Literature

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The Partisan: Part One  

An original extract from an on-going work by Ivor Starkey, set in the Spanish Civil War.

Paintings Of Your Fear

An excerpt from Luke Gilfedder’s upcoming novel ‘Die When I Say When’, redolent of the Halloween mood.

Man’s Agency: A Review of ‘Call Me Stratos’

Amory Crane reviews the recently translated ‘Call Me Stratos’, ‘a novel of masculine pride, vanity, anger, and aimlessness’ and its portrait of a man attempting not only to escape his time, but his own agency.

Fragments

An original short story on the vicissitudes of the human heart by Henry Cocteau

A European Summer

The dry, acrid heat of ancient Spain linger in this original short story by Ivor Starkey

Remembering Harold Bloom

Approaching six years after his death, Cameron Aitken takes a brief look back at the force of nature that was the Literary critic and scholar, Harold Bloom

Fallen Leaves

An elegiac sonnet penned by our literary editor, Casey Morris

On Capri

An original short story by Amory Crane

Child’s Play

How blurred can the lines between hunter and hunted become? Dinah Kolka explores this with another original story of horror among the Scottish highlands.

Tragic Love Poetry Competition: Other Top Entries

2nd Place: Sian Heath: ‘My Husband’ My Husband  He whispers in my ear  Suggestions so sweet and sour  Runs his hands over my hair,  down over my back.  He kisses the shiver away,  Tells me truths about myself  as his fingers delve deeper.  I surrender with a sigh,  Awake with a jolt.  Sitting next to…

Yusef Komunyakaa’s “Neon Vernacular”

Author: Casey Morris Reading Yusef Komunyakaa’s 1994 Pulitzer Prize winning book Neon Vernacular transports me back home, back to long summers in Texas and Tennessee. The book features then-new poems alongside those published in earlier collections, namely Copacetic and Dien Cai Dau. In Neon Vernacular, the rhythms of the American South come to life. We…

Feature: New England Transcendentalism

Author: Casey Morris Few movements have defined American literature and culture as Transcendentalism. Often associated with the lectures of Emerson or essays of Thoreau, Transcendentalism was a heterogenous movement that drew on a variety of sources spanning the arts, philosophy, literature, theology, and social activism. Unitarianism, German Idealism, Romanticism, Neoplatonism, and Hindu and Buddhist philosophy…

Accident and Emergency

Author: Ivor Starkey “El placer es el relámpago irrisorio del contacto entre el deseo y la nostalgia” Nicolás Goméz Dávila Here are the frontlines of pseudo-civilisation, where our sedentary and sterile lifestyles are paid for by yet more sitting still.  All around are city faces. Men stare blankly and dream of their absent lovers whilst…

St George and the Dragon and the Skirt

Author: George Marsden The prized relic in the Church of St George at Diospolis, towards the end of the 4th century at least, was a torn skirt. It hung from the wall just behind the altar, where its exalted position benefited from the shafts of light that entered from the south-facing door. I say benefited:…

 Rough And Tumble Modernism: A Review of Jon Langmead’s ‘Ballyhoo!’

Author: Ryan Shea. All wrestling fans are doubtless lapsed addicts. Jon Langmead’s Ballyhoo!: The Roughhousers, Con Artists, and Wildmen Who Invented Professional Wrestling (2024) explores the margins between addiction and artistry in the Art Nouveau origins of professional wrestling. Ballyhoo! takesfor its main protagonist wrestling promoter Jack Curley (born: Jacques Schuel), Langmead’s niche history is…

Feature: Mary Oliver’s “Devotions”

Author: Casey Morris Changing of the seasons inspires some of the best poetry. Spring to summer, summer to autumn, and the slow thawing of winter are all celebrated in the canon. This last change, the lifting of winter’s cold for the gifts of spring, is perhaps most poignant. Through the ages, poets have captured spring’s…

