Liars' League

Sign up for our Literary Blind Date on Valentine's Day!

February 14th, 2012. A date significant to lovers and singletons alike, not because of all that Valentine's nonsense, but because it marks the first Liars' League event of 2012, the lust-and-murder-drenched Kiss & Kill!

Now in our fifth year of doing what we do (writers write, actors read, you know the drill) and following a rather successful similar event in 2010, we at Liars' League thought we'd do another Literary Blind Date this year. Read on for instructions.

It's as simple as it could be: if you want to be set up with a fellow book-lover at our Valentine's Day Kiss & Kill event, just email your:

NAME
AGE
SEXUAL ORIENTATION and
FAVOURITE BOOK

to liars@liarsleague.com by Sunday February 12th (the liarsleague@yahoo.co.uk address will also work, if that the one you usually use).

Our Bibliophile Cupids will then select a mate for you, based primarily on your book choice. Try and be as truthful as you can - no 'ironic" Dan Brown please, however funny it seems at the time - it won't help you pull :)

And if you're happily coupled-up, or indeed happily single, don't worry, normal service will continue to be provided on February 14th, with five fantastic pieces of new writing (including an exclusive extract from Liar Katy's debut novel, The Whores' Asylum) read before a lively crowd. You may just notice more pairs of people looking slightly nervous, yet hopeful, sitting around chatting before and after the show.

The Chimney by Lisa Annelouise Rentz

 Dec 2011 The Chimney

Read by Max Berendt

The presents arrived the way the leaves blew on the wind, when Santa Claus was young and just starting out; that's how easy the deliveries felt to him. Back then, way back then, he made his trip not on a certain hallowed day, but whenever he felt moved to hitch up the team and strike the whip. Sometimes famine made him more sympathetic, and he gifted twice in one winter.

 

Always by Nichol Wilmor

 Dec 2011 Always

Read by Silas Hawkins

There are people and places which exist in bubbles of time. I am such a person. The British Club was — is — was such a place.
 
Late afternoon. As always, hot. This is a country with no seasons. The coarse, worn grass of the lower tennis court. Mixed doubles. Harry at the net.

 

Gratuity by David Bausor

 Dec 2011 Gratuity

Read by Sarah Feathers

“Snapper or veal, sir?” asked the waiter again.

Roger often said that there were two types of people in the world. There were those who knew fish should only be consumed with white wine, and those who didn’t. It seemed to Elsa that if you were going to live your life by arbitrary rules, then that one made as much sense as anything else.

 

Presence by Bernie Deehan

Dec 2011 Presence

Read by Martin Lamb

Two words explained why Ryan hated Christmas: Noel Edmonds. Every year when Ryan was growing up, Noel would present a show on Christmas morning from the top of the Post Office tower.

 

Happy Hour by Phillip Gardner

 Dec 2011 Happy Hour

Read by Gloria Saunders

I saw that. I wasn’t being provocative. I was being practical. You do understand what I mean, I hope, about not sending the wrong signals. 

You have a nice smile. Sure, sit down. 

You’re sales, right?  Me, too.  Good.  Then I don’t have to explain that knowing which signals to send pays for my Jaguar, and - by the looks of you - yours too, I’d say. 

 

My Favourite Story: C. T. Kingston on "The Age of Lead" by Margaret Atwood

This is a story that blindsides you in the most subtle and surprising way: you start off by thinking that it's about love, or growing up, or a compromised version of both – and in a way, it is – but by the end Atwood manages brilliantly to weave changes in society and the natural world, as well as the futility of much human endeavour, into a narrative that's still intensely, minutely on a human scale.

"The Age of Lead" is by turns funny, scathing, satirical, clear-eyed and heartrending. If you can read the third-from-last paragraph without a twinge at the back of your eyes (read the rest of it first, obviously) you're made of sterner stuff than me.

Atwood draws together the threads connecting Jane, the protagonist, her best friend Vincent, and the doomed nineteenth-century Franklin expedition, a dead member of which Jane watches being thawed out on TV throughout the story – and you don't even realise the structural and thematic pattern she's building up until the last page, which is why it works so well, in my opinion. The story becomes, by the end, about something far larger than the lives and deaths of its two (well, perhaps three) main characters; and that, for me, is exactly what a short story should do.

Yet Atwood's writing isn't fancy or showy; it's just studded with plainly-put, piercing observations that always sound as if they belong to the protagonist, not the author, which is another great strength of hers: finding a compelling voice and sticking to it. Three particularly memorable quotes (for me) are:

"Love was like a steamroller. There was no avoiding it, it went over you and you came out flat."
"You had sex, and love got made out of it whether you liked it or not." and
"If you are dying, you want to know why."

