Liars' League

Rebels & Tyrants stories chosen for July 14th, and deadline extended!

Roll up! Roll up! For our next event is on Tuesday July 14th (that's next Tuesday, Bastille Day) - so stick it in your diaries now. Normal service has been resumed and the night will start at 7pm in The Wheatsheaf as is traditional, and will cost just £3.

 

This month, we have picked five fabulous tales of oppression and revolt for our Rebels & Tyrants theme, boasting ghosts, hairdressers, slipstream fairytales, trailer-trash social workers and full-body pleasure suits ... how can you miss it?

 

The stories are:

Around Here by Helen Silverstein

King's Pleasure by Gaie Sebold

One Year On by Joanne L. M. Williams

Red by Tessa North

A Call to Arms by Niall Boyce

 

NB - For all those who attended the last event (Surf, Turf & Vodka) at Proud, our offer still stands - so just email us if you're thinking of coming along to this one.

 

And finally, as if that's not enough, we have extended the deadline for our August reading (theme: Black & White) to this Sunday 12th July - this is not in tribute to the late Michael Jackson, but please feel free to take him (or indeed anything or anyone else black and/or white) as inspiration for your stories. Keep 'em coming!

One Luxury by Richard Meredith

Read by Silas Hawkins

Message One, 17 August

So here I am, all alone on the island at last – not that I’ve been waiting for it, in fact I’ve been rather dreading it. But I’ve lived here my whole life (as did my pater and his pater before him) and I’ll bally well not fly the coop now. And that’s what I told the Governors, too.

There was a lot of fuss about possibly evicting me, and whether it would infringe my human rights or constitute a health-and-safety issue, but then it rather got lost in the upheaval of getting the rest of the population off the island to what is currently considered safety. Although with the sea levels rising the way they are, I give ‘em about five years

Rain Music by Margot Taylor

Read by Michael Redston

Ed has been rationing his water, using it only for drinking, counting his sips.  He does his dishes in sea water and his hands, with their many cuts, are sore from the salt and constant wetting.  He hasn’t washed in weeks.  Sweat has dried on sweat.  Sometimes he catches the smell of himself and reels.

What does water feel like to the tadpoles? by Tom McKay

Like greasy algae they say, like the shock of the new – and we say, no, and, that can’t be true. Like a thousand fine tentacles caressing your most sensitive parts they say, and we blush because we find it awkward that the tadpoles should say such things – and we stare up into the sky until the sun burns our eyes. It’s like having space and no space at the same time they say, and wiggle their little tails at us knowingly, like we should know what they mean – but we don’t – we don’t know what they mean and we think it is beginning to show on our faces.

Smirnoff Vodka - One Litre by Clare Sandling

Read by Lisa Rose

At the moment her mobile started ringing, Penny noticed two things. Lentil supplies were low, and Paul was late. She tutted. She was engaged in the internet home delivery stock check, making sure that each half-used item had a new, full packet behind it. She had the laptop open on the kitchen table, fingers twitching over the keyboard. As the phone started vibrating against the table, her fingers stabbed. Ordered, one 500-gram pack of Organic Virtues green lentils.

Just Me and My Goldfish by Mi L Holliday

Read by Stephen Butterton

There’s a girl on my living room floor, looking up at me from underneath sodden blonde curls and eyelashes clumped together in thick black triangles. The light of the TV renders the pastel orange of her mermaid skirt just barely visible where it clings to her legs, a scrap of fabric in a similar color masquerading as a shirt.

I set my carton of lo mein down on the coffee table, ignoring the scent that tantalizes my all-too-empty stomach.

There’s a girl on my living room floor, and she fell out of my fish tank.

A Pocket Full of Penguin by Rosalind Stopps

Read by Danielle Fenemore

He says his dad works in the cemetery.

Some people might say that for a joke, but I can see that he means it and I hope my face doesn’t show what I’m thinking.  He’s a bit slow as well as quiet and I guess I should be encouraging him, helping him to feel better, but I can’t stop wondering about the shoes.

Minuit Noir at the Ali Babar by Maggie Womersley

Read by Clive Greenwood

Marwell Aries wove an unsteady path to the bar of the Ali Babar club, relieved to be stretching his legs after sitting for so long on those ridiculous souk cushions.

The dim lighting, combined with the two bottles of champagne he’d already drunk, caused him to mistake his reflection in the mirror behind the bar for some other later night reveller. He turned quickly and looked over his shoulder, but of course there was nobody there.

Carnival by Jane MacKenzie

Read by Freddie Machin

I was tired of trailing behind my parents while they checked off every tourist spot in the guidebook, so I left the hotel early to take a look at the preparations for the carnival that night. I also wanted to take a shot at the bars on the beachfront, see if my fake ID worked. That seemed like a pretty good way to spend a day – drinking beer and looking out at girls in bikinis.

Surf & Turf - 9 June - NOW THIS TUE JUNE 23rd

We regret that June 9's Surf & Turf themed event at The Wheatsheaf has been postponed due to the RMT strike on the London Underground. We apologize for any inconvenience.

The details for the rescheduled event are now as follows:

Next event: Tuesday June 23rd, at 7pm, theme Surf & Turf (& Vodka)

Venue: Main Gallery @ Proud Camden

www.proudcamden.com
The Horse Hospital
Stables Market
Chalk Farm Road
Camden Town
NW1 8AH

t: 0207 482 3867
f: 0207 424 9778
e: info@proud.co.uk

The bumper crop of stories features ingredients as diverse as aquatic fantasies, lost sailors, seaside tragedies, stolen penguins, and the hitherto solemnly secret world of juvenile amphibians - not to mention desert islands, amnesiac alcoholics, and the best cocktail in the world, and they are:

What water feels like to the tadpoles by Tom McKay
Rain Music by Margot Taylor
Carnival by Jane MacKenzie
A Pocket full of Penguin by Rosalind Stopps
Me and my Goldfish by Mi L Holliday
One Luxury by Richard Meredith
Minuit Noir at the Ali Babar by Maggie Womersley
Smirnoff Vodka - One Litre by Clare Sandling