IDES OF MARCH – Multimedia Work

INTRODUCTION Author: Gavin Duffy (Chief History Columnist) The 15th of March in 44 BC brought an end to the Roman Civil War between the factions of Julius Caesar and Pompey Magnus. Caesar had risen to the highest ranks of Roman authority as consul and through his military victories in Britannia and Gaul, where he had…

‘I’m a piece of architecture, Detective. How should I know how humans are like to die?’— Rose/House by Arkady Martine

Author: Eva McFarlane In Arkady Martine’s Rose/House novella published on the 13th of March, 2025, there is a house “Curled like the petals of a gypsum crystal,” which goes by Rose House. This early description of the AI building instantly drew me in with its sophisticated, flowery imagery that paints a clear, haunting description. Within…

The Destitution of Abundance

Author: Dinah Kolka Sat on the edge of the cliff, looking down at the green slopes unravelling before me, I knew I was to make a choice. Years of fighting were still ahead of me, and I felt the need for glory and blood. This yearning I could not reject; it was the calling I…

Stream of Consciousness: Frenzied Narratives in Modernist Literature

Author: Cameron Aitken. On 2nd February 1922, at a quaintly English bookshop in the heart of Paris, Sylvia Beach published James Joyce’s Ulysses which is now considered to be the masterpiece of Modernist literature. There was no doubt that she was aware of the anticipated revulsion with which the book would be received. Both the…

Subterfuge

Author: Cameron Aitken. The chivalrous hour wanes when home commences; fugacious cities forget, while the train nervously repeats the grovelling leitmotif; and signals all, with incandescent rigour, to recognise such sketches of defeat but not to shape opprobrious conceit. The misery of parked cars, provoking the wind with forgotten flutes flowing between winsome folds, eagerly…

Exploring Love in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonnets From the Portuguese”

Author: Casey Morris Few holidays inspire such strong emotion as Valentine’s Day. Love, lust, the pain of past relationships, and even loneliness all rise to the surface. Whatever the feeling, most of us are more attuned to, more drawn to others. We are moved to give cards and chocolates, buy flowers, or indulge a long,…

Collected Essays on AngloFuturism philosophy by Alexander d’Albini – Book Review

Author: Dinah Kolka I always found myself fascinated with movements. People love organising and segregating themselves into quasi-communities that help them foster a sense of purpose and support ‘the cause’. There are countless examples, some of my favourite being the Vorticists, Futurists, or Imagists. The 20th century was likely one of the most energetic centuries…

The Ring

Author: Eva McFarlane Encased in my perfect velvet box, I had lain in wait for the question to be popped; for the flooding of joyous tears to resound with a heartfelt ‘yes.’ I was displayed proudly for some time behind polished glass for the right young man with lovesick eyes and a boyish grin to…

Lupercalia: Multimedia Art Feature

Introduction Lupercalia was an Ancient Roman festival happening every year on February 15th. Interestingly, the name of the festival likely comes from ‘lupus’, which means wolf in Latin, and it may relate to the legend of Romulus and Remus, who were nursed and brought up by a wolf. As such, it makes sense that the…

Translations of Spanish-Japanese Essays on Borges by Tasuhiko Shibusawa and Keizo Hino

Author: Ryan Shea. Ryan is a New England Tom of Bedlam. His writing focuses on the antipodes of literary culture and the Internet. His work has previously appeared in The Los Angeles Review of Books, Atlas Obscura, and in French translation in the review Librarioli. He is currently a columnist for the music site Invisible Oranges. He looks forward to…

Remembering Sylvia Plath—A Haunted Poet whose Work Still Haunts her Readers

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

Lover’s Poison

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

Nostos

Author: Ivor Starkey. Ivor is an undergraduate studying Modern Languages at the University of Bristol. Last year, he came first place in the Roger Scruton Legacy Foundation’s Essay Contest in the 6th form category.  ‘In his desolation he wrote a poem on a palm which he transplanted from the land of his ancestors – for,…

