Us or Me
The narrator and his wife, Clarissa, are picnicking on the grass when they are alerted to the danger that will change their lives. Five men, himself included, run and converge on the spot It is a...
View ArticleThe Diagnosis
Most people at their first consultation take a furtive look at the surgeon’s hands in the hope of reassurance. Prospective patients look for delicacy, sensitivity, steadiness, perhaps unblemished...
View ArticleOn Chesil Beach
They were young, educated, and both virgins on this, their wedding night, and they lived in a time when a conversation about sexual difficulties was plainly impossible. But it is never easy. They were...
View ArticleThe Use of Poetry
It surprised no one to learn that Michael Beard had been an only child, and he would have been the first to concede that he’d never quite got the hang of brotherly feeling. His mother, Angela, was an...
View ArticleHand on the Shoulder
My name is Serena Frome (rhymes with “plume”), and forty years ago, in my final year at Cambridge, I was recruited by the British security service. In the early spring of 1972, when exams were only...
View ArticleSome Notes on the Novella
When a character in my recent book, “Sweet Tooth,” publishes his short first work of fiction, he finds some critics are suggesting that he has done something unmanly or dishonest. His experience...
View ArticleThe Shrines on Boulevard Voltaire
In post-Christian Europe, spontaneous shrines at scenes of public tragedy have become a form of folk art, serving important functions. Some elements are vaguely religious—candles in glass pots,...
View ArticleMy Purple Scented Novel
You will have heard of my friend the once celebrated novelist Jocelyn Tarbet, but I suspect his memory is beginning to fade. Time can be ruthless with reputation. The association in your mind is...
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