Simple truths, simply stated - and a damn good story too. Enjoy.

http://chrismartart.web.officelive.com/Materials/UOD/STAGE_3/Short_Story_Portfolio/study_pack/age_of_lead.html

 

C. T. Kingston

C. T. Kingston is an actress who loves to write. Her work has appeared on various flash fiction websites, and she is currently turning one of her previous stories for Liars' League, "The Hand in the Dark", into a short film. Comments and job offers to catkingston@googlemail.com.

Stories Written: "Something Exotic" (read by Sabina Cameron), "The Icicle" (read by Allie Croker), "Birds & Butterflies" (read by Judith Quin), "The Hand in the Dark" (read by Sarah Feathers), "The King of Beans" (read by Frederick Aarons)

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

P.S. Check back before New Year for all the Give & Take stories in glorious text - in the mean time, all the videos from our seasonal extravaganza are available to watch here: http://www.youtube.com/user/liarsleague/videos

My Favourite Story: Michael Spring on James Joyce's "The Dead"

("The Dead" can be found in Joyce's collection Dubliners)

WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS! If you want to read the story first, the link's at the bottom ... :)

It’s a snowy winter’s night in an early nineteenth-century Dublin. The Misses Morkan are giving their annual dance and everything is comfortable, easy, assured. Except of course that it’s not.

Gabriel Conroy, a slightly vain and corpulent man with a beautiful wife, is worried about the speech he has to make to the company who are gathered. He is worried that he will seem ridiculous; and indeed Miss Ivors, who has discovered that it is Gabriel who writes a book review column in the Daily Express, makes him feel so. She makes him feel too, that he is colourless and vain, a man without the fire of patriotism, a “west Briton”.

Of the other men here, what are we to say? Freddy Malins is a well-meaning drunk. The Morkans have papered over the cracks with the protestant Mr Browne, who is also prone to drink too much, and the art which is on show (in the form of singing and music) does little to impress. Mr Bartell D’Arcy, the famous tenor, refuses to show off his celebrated voice until it's too late for most to hear.

Indeed, it is the men, as Lily, the caretaker’s daughter, accurately points out, who all have something wrong with them. Gabriel awkwardly presses money into her hand in some sort of gesture, but ‘The men that is now,’ as Lily knows, ‘are all palaver and what they can get out of you.’ We are left to wonder what exactly that might mean, but the men invited here are trussed up in waistcoats too tight for them, adorned in goloshes to keep out the wet. They are insincere. They drink too much, and above all, they can’t be too careful.

Gabriel’s accomplished after-dinner speech is full of insincerity, except perhaps in his remark that it is a ‘thought-tormented’ age. Thoughts, rather than actions, plague almost everyone at this genteel gathering, except the saintly Mary Jane, and of course, Gabriel’s wife, Gretta, too ‘country 'cute’ for his late mother (though it is she who nurses her to her end), too much of a good wife to be allowed to return on holiday to her native Galway, too stimulating a character to allow Mr Bartell D’Arcy to get away without singing, just for the joy of the moment, rather than easy applause.

And it is Mr D’Arcy’s choice of song that releases a sudden tide of joy from Mrs Conroy’s heart. The ‘Lass of Aughrim’ is the song that her youthful would-be lover used to sing, a poor boy who, unable to contemplate being separated from the young Gretta, chooses to die for her.

The brief story of Michael Furey’s passion, delivered like a stiletto to her husband of many years, serves to deflate him utterly. At one moment, his own thoughts are of physical desire. The next, as his wife lies sleeping beside him, he can only contemplate the death which the characters in the story are approaching.

It is chilling stuff. How much is a life without passion worth? How much more do moments of passion weigh against decades of mediocrity? Are we alive, or are we all already dead?

http://www.online-literature.com/james_joyce/958/

 

Michael Spring

Michael Spring writes occasional fiction under his own name and on sport as Jeff Blakeney. He loves horse racing, books and his family, but perhaps not in that order. Brittle Star, Fieldstone Review, Volume and Radio Ulster are among those who have published and broadcast him. He lives in London.

