BackStory: Four Questions with Anne Summerfield Author of Not a Rehearsal How much research did you do while writing and editing this piece? Did you discover anything that surprised you? The majority of the research I did was fact checking…
Not a Rehearsal
Not a Rehearsal by Anne Summerfield We should have gone to Greenham and slept under the tarpaulins, under the stars. We said we would, knew too that there was more at stake than protest. Hadn’t I skipped my work’s Christmas…
BackStory: Five Questions with Christine Collinson
BackStory: Five Questions with Christine Collinson Author of Boye What inspired you to write ‘Boye’? The Civil Wars era is such a complex, vivid period – societal divisions, widespread conflict, and some fascinating personalities. Finding a unique perspective was challenging…
Boye
Boye by Christine Collinson Before the battle, we said that Boye was bulletproof. A white devil-dog with a black heart and enchanted blood: a shapeshifter, a sorcerer. In woodcuts Boye appeared, alongside his princely master, arrayed with fangs and a…
BackStory: Six Questions with Louise Mangos
BackStory: Six Questions with Louise Mangos Author of Aetheris Avidi What inspired you to write ‘Aetheris Avidi’? The story is based on real events. My grandfather brought my mother’s family back from Ireland during the Blitz. My Auntie Joan flew Spitfires…
Aetheris Avidi
Aetheris Avidi by Louise Mangos Favouring the Blitz over the risk of his three daughters marrying Irishmen, Dad brings us back to Putney from Ireland while the war is still in full swing. Betty and I have a date with…
BackStory: Five Questions with Davena O’ Neill
BackStory: Five Questions with Davena O’ Neill Author of The Colours in His Hair What inspired you to write ‘The Colours in His Hair’? This story came from a prompt exercise to write a sentence with using three colours, and…
The Colours in His Hair
The Colours in His Hair by Davena O’ Neill We only had one hour. Sixty minutes alone, without sympathetic looks or words of encouragement. Everyone asked me after where we’d gone, but I never told. ‘We lost track of time,’…
BackStory: Five Questions with Winston Bribach
BackStory: Five Questions with Winston Bribach Author of Erased What inspired you to write ‘Erased’? The initial concept came to after I watched a documentary on Chinese/American laborers. The crew went to a frontier museum with lots of railroad artefacts…
Erased
Erased by Winston Bribach The bosses told us Chinese to stay away from the photographer. Most didn’t need to be told. They didn’t want to lose their souls. I, too, couldn’t deny the magic captured by a single flash, but…