Heres Scarlett, in the garden of a friends house in London on a sunny summer morning, the kind of mornings that are unusual in England. Scarlett is twelve years old (thirteen in November she tells me), and is trying to understand the world around her...
Starshine asked Non-Being, Master, do you exist? Or do you not exist? Since he received no answer at all, Starshine set himself to watch for Non-Being. He waited to see if Non-Being would appear. He kept his eyes fixed on the deep Void, hoping to cat...
June 5th 2006 Henry looks carefully into the telescope which lets him see far, far away, as far away as the distant nebulae on the far edges of the Milky Way. Henry is an astronomer. He looks at the sky, and at stars in particular. Even though he spe...
O say what is that thing call'd Light, Which I must ne'er enjoy; What are the blessings of the sight, O tell your poor blind boy! You talk of wondrous things you see; You say the sun shines bright: I feel him warm, but how can he Or make it day or ni...
After your addio - breathless, banal, the click of the telephone, I came out into Corso Vittorio Emmanuele. Milan's glorious main street: rows of posh shoe shops, buckles and toecaps on tip toe behind thick glass; at the end of the boulevard the cath...
Nikos was an ordinary man. Nothing particularly good ever happened to him, nothing particularly bad ever happened to him. He went through life accepting the mixture of good things and bad things that happen to everyone. He never looked for any explan...
Pussy can sit by the fire and sing, Pussy can climb a tree, Or play with a silly old cork and string To 'muse herself, not me. But I like Binkie my dog, because He knows how to behave; So, Binkie's the same as the First Friend was, And I am the Man i...
Tom Jankowitz took his coat off and threw it onto the seat in the airport lounge. He sat down and opened up his laptop computer, keeping one eye on the small television which showed the departure times of all the flights from the airport. Tom Jankowi...
Fausto Ruiz got off the boat at the port of the city where he had been born fifty years ago, and to which he had not returned for twenty years. He walked along the seafront, surprised by how much his hometown had changed, and also by how much of it h...
Dad he said, Theres a dinosaur living in the garage. Is there really, Jake? said his dad. Thats interesting. Now go and away and play. Daddys busy at the moment. Jakes dad went back to reading his newspaper. Jake had suspected that there was a dinosa...
The sun was setting on the links, The moon looked down serene, The caddies all had gone to bed, But still there could be seen Two players lingering by the trap That guards the thirteenth green. The Einstein and the Eddington Were counting up their sc...
The four judges have been sitting in a small room in the Milton Hotel in London for three hours now. The judges must agree on who will win the four awards in the important Global Music Awards: best album, best song, best new band and lifetime achieve...
A flatulence tax on cattle and sheep, Another rip-off to make us all weep. Preserving the ozone at any expense, It's all propaganda that doesn't make sense. Abandon the flock and abolish the herd, When it comes to survival, then nothing's absurd. But...
Every August. Every August for twelve years. Every August for twelve years we went to the same small town on holiday. Every August for twelve years we went to the same beach. Every August for twelve years my parents rented the same small house in the...
The interesting most boring man in the world By Chris Rose People often said that Thierry Boyle was the most boring man in the world. Thierry didnt know why people thought he was so boring. Thierry thought he was quite interesting. After all, he coll...