Stories Written: "My Part in the Collapse of Civilization" (read by Camila Fiori), "Narky Jack" (read by Susannah Bond, Ed Cooper Clarke), "They Live in the Clouds" (read by Alex Willmott), "Frank's Lucky Day" (read by Camila Fiori), "The Crunch" (read by Max Berendt), "Kalashnikov" (read by Thomas Judd)

 

 

 

My Favourite Story: James Smyth on Martin Amis's "Career Move"

I’ve been a devotee of Martin Amis ever since I started to properly appreciate fiction. Not the man himself, you understand, who is clearly a pompous tosser of the highest order. But when it comes to show-boating, grand-standing prose that leaves me literally bewildered with admiration, there’s simply no-one else on the playing field.

 

This story is one of his more low-key efforts, originally published in The New Yorker. You might curl an intellectual lip at the high-concept novelty, but when it’s done with such imagination, such panache, and is pitched with just the right amount of tantalising smart-arsery, it’s difficult to quibble.

 

The idea of the ‘what if?’ story isn’t new, of course, and I’m quite sure a similar juxtaposition has been done before (Amis himself uses the gimmick again in ‘Straight Fiction’). What sets this apart, I think, is the whip-smart writing – sharp, witty and, unusually for Amis, unexpectedly moving. The characters, for the most part, are little more than ciphers, but this hardly matters in a clever, funny satire that encapsulates so many good ideas within a framework of superb prose.

 

I have heard all the usual criticisms of Amis – he’s a bit too clever-clever, he’s emotionally bereft. But frankly, when you can produce output like this, who cares?

 

http://www.martinamisweb.com/commentary_files/career_move_1.pdf

http://www.martinamisweb.com/commentary_files/career_move_2.pdf

 

James Smyth

James Smyth currently works in the City, doing a job so shamefully unBohemian it hardly seems appropriate to mention it here. He’s been writing for years, specialising mainly in unfinished short fiction and barely begun novels. Once he almost had a story published.

Stories Written: "Listening to Reason" (read by Martin Lamb), "The Honourable Thing" (read by Jaz Deol), "Dial A For Action" (read by Max Berendt), "Let There Be Light" (read by David Mildon), "Telling It Like It Is" (read by Steve Wedd).

My favourite story: Emily Cleaver on Jack London's "To Build a Fire"

“When it is seventy-five below zero, a man must not fail in his first attempt to build a fire”. In abrupt sentences, as stark as the icy landscape in which it’s set, Jack London tells the story of a prospector walking a deserted trail over a frozen river in the Yukon gold-fields.

It’s cold – so cold that spit freezes before it hits the ground, and any area of nose or cheek left uncovered goes numb. Accompanied only by his husky dog, ignoring the advice of the old-timers that at fifty below, you should not travel alone, the man falls into one of the deadly ‘traps’ set by the extreme cold, and with feet soaked in icy water, is suddenly dependent for his life upon the ability of unresponsive and quickly freezing fingers to complete the simple task of striking a match. It’s a gripping battle.

I love this story: you can’t help willing the man not to drop his last matches in the snow as you feel his limbs slowly freezing. There are echoes of London’s own extraordinary life-story here: he himself joined the gold rush to the Klondike in 1897, and saw landscapes like these first hand.

But this is more than a simple adventure story. London pits his protagonist against the elements, but the man has no chance of winning against forces so enormous and desolate. In such extreme cold, the body itself becomes no more than a set of mechanisms, puny and ineffectual against the ice. It’s not just snow he’s up against, it’s the universe, as the “cold of space smote the unprotected tip of the planet”. And the universe will always win.

There’s an added layer of interest here for writers too, because the best-known version of the story is actually a re-draft of a piece London had published six years previously, early in his career. Comparing the versions is fascinating: the first is a simple man-against-nature adventure story, well-told but ultimately thin on character and theme and lacking in literary stickiness. Given six years to develop as a writer, London takes the same tale and turns it into a stark musing on man’s place in nature.

You can read the better-known 1908 version of “To Build a Fire” online here: http://www.jacklondons.net/buildafire.html

You can also compare the earlier, rougher version of the story from 1902 here: http://www.jacklondons.net/olderbuild-a-fire.html

Emily Cleaver’s short stories have been published in The Mechanics’ Institute Review, Smoke and One Eye Grey and performed at Liars’ League, Tales of the Decongested and Spark London. She used to work in a bookshop but recently left to have a baby who owes his existence to Liars’ League. She is currently working on a novel.

Stories written:
"The Escape" (read by Elizabeth Bower)
"The Bad Boy" (read by Patsy Prince)

My Favourite Story: Quintin Forrest on Saki's "Sredni Vashtar"

Welcome back to the third edition of the Liars' League author favourites. This time we are featuring the choice of writer Quintin Forrest. And why not check out some of Quintin's works once you've given his pick a read?