Lucy Learns to Fly

Author: Mateusz Kowalski. Mat is a neurospicy chaos incarnate working in the video games industry. Fan of everything occult, horror, fantasy and retro with an occasional sprinkle of sci-fi and Magic: The Gathering. A self-proclaimed failed cook. ‘Ah, the devil! The devil hath descended upon us!’ A hysterical scream tumbled through the church naves like…

Burns Night— The Ploughman’s Poet And The Celebration Inspired by His Work

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

The Hangman’s Trail

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

Exploring Dylan Thomas: A Maverick Poet’s Legacy

Author: Casey Morris. Born and raised in Texas, Casey Morris studied literature, philosophy, and ancient Greek at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He loves reading and writing about literature, especially poetry old and new. He is also a fan of historical fiction, documentaries, and shoegaze. The poetry of Dylan Thomas is often lauded for its…

The Rocket

Author: Alexander d’Albini is an AngloFuturist. He has written several articles as well as a book on the philosophy which underpins AngloFuturism. He is also an armchair theologian with hundreds of articles on the Bible and writes a newsletter on Anglo-Saxon Christianity. These can be read on his Substacks, Tower of Adam, Tales of Old…

Sarah Stook’s Best Books of 2024

Author: Sarah Stook. Sarah is a writer for Elections Daily, The Mallard and other publications. She enjoys history, reading and fashion. I read a few books this year and these are the books I would recommend the most: The Presidents Vs. the Press: The Endless Battle Between the White House and the Media–from the Founding…

Exploring the Concept of Transcendence in Yeats’ ‘The Tower’

Author: Casey Morris. Born and raised in Texas, Casey Morris studied literature, philosophy, and ancient Greek at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He loves reading and writing about literature, especially poetry old and new. He is also a fan of historical fiction, documentaries, and shoegaze. In 1928, the career of William Butler Yeats had reached…

Christmas Horror Competition Entry 9: A Link to the Past

Author: John Foster. John lives Dumbarton, Scotland. John has worked in local government for over twenty years and is a project manager. He is passionate about writing, an interest he pursues in his spare time. He especially likes exploring the use of different narrative forms and distinctive voices to convey compelling stories in interesting new…

Christmas Horror Competition Entry 8: Father Christmas

Author: Gary McLean. Gary is from Livingston, West Lothian. He is 30 years old and loves the works of Stephen King, Thomas Olde Heuvelt, John Avidje Lindqvist and Graham Masterton. He’s only been writing for the last couple of years and they tend to be in the horror genre. Little Danny loved Christmas. It was his favourite…

Christmas Horror Competition Entry 7: Evergreen

Author: Archer Glory. Archer is a keen writer of short stories who is currently working on their debut novel. They also enjoy Japanese Anime, video-gaming and music-making. I had always dreamed of freedom. How was I to know it would come at such a price? I used to gaze up at the heavens, jealous of…

Christmas Horror Competition Entry 6: Maybe You’ve Got a Point

Author: Greg Beatty. Greg writes poetry, short stories, children’s books, and a range of nonfiction. He’s published hundreds of works—everything from poems about stars to essays on cooking disasters. When he’s not writing, he walks with his dog, dabbles in the martial arts, plays with his grandchildren, and teaches college. “Um…” David stared at the huge…

The Tinsel Serpent

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

Christmas Horror Competition Entry 5: No Luck, Rudolph

Author: Kevin Edgar. Kevin has been writing horror, crime and supernatural stories for the last ten years. He enjoys photography, playing guitar, and sax as well as learning the intricate nature of 3D modelling. ‘Cover your nose, Rudolph. We’re trying to get some sleep,’ said Prancer.   The other reindeer snorted in approval. ‘You’re all…

Vladimir Nabokov: The Gift of Perceptive Prose

Author: Cameron Aitken. Cameron is a First Class English Literature Graduate and Jazz Musician. He loves poetry and philosophy, and has a background in literary theory. He is also interested in psychoanalysis, and thinks about films through this lens. He is an Early Modernist at heart. ‘Style isn’t something you apply later; it’s embedded in…

