Introduction There’s a sycamore that grows in my memory. Its roots twist through the past. Its leaves whisper secrets I’m still learning to understand. When I wrote Ride a White Swan I thought I was rendering a memory of a woman we called The Witch, a boy who loved football, and a sycamore tree. However,Continue reading “Ride a White Swan: A story of Summer, Secrets and The Spaces Between By Nasir Ali Hussain”
Author Archives: simonmandrake
Denise Evelyne Knight
Lyne 12/3/1945 – 14/10/2023 When I was about eight years old, I became hyper aware of my mum’s mortality. I would lie in bed for hours worrying that she would be dead soon and that life without her would be unbearable. Sometimes, I would go downstairs in tears but there was nothing she could reallyContinue reading “Denise Evelyne Knight”
Three Colours: Pants
By Simon Downham-Knight For Terry Two Times Prologue: Being the middle-aged father of a teenager in the 2020s has made me realise more and more that growing up in the ‘70s and the ‘80s was a strange old time. We didn’t have the terror of all our business; all our mistakes; all our moments ofContinue reading “Three Colours: Pants”
Update
By Simon Knight It being the middle of February, it’s definitely too late to say Happy New Year. There have been a lot of life changes and reasons for the lack of posts from both Nas and I. Him with family commitments, me with moving and struggling with the death of my friend, Clinton. We’veContinue reading “Update”
Clinton Lopez
31/10/1974 – 2/11/2022 By Simon Downham-Knight Twenty days ago, my heart was broken when I heard that my best friend, Clinton Lopez, had been killed in a road traffic accident in his home country of Canada. I was asked to speak at his Memorial Service and the following is a transcript of what I said:Continue reading “Clinton Lopez”
Get Thee Behind Me
Found By Simon Downham-Knight * The following is a transcript of a letter I found amongst post cards, trinkets and jee jaws in a shoe box under some fibreglass insulation during some recent works in my house. Posted : 6/6/06 Dear Mother, By the time you read this, I am sure you will have heard aContinue reading “Get Thee Behind Me”
The Shiny Gold Lustre of Bollywood
By Nasir Ali Hussain “East is East and West is West, and never the twain shall meet.” Rudyard Kipling. Without myths we are nothing. I find myself thinking about the past a lot nowadays. It’s not all nostalgia either. Nor are my increased reveries of the past some catharsis or mental self -defense response againstContinue reading “The Shiny Gold Lustre of Bollywood”
Alison
By Simon Downham-Knight I strolled over to Mike Jones’s flat on a grey, early November evening in 1991. As I walked round the corner into Gloucester Street, I had an enigmatic feeling of excitement and trepidation. Mike’s flat was in one of those big white town houses in Pimlico. It had black railings, stairs thatContinue reading “Alison”
Bring on the Lucy
A Short Story by Simon Downham-Knight “Alright, boys. This is it. Over the hill.” John Lennon – Bring on the Lucie (Freda People) I’ve been a vegetarian since I was eight years old and a vegan since I was fifteen; I fucking hate meat: the smell of it, the taste of it, the feel ofContinue reading “Bring on the Lucy”
Wishing I Had A Photograph
By Nasir Ali Hussain I’d been told by people who’d grown up with me that the place where we had once lived had changed. Changed so much that it might as well be someplace else, with few, if any, signposts for fragments of memory to tack on to. When I went back I saw thatContinue reading “Wishing I Had A Photograph”
Spiral Staircase 