"Sredni Vashtar" by Saki

As writers of short, short stories go, the only serious competition Raymond Carver faces is Hector Hugh Munro, AKA Saki. But whereas Carver can sometimes seem like a friendly old dog gone bad, Saki was always a poisonous reptile, in a good way, and never more so than in this. "Sredni Vashtar" is the tale of a ten-year-old boy, Conradin, who, driven to distraction by his strict, over-bearing, Victorian-esque nanny, ends up worshipping his pet ferret, Sredni Vashtar, as a sort of voodoo god.

There's the inevitable choice. But it's no choice really. There's a confrontation.

It's a metaphor for the creative process, possibly, but the main thing I like about it is the lack of morality in the story. Underneath the P. G. Wodehousian style, what it all seems to boil down is basically this; crush your enemies. Nearly a century later, it's still quite bracing.

The bit when Conradin begins chanting Sredni Vashtar's name is worth ... lots, still.

-Quintin Forrest

 

Follow the link to read the story online here:

http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/vashtar.html

 

Quintin Forrest

Quintin Forrest’s four principal activities are writing stories, rewriting his novel, playing PS2 and wishing for a PS3.

Stories Written: "Elephant's Graveyard" (read by Dave Zezulka), "Pete Doherty's Christmas Carol" (read by Max Berendt), "Lavender Bunny and the Big Brother House" (read by Will Goodhand), "The Notting Hill Punisher" (read by Stephen Butterton), "Sarah Palin's Yuletide Epistle 2009" (Daisy Whyte),  "Worst Review of My Career, So Far" (read by Al Woodhall, "Lavender Bunny and Celebrity Come Dine With Me" (read by Will Goodhand), "Barry Trotter And The Staff Of Power" (for LL Leeds, read by Stephen Bellamy)

My Favourite Story: Liam Hogan on "The Landlady" by Roald Dahl

Second in our series of authors' favourite stories is a tale picked by Liam Hogan. Check out his review, the story, and give some of Liam's stories a read - you have plenty to choose from and you won't be disappointed!

'The Landlady' by Roald Dahl

Everyone knows Roald Dahl for his children's stories, but he also wrote a number of collections of short stories, screenplays, and even an erotic novel (My Uncle Oswald). 'The Landlady' is a macabre short, first published in 1959, in which young Billy Weaver arrives in Bath looking for accommodation.

The beauty of the story is in the slow realisation of the true nature of the Landlady's hobby, and what that means for Billy. And the shock - "She seemed terribly nice" and "After all, she not only was harmless - there was no question about that - but she was also quite obviously a kind and generous soul."

It's a delicate balance; reveal too much, and the surprise is spoilt, along with the homely description of Billy's new lodgings. Reveal too little, and there would remain some doubt about what Roald Dahl intended you to imagine.

And it is very much left to your imagination to fill in the blanks - aided by the references to previous lodgers, the nagging thoughts at the back of Billy's head, the Landlady's odd turn of phrase - even the ominous foreshadowing, the compulsion to knock, to enter. All of these make sure the reader doesn't fall into the same trap as poor Billy Weaver.

Can you think of another story that gets away with explicitly revealing so little, and yet leaves everything crystal clear?

-Liam Hogan

Click the following link to download a copy of the story: The Landlady by Roald Dahl

Liam Hogan

Liam Hogan runs a sanctuary for homeless stories. If there is anyone else out there who can give a good home to one of his stories, please get in touch. Most of them are house-broken.

Stories Written: "How to Build a Mass Murderer" (read by Clive Greenwood), "Commuters' Tails" (read by Silas Hawkins), "He Does Not Know" (read by Ben Crystal), "Bob, Justbob" (read by Silas Hawkins), "Stalemate" (read by Freddie Machin), "The King's Computer" (read by Ben Crystal), "Rat" (read by Silas Hawkins), "The Tasting Menu" (read by Lucie Howard), "Remembrance Day" (read by Will Goodhand), "Sunset" (read by Saul Reichlin), Last Blood, First Ink (for LL Leeds, read by David Rees), "How the Elephant Fell" (read by Rachel Spicer), Temp (for LL Leeds, read by David Zezulka).

My Favourite Story: Niall Boyce on M.R. James's "Casting the Runes"

This holiday season we want to give you the best stories out there and highlight some of our best authors. So we've asked some of our most published writers to send us one of their favourite stories to share with you and that's just what they did. Our first story was chosen by Liars' League alum Niall Boyce.

