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: The minuteContinue reading “Clinton Lopez”
Author Archives: simonmandrake
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”
What’s for Dinner?
By Simon Downham-Knight It was nineteen eighty-one and I was ten years old when my mum came home with Bandit and said that she was mine. She was a tiny little black and white kitten with a black stripe across her eyes that went up at the nose. This gave the appearance of a dominoContinue reading “What’s for Dinner?”
The Shiny, Green Lustre Of Folk Horror
By Nasir Ali Hussain “From the brown, bark trees, the green hanging leaves, the stone faerie forts to the power and fury of the horned, cloven-hoofed god.” It could be said that where science fiction is concerned with the future, and fantasy with a time that never was, the genre of the supernatural is almostContinue reading “The Shiny, Green Lustre Of Folk Horror”
This is Brenda – Part 4
A Web Series in Several Iterations Brenda & Kitty – Part 3 Brenda & Kitty – Part 3 was filmed during the time between doing The X Factor auditions and finding out that we had been busted. Kitty came up with the idea of filming at the St Werburgh’s Art Trail during the late SpringContinue reading “This is Brenda – Part 4”
The Before and After Of HeadCleaner
By Nasir Ali Hussain I tend to see my life in distinct parcels of time. Each parcel containing its own distinctive tone, flavour and character. A certain trigger event will then occur and I will find that I have entered into a new parcel of time, a new era of life. The trigger event canContinue reading “The Before and After Of HeadCleaner”
Spiral Staircase 