A colourful collage with a young brown haired woman with a bouffant and another smaller blonde woman drawn over in Andy Warhol screening style, with advertising slogans and a can of Libby’s creamed rice, these are against old floral wallpaper, surrounded by drawings of a starscape, leopard print and shapes that look like internal organs

Chore of Enchantment
Collage made from Wills Cigarettes & PG Tips collector’s cards, 1960s wallpaper, Vogue & Parade & Women’s Realm magazines, watercolour, acrylic marker & felt tip

The Oracle of His Ashes A ghost story from THE SPOILS & OTHER STORIES

I done a ghost story. It's free to read (but for God's sake, don't read it aloud).

Ah that’s great! I didn’t know it worked like that, I thought you had to approach them directly.

Are you listing it on Gardners, Ray? I know I always ask this, but I’d like to be able to supply for customer orders..

Scene is WAITROSE CUSTOMER SERVICES DESK. Behind it is a staff member, whose name we will soon learn is BECKY. She is dealing with a customer, for now out of shot, while talking to her manager on the phone. BECKY [on phone]: Yeah, hiya... 2 BECKY: Yes I have a customer here who wants to complain about the Easter eggs. 3 BECKY [putting hand over receiver while addressing the customer stood at the desk in front of her]: Sorry what was your name again? 4 [Pull back to show the customer is a very tall, green-skinned, PAGAN GODDESS, festooned with flowers. Stood next to her is her son, a normal human teenager in a hoodie, who looks mortified by his mum.] PAGAN GODDESS: Eostre the Pagan Goddess of Fertility 5 BECKY Sorry - Your name is Easter…? PAGAN GODDESS: Eostre. 6 [Vicky pauses, trying to take this in]. VICKY: Your name is Easter and you want to complain about the Easter eggs. 7 PAGAN GODDESS: Sorry love, what’s your name? BECKY: Becky PAGAN GODDESS: Well, Vicky - 8 PAGAN GODDESS: If it was you who’d shagged the solar god of the Equinox to give birth to an actual living god - my son Darren here - TEENAGE BOY: Muuum… 9 PAGAN GODDESS: ….only to have all your efforts totally forgotten by history, you’d have a complaint too! 10 PAGAN GODDESS: Aisle four is full of products, with no hint of the true meaning of the festival! 11 BECKY: You mean… Jesus…? PAGAN GODDESS: I mean shagging, Vicky. 12 PAGAN GODDESS: Is it too much to see just a little bit of pre-Christian sex in Aisle 4? TEENAGE BOY: MUUUUM [Ends]

Happy Ēostre!

Prints of this comic (and others) available in my shop - link in bio

The offer stands, by the way, that if you're someone I sort of know in some way and you might consider reviewing it, or otherwise making people aware of its existence, I'm happy to send a copy of 'Thin Places in Hard Concrete' your way.

A mocked up cover of a paperback book called Thin Places in Hard Concrete with a gradient pattern in pale blue and purple and a floating concrete staircase. The book is sitting on, what else, hard concrete.

‘Thin Places in Hard Concrete‘ is due very shortly. If you want to review it, or want me talk about it for your blog, publication or podcast, let me know.

In the meantime, my two previous collections of short stories are here:

👉 www.amazon.co.uk/Municipal-Go...

👉 www.amazon.co.uk/Intervals-Da...

A graceful lurcher, quick loose good drawing of gentle creature on grey paper in black and white lines

Henry viii all pompous hands, with a vibrant monkey that I liked and a tiny thin mask of my face, small colourful painting

Van Gogh smoking his pipe looking energised, perhaps with adrenaline after a bad nights sleep like what I’ve had. Bright orange and blue and ink

Face on textured painting of terraced house/s, yellow blue and grey and blue and nice

I have added this ‘flattened terrace’, this activated Vincent, this Henry viii with the monkey and the mask, and of course Milky the Dog to my website (original art), in various logical subsections. Please think about supporting artist such as me . #supportartists

www.chloecumming.com/paintings

@angelcakepie2.bsky.social, I’m guessing you’ve already heard this news, but just in case…

David Olusoga on Home and Belonging How the working-class historian learned to reject his rejection

“The morning chorus of late-industrial Newcastle was the sound in the background as I readied myself for the journey to school... There, in my failing school, we were prepared for jobs that did not exist, jobs in failing companies that were part of failing industries.”