Hollie McNish’s ‘Plum’: A Journey Through Childhood to Adulthood

Author: Casey Morris. Born and raised in Texas, Casey Morris studied literature, philosophy, and ancient Greek at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He loves reading and writing about literature, especially poetry old and new. He is also a fan of historical fiction, documentaries, and shoegaze. One of the pleasures of poetry is recollecting the past…

Christmas Horror Competition Entry 4: A Figure of Some Substance

Author: Iain Bain. Iain has had short stories published in literary magazines, anthologies and the web, short drama performed, and sketches, songs and a comedy-drama series broadcast by BBC Radio Scotland. He spent several years working as a desk editor for some of the larger UK publishers and the BBC. A former Scottish Book Trust…

Bridging the Personal and Philosophical: An Intimate Portrait of Albert Camus

Author: Daniel Harding. Daniel is a recent graduate from UCL and Queen Mary’s University of London with a master’s in the history of political thought and intellectual history. He is currently an English language teacher in Phrae, Thailand. His main intellectual interests span the broad history of ideas. In her introductory note to Camus’ Le…

Snake-Themed Creative Writing Competition: 3rd Place – The Snake in My Flat

Author: Adam Houten. The snake lives just inside the door to my flat. It does not let me leave. Sometimes it slithers into my room and stares at me balefully. Those days I hold and hold in my bodily functions until I can’t hold them in anymore and must make a wild dash to the…

Snake-Themed Creative Writing Competition: 2nd Place – The Children of Clay

Author: Andrew R Duncan. Andrew is a watcher and writer from Edinburgh, Scotland. An observer of decline and decay; a witness to the end and rebirth. Writes the Stories of Winter. The great Earth Serpent swam through the cosmic ocean in a frenzied flight; she would not stop. Every twist and turn and spasm was animalistic…

Snake-Themed Creative Writing Competition Winner: Snake Cell Dreams

Author: Sandeep Kumar Mishra is an artist, an author, a teacher and an editor. His work has been shortlisted for ‘Wells Story Prize-2024’, ‘Page Turner Award-2024’, ‘Pencraft Book Award-2024’, ‘Westerwood Story Award-2024, ‘Plough Prize-24′, Fish Prize-24’, “The Next Generation Story Award-24”,  “2023 Commonwealth Story Prize,” “2021 International Book Awards,” and “52nd New Millennium Award-2021,”MPT Story…

What is my Purpose?

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

Joshua Mehigan’s ‘The Optimist’: A Deep Dive

Author: Casey Morris. Born and raised in Texas, Casey Morris studied literature, philosophy, and ancient Greek at St. John’s College in Annapolis, Maryland. He loves reading and writing about literature, especially poetry old and new. He is also a fan of historical fiction, documentaries, and shoegaze. A triumph of any work of art is to immortalise…

Crimson Reign

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

Vampire of Munich – Part 3 (Final)

Author: Gomery Kimber is the author of six novels, including the Big Shilling hitman trilogy, the Justin Martello adventures (‘A New Kind of Hero’), and the Wyvern series of historical novels (esotericism and espionage). In 2023, Gomery Kimber was chosen by best-selling author Mark Dawson as the winner of the SPF Foundation Thriller Award. Subscribe…

Bram Stoker’s Lost Story Review – ‘Gibbet Hill’

Author: Lara Drake. Lara is a second-year English and Creative Writing student at the University of Plymouth. Being creative is her passion; she likes to write poetry, paint, create zines, write screenplays and play the guitar. Her dream is to be able to make a living off of my writing one day. ‘The Lost Manuscript’…

Christmas Competition Entry 3: Frostbitten

Author: Keith Foreman. Keith is a self-confessed Lovecraft nerd and member of the Edinburgh Writing Collective. He lives in Scotland, and would probably get more writing done if he wasn’t also playing Roleplaying Games. You stop being able to hear it, after a while. I don’t mean the whisper ghosting of the snow settling around…

