'Today I scrubbed my hands clean until they were red and swollen with anguish and small dots of red blood prickled across my knuckles...'

This story was originally published in the now-defunct lit mag, The Bicycle Review, in 2012.

Sea Shanty

'People joked about global warming, but I thought, why not enjoy it? The sunshine made me itch for the beach, for a road-trip with my besties, but alas, no, they were all in places like Coventry...' 

This story was also broadcast on BBC radio.

Some Things Are Not Nothing

'Is drinking your first alcoholic drink in two years the traditional way to celebrate your daughter’s first birthday, I wondered. My parents were encouraging me to order from the wine list, so that they could too...'

Foxgloves

'Back Story

The first time that I wrote something, I was in Japan, eating an egg that I’d hard- boiled in a Hello Kitty kettle with Engrish faux-proverbs all over the side...'

A hybrid essay, combining writing advice and memoir.

The Elements of Story

'Jane typed a new name onto the top of her CV: Cassandra Watts. At Education, she paused, and then typed the names of her children’s schools, and Reading University. She borrowed her own interests when detailing Cassandra’s hobbies...'

Preferred Candidate

'Rowena had never been to the docks before. Her knuckle knocked against the shipping container—tomato red and as rusty as a bicycle—and she recoiled from the death knell that rang out...' 

This story won the Reflex Fiction Prize for Summer 2018.

Crowbar

'It was the dog’s barking that roused me. I sat up in bed, prickling, and went to the window. In the early light, the blossoms floating from our trees looked like blood-washed snow. Beautiful; and quiet, like breath held...'

Lyndsay Wheble

Selected work