test, test, test - explanation and plea (Jeremy Hunt)

Why it is essential we adopt mass community testing as our national strategy: my video today pic.twitter.com/QriHoYAhYa

— Jeremy Hunt (@Jeremy_Hunt) March 31, 2020

Covid-19: We can't move forward till we can see where we are.

COVID19: How can we control it if we don't know where it is? Test everyone. (Jeremy Hunt)

“How can we possibly suppress the virus if we don’t know where it is?”

Former health secretary Jeremy Hunt condemns the government's mismanagement of coronavirus testing. #CoronavirusLockdown pic.twitter.com/zd4jMmfkLr

— PoliticsJOE (@PoliticsJOE_UK) March 24, 2020

Vision, having sight of the problem, is vital in order to solve it. Jeremy Hunt cites other countries who have got control of their outbreaks with intensive testing and contact tracing. Let's hope the government understands this message and acts on it.

Self-isolating? Follow Roo's adventures - therapeutic

This is Roo the pig's interpretation of Christopher Isherwood's "I Am a Camera". It's quite fantastic.

Daffodils are ugly / apology

Daffodils are ugly, egomaniacs
Blowing their own trumpets,
Playing silly buglers, monotonous
"Does my bulb look big in this" bimbos.
Oh but we love them, we love them senseless
Because we know they're better than us.

Apology

For avoidance of all doubt,
daffodils are lovely, hapless
horse-like, handsome flowers.
I apologise to daffodils,
they cannot help themselves,
it's the way they're brought up.

--
Stephen Moran

Hard times in the East End, London 1970s - photo gallery

David Truzzi-Franconi's Photographs of the East End in the 70s published for the first time: https://t.co/QXfJjV1p6g pic.twitter.com/meyZdSgp2L

— Spitalfields Life (@thegentleauthor) March 15, 2020