Christmas Horror Entry 2: The Holly King’s Warning

Author: Fraser Payne. Fraser is a writer and storyteller with a penchant for exploring the eerie and uncanny hidden within the everyday. Growing up in Scotland, Fraser developed a fascination with folklore and the dark, twisting tales whispered around the hearth. When not writing, Fraser can be found hiking through ancient forests, collecting old books,…

Silence of the Night

Author: Eva McFarlane. Eva is a graduate of Edinburgh Napier University with a BA (Hons) degree in English, she is a current student in the MA Creative Writing programme. Originally from Edinburgh, she enjoys all writing with a Gothic twist, primarily within the dark fantasy and horror genres. She is also a poet, with her…

The Vampire of Munich – Part 2

Author: Gomery Kimber is the author of six novels, including the Big Shilling hitman trilogy, the Justin Martello adventures (‘A New Kind of Hero’), and the Wyvern series of historical novels (esotericism and espionage). In 2023, Gomery Kimber was chosen by best-selling author Mark Dawson as the winner of the SPF Foundation Thriller Award. Subscribe…

Toy Soldiers

Author: Eva McFarlane. Like toy soldiers, we are thrust into battle. The ground underfoot is hard and cold, littered with the broken remains of my fellow soldiers; I shiver at the realisation that such an end could have been my own… it still could be. “Turner!” I flinch at my name being called. It is…

The Vampire of Munich – Part 1

Author: Gomery Kimber is the author of six novels, including the Big Shilling hitman trilogy, the Justin Martello adventures (‘A New Kind of Hero’), and the Wyvern series of historical novels (esotericism and espionage). In 2023, Gomery Kimber was chosen by best-selling author Mark Dawson as the winner of the SPF Foundation Thriller Award. Subscribe…

The Voice in My Head

Author: Craig Ewan. I sit on my bed, in front of the mirror. I stare at my reflection. I let my hair fall back down. The tension of my ponytail flees. I take off my makeup, it is clumpy, my mascara has dripped down my face, and tear stains drape my cheeks. My eyes are…

The Venatio – an excerpt from Luke Gilfedder’s novel

Author: Luke Gilfedder. Luke is a writer from Manchester, set to launch his debut novel, The Venatio, in 2025. Previously, he worked as a playwright, with scripts produced at The Royal Exchange Manchester, the Lyric Hammersmith, and in London’s West End. He has recently completed a  PhD on the life and work of Wyndham Lewis.  THE VENATIO…

Assassin of London – an excerpt from Gomery Kimber’s novel

Author: Gomery Kimber is the author of six novels, including the Big Shilling hitman trilogy, the Justin Martello adventures (‘A New Kind of Hero’), and the Wyvern series of historical novels (esotericism and espionage). In 2023, Gomery Kimber was chosen by best-selling author Mark Dawson as the winner of the SPF Foundation Thriller Award. Subscribe…

The Crow

Author: Dustin Lawrence Lovell. Reciter of Shakespeare, reader of Dostoevsky, and raconteur of tales from his time at Oxford, Dustin Lovell has written for The Mallard, Silence and Starsong, and other publications, and his novel Sacred Shadows and Latent Light is available on Amazon. He lives near Pasadena, California, where he splits his time between chasing his kids, tutoring,…

Robert Aickman and the Technological Uncanny

Author: Paul Heron. Paul is a Welsh writer based in Poland. He is active on X as @Paul_Heron_ and also runs an account dedicated to the work of J.G. Ballard, @QuotesOfJGB. You can find him on Substack here. I Robert Aickman, a brilliant English writer of “strange stories” (his own description) and a “saviour” of…

We’ve Been Expecting You

Author: Giulia Prodiguerra. Italian-Scottish writing aficionado, jack of a very few trades. Loves art in all forms, has a soft spot for videogames (but not very good at it). Vincent knew he was lost. Inevitably, surely, definitely lost. He had stopped for a moment to catch his breath, and all he could see were thick…


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