This first volume contains a short story by Philip Hensher, whose latest novel The Northern Clemency was short listed for the Man Booker Prize 2008.
Read an extract and view issue contents below.
Extract:
The Death of John Garang – Philip Hensher
It had been fifteen years since I’d been in Cairo. At the end of the driveway of the hotel, a figure in the hotel livery, red and gold, raised his arm; the taxi stopped. Two men came from the shadows. Their white uniform had less show about it, and more meaning. They wore no gold badge with their names; had taken less care to be clean for my sake. One carried a device; a four foot pole with, at the bottom, an angled mirror; a dentist’s tool, a dentist for giants. He ran it swiftly under the car’s bodywork. His colleague said something to the driver, who tugged ineffectually at some lever under the dashboard; he spoke again, and the driver got out and forced the boot open. It was a Cairo taxi; a randomly chosen model and make of car that had been painted in black and white squares, giving it authority enough for the job. They looked together; the boot was closed. I had seen this procedure before at the entrance to government buildings. The driver got back in and drove the remaining twenty yards or so.
Table of Contents
Editorial – Virginia Baily and Sally Flint
Chickens – Luke Kennard 1
In the Orchard – Joanna Guthrie 5
Piggy Back – Ginny Baily 18
The Jarvis Route – Maggie Bevan 23
My Blood – Wame Molefhe 32
Obsession – Helena Locke 40
Tin Bird – Andy Brown – 43
Neap Tide – Lane Ashfeldt – 51
Listen – Sally Flint 55
The Death of John Garang – Philip Hensher 57
Roll up for the Arabian Derby – Susan Wicks 71
PMA – Joyce Ito 79
Shiloh Road – Max Dunbar 82
History Lessons – Paul Harvey 91
Maud and Joseph – Chelsey Flood 99
Julie – Jane Feaver 103
Turning – Heather Reid 108
Irrigation – Vanessa Gebbie 116
A Christmas Story – Rachel Regan 123
Contributors 134