Blue Hair and Bowler Hats
The sign on the door confuses me: PLEASE KNOCK LOUDLY is printed beside a man in a black bowler hat who seems to be in the act of kicking his way in. Cautious of …
The Final Chapter?
My year abroad is over. After twelve months in Russia and Austria, it’s time to return to Durham to complete my university degree. It would be a lie to say I have loved every minute …
Do You Believe in Tears?
He bounces. There’s no other way to describe it. He sits down next to me, but the chair doesn’t allow for bouncing and before long he’s jumped to his feet again. While we talk he …
Cucumbers
‘Do you want some cucumbers?’ Stas and I have been in the restaurant half an hour when Saul arrives, looking slightly flustered. ‘Elvira got back just as I was about to leave,’ he says. He …
A Mystery
There were dragons and volcanoes and castles; there was tea and watermelon and cake; and there were six of us contemplating the square tiles on the table. We were playing Carcassonne, an extended version. Bit …
One Year Later
I want to tell you about the light. It is nearly five o’clock in the morning when we emerge, blinking, into the grey pre-dawn of St Petersburg. We push through the crowds milling outside the …
An Ode to June
June. My final month in Innsbruck. I would like to invite you on a jaunt through June. On the first Sunday of this fine, summer’s month, after a night spent in a mountain hut, I …
Two Hundred Days
I saw the sea again, today. I heard the roar of the waves, tasted the salt on my tongue, felt the wind in my hair. It had been over two hundred days. The crash of …
Innsbruck
What has roots as nobody sees, Is taller than trees, Up, up it goes, And yet never grows? Gollum in ‘The Hobbit’ by J.R.R.Tolkien They are still there. They are always there. Only when the …
Where words and colour were lacking
There were not enough words to describe Russia. They flowed effortlessly onto the page, they overflowed: first onto paper, every day, something of a stream of consciousness; and then onto the screen, this time with …