'Casting the Runes' by M. R. James

M. R. James is one of my favourite authors, and though it's hard to pick his best, 'Casting the Runes' comes out on top. It's a cracking ghost story - genuinely disturbing in parts - and re-reading it reminds me just how much I have learned from James.

He wasn't a full-time writer: by day he was an academic, and his supernatural fiction was mostly written to be read aloud to audiences as Christmas entertainments. Perhaps reflecting this, his prose is clear and conversational, and his plots are tight - there's barely a wasted sentence in his whole output.

He's also discovered the key to writing anything fantastical, which is that the real world has to be kept in sharp focus. To be convincing about the uncanny, you have to be convincing about the everyday. James uses his historian's skill with documents to construct plausible fakes throughout his stories, be they medieval manuscripts, or, in the wonderful 'Martin's Close', an entire court transcript from the seventeenth century.

The correspondence that starts 'Casting the Runes' - rejection letters from an editor to an author who won't take 'no' for an answer - similarly rings true: it's also both funny and rather sinister. Without wanting to give too much away, the story is about the power of the written word - about the dark magic of ink on paper - and I suspect it was therefore very close to the author's heart.

Winter is the time for ghost stories, and 'Casting the Runes' is the very best. Print it out, or better still, buy a copy of the complete works of M. R. James. Take it home, get comfortable, turn off all the lights but one, and read it.

-Niall Boyce

You can find M.R. James' story here:

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Casting_the_Runes

 

And make sure to check out some of Niall's work featured below!

Niall Boyce

Niall Boyce lives, writes and edits in London. He has published fiction in all sorts of places, including Litro, Dark Horizons and Smoke. In 2011, his story '1963' will appear on a Doctor Who audiobook released by Big Finish Productions.

Stories Written:  "Christmas Future" (read by Paul Clarke), "Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy Your Life" (read by Ray Newe), "A Call to Arms" (read by Annalie Wilson), "Blood Relative" (read by Claire Louise Amias), "The Love Machines" (read by Sarah Feathers), "Salvador Dali's 115th Dream" (read by Ben Crystal), "Viral" (read by Annalie Wilson)

Give & Take, Tuesday 13th Dec at The Albany!

The stories for our cracking Christmas event, Give & Take, have now been chosen, and we're extremely proud to offer you a festive selection box of seduction, abandonment, bad tippers and evil Santas, from five fantastic (and mostly new) authors. (The Facebook event is here, should you wish to RSVP, and the lovely art is by LL Artist in Residence Gaurav Sarin).

 

GIVE & TAKE STORIES

Happy Hour by Phillip Gardner *NEW AUTHOR*

Presence by Bernie Deehan *NEW AUTHOR*

Gratuity by David Bausor

The Chimney by Lisa Rentz *NEW AUTHOR*
Always by Nichol Wilmor

 

There will also be a super bumper book giveaway in our Christmas literary quiz, free drinks for ALL authors and actors who have performed or had a story read in 2011 (so get there early before the tab runs dry) and the LL MVP Awards 2011. Plus free mince pies, tinsel, and all manner of festiveness - all for only £5 on the door.

 

Can't wait that long for more LL goodness? Fret not! All the stories, videos and MP3s from Liars' League Leeds's Fire & Brimstone event are up on the LL Leeds page here. You can also download the mp3s through iTunes with the Liars' League podcast, which features the new LL Leeds stories and plenty more.

VENUE CHANGE FOR DECEMBER!

As is traditional at Christmas, we have been temporarily kicked out of the Phoenix, so our Christmas event is going to be held at:

LOWDOWN AT THE ALBANY
240 Great Portland Street
London W1W 5QU
www.thealbanyw1w.co.uk

It's only a short walk from the Phoenix if you get confused, and the nearest (equidistant) tubes are Great Portland Street (Hammersmith & City, Metropolitan and Circle lines) and Regents Park (Bakerloo line)

 

DEADLINES, CALLS FOR SUBMISSIONS & OTHER STUFF

- Liars' League Leeds is still looking for stories themed on Peace & Goodwill for their Xmas event: please send to liarsleagueleeds@gmail.com by Fri 2 Dec.

- Any Dublin-based authors or actors who fancy helping out with/contributing to an Irish Liars' League franchise, please get in touch with us - we have a local small press/magazine publisher who thinks it's a great idea and would love to help start something ...

