In conclusion, it was a bad idea. But at first it looked very promising. It was hard to build such a large vessel in the backyard of the old, worn-out apartment building where they lived. But when you

A tramp was sitting, in a pub, the time was exactly eight thirty, a pint in front of him fruitful, and golden-brown money, sprang from his hands, a large plate of mash, and pie was set, before him, green!

He ached. Lying on ancient wooden floorboards. The furniture around him was plastic garden and broken Victorian. He felt hollow, yet bloated from the cheap curry – half of it lay on the floor beside him.

She scrolled through her Insta-feed, bored, exhausted and brain dead. Ten seconds ago, while trying to get a small cup in the upper shelf of the cupboard, she had accidentally pushed the large dough mixer

The experience was cathartic. Never had she seen such an incredible TV show. It followed four middle‑aged, witty and charming women in London navigating love, changing partners, and the tug between liberty

He always returned to this story: the man who had tied his horse to a tree and then left it. To him it was humanity in one despicable image. Selfish, irresponsible, self-absorbed, forgetful and evil. To

Back then, back in the early times, when humans were travelling the plains and forests of West Africa, one day a bloke called Sto, a hunter-gatherer and flautist, found himself chased by a giant, female

The little pearl was shaking and twisting. He had his enhancer hovering above it, making it possible to look through the translucent surface. It was a fascinating spectacle. Small, red, animated cells

It was a splendid thing that rocket. Some would find it a bit sinister with its plump form, black, grey and red paint scheme and the skeleton and the maiden that was painted on the side (she still liked

He was the wind. He swept round her. Cool and soothing. A day later he was Lukas. Working as a call centre slave in Düsseldorf. In the afternoon he would wander – one day, full of longing, he wandered

He looked at her T-shirt. It read, Harmful to some, harmful to all, in white Gothic letters above one of those Celtic three-fold knots. She was young and very ugly, which she had tried to soften with some

The cutter lay half-buried in the dark soil, light skimmed the horizon – dim and chilly. The sea had not been here for a very long time. She sat on a stool washing the cold armature clean with soapy water

1 Elisabeth Thornycraft put on her enhancers, focusing on the small image on the copper plate. She took her pinharpers, a special tool that had been invented by her predecessor Benjo Handwarker. It would

The torrent of small plastic objects kept coming down the cliff. The house would be covered within an hour if it didn’t stop. She went to the shed and grabbed her bicycle. What on earth… who on earth was

The purple plush sofa was placed in the middle of the room. He called it their command centre. She called it the cosy corner, even though the four corners of the room were equally distant from the sofa,

Purple, broad-petalled and venomous. The flowers of the large tree in the yard were almost too much. The fragrance was pleasant, yet so intense and overwhelming that many of the inmates called it a stench.

The three masts towered over him as the sails were being set. The boys manning the yards clung on for dear life as the ship pitched in the fresh weather. From where he stood he could now see – painted

The blade of the knife was made of some sort of black stone – flint or obsidian, was her guess. It had been given to her by her grandmother on that dreadful evening where the old woman had died. The handle

The creature struggled to get through the heavy scrub. It didn’t have the mental faculty to experience anything but panic. It just ran. Before it was a bog. Torn and desperate, it reached the marshy terrain

The chair was uncomfortable – an old oak seat from the Tokukan dynasty, probably worth hundreds of silver coins. Her arse hurt, but it was fine, because she was going to have an audience with the Grand