Man’s ‘disbelief’ after five-year quest for rare book ends in local Oxfam shop Paul Dixon had trawled bookshops and specialist sellers across the UK, and had even contacted shops on the island of Iona

This is so fun!

news.stv.tv/scotland/man...

I think the modern tendency to not have 'things', either through fashion, economics or other pressures breaches a mental boundary. If you don't have nick nacks, keepsakes, a box in the cupboard, a couple of drawers of stuff, a pile of papers or pic your memories are always porous and easily replaced

PM asks Sir Jim Ratcliffe to apologise for saying UK 'colonised by immigrants' Sir Keir Starmer says comments by the businessman and Manchester United co-owner are

Obviously zero reflection in any of this on how operating the largest empire in human history may have turned us into a multicultural nation. We are here because you were there. #Empireland

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Guidance for responding to 'A Fairer Pathway to Settlement' consultation We are Amnesty International UK. We are ordinary people from across the world standing up for humanity and human rights.

The UK government is proposing radical and punitive changes to settlement rules. This is settlement, not citizenship. The consultation is open until 12 February; please respond to it and oppose these evil proposals. Amnesty have a good guide: www.amnesty.org.uk/resources/gu...

Genuinely, if you live in the UK you should so the consultation just to find out some of the unbelievable details of what's being proposed. Even with their spin and obfuscation it's shocking

Colourful greenish scratchy scratched oil pastel drawing of a brown owl from India that’s related to a barn owl, with nice dark eyes

Moluccan Masked Owl drawing (oil pastels and pencils)

Oil pastel drawing of a large brown owl with black eyes, many non careful lines

Oil pastel Barred Owl

An ink and things drawing of a big fat faced owl quite intense with markings in the sky and orangeness

Emotional Long Eared Owl. Ink and things drawing

While independent bookstores are giving out free whistles, hosting protest sign making events, and donating proceeds to mutual aid, Amazon is *checks notes* providing technology that assists ICE in their terrorizing of communities.

Independent bookstores deserve your support. Amazon does not.

Every American needs to watch this:

Ian McKellen performs 400-year-old pro-immigrant Shakespeare monologue live on Stephen Colbert Sir Ian McKellen delivered a pro-immigration speech written by Shakespeare during an appearance on Stephen Colbert's talk show

www.nme.com/news/tv/ian-...

Betty Feathers!

Looking at the collection, I think it’s only the first story that features Old Filth and Terry Veneering, but it is definitely worth seeking out!

And short stories set in the same world (The People on Privilege Hill)

Also, Beryl Bainbridge..

She is sensationally good, isn’t she? Her short stories are marvellous too, ‘The Great, Grand Soap-Water Kick’ is an all-time favourite.

This photo doesn’t really do it justice, it has a lovely lustre

A close-up of a silver pendant and chain suspended from a Christmas tree. The pendant is cast from a real dragonfly wing.

This gorgeous thing arrived today and I couldn’t love it more, beautiful artistry and craftsmanship by Emma Mitchell @silverpebble2.bsky.social

This is a comic pate drawn in the soft pencil style of The Snowman by Raymond Briggs Basically the story is this: - Keir Starmer in dressing gown presses face up to window, excited that it is snowing - He runs outside, builds a snowman - It comes to life, taps on his window - He invites it in, gives it clothes (yellow trouser, green jacket, flat cap) and we realise (face close up) it looks like Nigel Farage - Snowman takes him outside, launches off the ground - They fly over the landscape, we see a town below - A man ziptying a St George’s Flag to a lamp post waves at them as they pass - As in the original, they head for the sea - we see a light by the coast - Instead of Brighton pier as in the original, it is an Asylum Detention Center - They land, we see people queuing behind a fence - Snowman Farage points excitedly at a large bin marked VALUABLES - Snowman Farage pulls a child's E-scooter out of the bin, he and Starmer look excited - They take off again and go back to Keir’s home - Farage resumes his place in the garden, Starmer walks back inside to go back to bed - The next day Snowman Farage has melted, leaving only his clothes and the scooter - now with a bow and label attached to show it is a Christmas gift. [ends]

My full page comic for the @prospectmagazine.co.uk Christmas issue. With sincere apologies.

What looks like an old Edwardian book called 'Tales From The Society of Particular Peculiarities'.

NEW FICTION: The Stray Dog

“The incoming air had a faint but unusual scent, not entirely wholesome, as if something had been left out of the pantry and was beginning to turn...”

precastreinforced.co.uk/2025/12/20/f...