- Congratulations to LL author Sammy Wright who came third in the prestigious Bridport Flash Fiction Prize: he owes everything to Liars' League. Everything. Especially his first-born son ... http://www.bridportprize.org.uk/flashwinners2011.htm

- Another LL alumna, Erinna Mettler, wants your stories for Rattle Tales in Brighton: deadline is Jan 20th, 2012 for a Feb 8th show. Submission details here: http://rattletales.org/2011/11/16/see-you-at-komedia/

- And finally ... LL actress Sophie Morris-Sheppard is starring in Storyteller: The Natural History of Trolls at the Barons Court Theatre until Fri 23rd Dec. More info here: http://www.ents24.com/web/event/Storyteller-The-Natural-History-of-Trolls-Barons-Court-Theatre-London-2681556.html

 

Telling It Like It Is by James Smyth

Nov 2011 Telling it Like it is

Read by Steve Wedd

“A hippo,” says Trev, sinking his Stella. “Definitely. Slow moving, innit?”

“Fuck off,” I say, sinking mine. “Have you seen the teeth on it? It’d rip your head off.”

How the Elephant Fell by Liam Hogan

Nov 2011 How the Elephant Fell

Read by Rachel Spicer

The mighty Elephant thundered along the jungle path, the trees shaking in his wake.

“Oooh!” panted the Monkey, swinging along the vines besides him. “Where do you go in such a hurry?”

The Elephant cast him a contemptuous glance, and slowed his pace a fraction. “I go to the woods, beneath the falls, below the mountain of the moon,” he trumpeted. “There to eat my fill of the delicious fruit that hangs from the trees.”

Hot by Jet McDonald

Nov 2011 Hot

Read by Sean Patterson

It’s hot. My arms are hot, my legs are hot, my chest is hot. But my head. My head is so hot. It’s going to fucking explode. The sweat. The sweat pours out my helmet. Can’t take it off. Orders. IED’s.

The radio is in the helmet. The headset is underneath the helmet. Twice as hot. For fucksake.

Do Not Send Help by Anna Clair

Nov 2011 Do Not Send Help

Read by Jennifer Tan

My name is Radha Mila. I am – I was a journalist. You may have heard my voice before: my programme was an illegal broadcast called Beyond the Truth. In it, I denounced the leader of my country and spread anti-government propaganda in response to the news reported by the official channels. I believed I was serving my country and my people in doing this. I now recognise that I was wrong.

Posh Dishes by James Holden

Nov 2011 Posh Dishes

Read by Will Goodhand

Ben and Peter sat clutching beer bottles each and watching Sky News. It felt as though the whole of London was being licked by orange and yellow flames and assaulted by gangs of youths. The scenes were occasionally interrupted by a jowly anchor isolated in the safety of a studio alongside an angry politician and a right-wing social commentator. The city looked more like something from Mad Max than the glossy images normally paraded on TV: Birdcage Walk jammed with people celebrating the Royal Wedding; the Gherkin on the opening credits of The Apprentice; or those endless CGI images of how great the Olympic Park was going to be. Although Ben was unsure of what had happened to the city, his city, stunned by the destruction on loop, Peter was full of certainty.

Might & Right stories for Tue Nov 8th announced!

The Liars have spoken, and the stories for Might & Right have been chosen, as has the Artist in Residence, Gaurav Sarin, whose fab image for Might & Right is above. There are elephants and despots, squaddies and rioters, hippos, hoodlums and high-end bakeware - swing by next Tuesday November 8th to see how they all fit together ...

STORIES CHOSEN:
HOT by Jet McDonald *new author*, read by Sean Patterson
HOW THE ELEPHANT FELL by Liam Hogan, read by Rachel Spicer
DO NOT SEND HELP by Anna Clair, read by Jennifer Tan
POSH DISHES by James Holden, read by Will Goodhand
TELLING IT LIKE IT IS by James Smyth, read by Steve Wedd

As ever, there will be bargain wine on the night, a fiendish literary quiz and the chance to win FIVE brand new books by

Sapphire
Colm Toibin
LL alumnus Jonathan Pinnock (his brilliant new Jane Austen sequel Mrs. Darcy vs the Aliens)
Chris Adrian
AND the new Granta Horror issue - and all for only £5 on the door. See you there!

Something Wicked by Richard Smyth

Something Wicked by Richard Smyth

Read by Tony Bell

I have emailed the chairperson of the Lichfield borough council diversity and inclusivity committee several times in respect of this matter. Each time, I have received a courteous reply. Each time, no action has been taken.