The Heart In Winter

The Heart In Winter

On Wyoming Street in the evening a patent Irish stumbled by, some crazy old meathead in a motley of rags and filthy buck-skin, wild tufts of hair sticking out the ears, the eyes burning now like hot stars, now clamped shut in a kind of ecstasy, and he lurched and...
Night Boat To Tangier

Night Boat To Tangier

You know what I get to wondering, Maurice? Tell me, Charlie. About death, Moss. Here we go. Is it as raw a deal as they make it out to be? Come again? Is it not in some way an ease when she comes calling? The Black Angel? . . . Hush now . . . Listen? . . . The gentle...
Night Boat To Tangier

Night Boat To Tangier

Benjamin? Charlie says. He want a black-sand beach. He want to be talking bollocks. He want a circle of swaying dreadlocks all ’round him. He want the girls and the dogs hanging on his every word. He want to be staring all soulful into the moonlight. Ranting his...
There Are Little Kingdoms

There Are Little Kingdoms

It was deadening winter, one of those feeble afternoons with coal smoke for light, but I found myself in reliably cheerful form. I floated above it all, pleasantly distanced, though the streets were as dumb-witted as always that day, and the talkshops were a babble of...
There Are Little Kingdoms

There Are Little Kingdoms

Animal Needs ‘Come on, John,’ said Madge, and she grabbed the car keys, ‘we’ll head for yours.’ You imagine the whole wife-swapping business would take four decisions but really it only takes three. He moves across the low dip of the bottom fields, rat-faced with need...