‘Words once said’ was shortlisted for the Parracombe Prize 2023 and is published in their anthology and in As The Leaves Turn. You can also read this short story online here.
Read moreAn intro to 'The Third Night' by Natsume Soseki →
“The dream is thrillingly creepy: now we are in nightmare territory.” An introduction to Natsume Soseki’s short story ‘The Third Night’ for Scratch Classics
Read moreRevenge of the Short Story →
My review of Reverse Engineering - short story collection and dissection from Scratch Books - for Exacting Clam
Read moreThe Art of Lost Sleep in The London Magazine →
“Some way in to my recent trip to Japan it occurred to me that I hadn’t slept properly for twenty years…” My essay for Dodo Ink anthology Trauma is now available to read online at The London Magazine.
Read moreReview of After the Sun by Jonas Eika →
My review of Jonas Eika’s extraordinary collection After the Sun - in the first ever issue of Exacting Clam. Molluscs don’t come pickier than this one.
Read moreReview of Speak, Okinawa by Elizabeth Miki Brina →
“In clear, unfettered prose Brina rediscovers the history and culture of Okinawa that belong to her: memories that ‘stay in our bodies, regardless of whether we actually lived through them’’’ … My review of Speak, Okinawa in The Spectator
Read moreReview of Poisoning the Pacific by Jon Mitchell →
“When monsters in horror movies roar grotesquely into view, it’s often the revelation that they’ve been there all along that’s the big scare. It’s a powerful trope: the axe murderer is locked in the house with you, the bomb is in the attic. We have always known that the US military does some dubious things to protect us.”
Read my review of Poisoning the Pacific for Review 31
Read moreThe Bar by the Sea →
“Tongues. He’d always hated their lolling and poking, their insolence. Jeremy had glimpsed a quick shot of hers, pink-curled behind ageing teeth as away she went, perhaps for the last time. It was a special taunt, that this should be the last part of her to leave him.”
A new short story for The London Magazine - read it online here.
Read moreTrauma Anthology - The Art of Lost Sleep
Trauma: Art as a Response to Mental Health
Trauma is an anthology of essays on mental health. Essays range from the personal to the political, from the raw to the reflective, exploring topics such as grief, insomnia, anxiety, schizophrenia, meditation, abusive relationships, work, post natal depression, and the relationship between madness and creativity.
Read Venetia’s contribution, The Art of Lost Sleep, or watch a video of her talking about it.
Read moreReview of The Harpy by Megan Hunter →
“The harpy is childless, the creative feminine archetype turned destructive. She is seductive, though, a deadly, spectacular opposite to the patriarchal idea of a good woman.”
Read my review of The Harpy by Megan Hunter for Review 31
Read moreGarden Among Fires - A Lockdown Anthology
Vanishing Attention Span
Very pleased to have a piece in Marina Benjamin’s Lockdown Anthology - Garden Among Fires - available as a kindle book here. Proceeds go to Refuge. Read the essay here.
Read moreDreamtime in The London Magazine
Thrilled to have an excerpt from an earlier draft of Dreamtime in The London Magazine. Buy the Feb/March 2020 issue here or click the arrow below to read online.
Read moreReview of The Chameleon by Samuel Fisher →
“Spare a thought, toast munchers” - read my review of The Chameleon by Samuel Fisher for Review 31
Read moreBecoming an author - for King's College London
“I always wanted to be a writer, and I have always, from as far back as I can remember, written stories. Pretty much everything in my life, including a horrifying imagination, rolling insomnia and a proclivity for strange adventures and people, conspired to make this dream a reality and I arranged everything else to fit in with it.”
Publicity for Cowards →
An introvert’s guide to publicising a book, for the Oxford Editors blog. Proud to be an editor at this international literary consultancy.
Read moreMy London - Lost Soho in The London Magazine →
“The streets of Soho teem with the ghosts of its past. Here Dylan Thomas staggers out of the French House leaving his manuscript of Under Milk Wood under a chair; here Francis Bacon gazes adoringly at Muriel Belcher, the Colony Room’s impressively rude hostess, and Jeffrey Barnard props up the outer wall of Norman’s Coach and Horses, fag in hand. Karl Marx is forever holed up in Dean Street writing Das Kapital; the naked cry of the baby William Blake floats across Broadwick, and by the brothels of Brewer, David Bowie and Lucian Freud vie to dance with Sylvia Plath. Only knock on the right door and every shade you could ever wish to meet is there in some scabrous drinking dive, having the party of their deaths.” Read the essay at The London magazine online.
Read moreFrom Jung to Trump - the puer aeternus →
“The puer aeternus is a man-child, trapped in the fantasy and enchantment of childhood magic. He is Peter Pan, but he is also Russell Brand and Michael Jackson; he’s the 45 year old that still takes his washing home to mummy; he’s a womaniser, a misogynist, a narcissist… it’s possible he’s a megalomaniac with a saviour complex.”
Read moreWhy Would a Woman Write a Male Protagonist? →
“No man is a male island, no woman independent of male qualities and so much of our perception of the complex world of gender is rigid, outdated and facile. Perched in the eye of a man may well be a pretty good place to reflect upon ‘the women’.”
Read moreHow to Start Writing a Novel →
A blog for creative writing students at Tavistock Tutors.
Read moreCadiz Wandering
In 2015, I travelled in Spain, seeking to follow in the footsteps of some very distant relatives. Using their travel diaries as research, I wanted to see how the cities they visited - under the threat of revolution at the time - had changed over the intervening 160 years.
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