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"Some weather!” Ellen called out over the patter of rain, her rubber boots sucking and slapping into the sodden moss. Lisa nodded. As the two women trod across the woodland, their feet read a Braille of pine cones and roots. Rain hissed through the treetops and the ferns and drummed against Ellen’s hood; the rustle of her Hi-Viz jacket and her own breathing echoed in her ears. It was a fifteen-minute walk from the carpark where they’d left the van to the lake, taking the gra

Mark flicked up the indicator with his left hand, watching the cars roll past as he waited for a gap. The indicator’s metronome marked the passing of a mint green Vauxhall, a lumpy Nissan, a few snub-nosed white cars, a gun-metal grey SUV. The junction was busy this afternoon. As a black car drove past his window, he noticed a gap opening behind it and revved, casting a glance over his left shoulder as he turned right. At the traffic lights ahead in a lilac Fiat, a young woma

“Why would you waste all those pounds on 2008? That’s just for rich guys who can buy a ton of houses”, Ollie said, his head lurching forwards with the force of his disbelief. “If you’re going for music, 2012 is better to be fair – and didn’t you literally go to 2008 last time?”, Kyle piped up from behind a bottle of Coke. “We could just come here again.” Sam ignored both boys, nudging a toe into the bulging drawstring bag. “At the end of the day, they’re my pounds.” His v

“He was only twenty-seven years old when he cracked the Enigma code in the Second World War”. Raising and dropping and raising the river-slick pole, the top-half of a Scudamore man sailed behind Aaron’s back. Aaron’s arms were outstretched towards his girlfriend as if the camera in his hands were a holy libation. She followed the punt’s progress out of view and renewed her smile with effort. “Could you hear it in the background, the punter?” Megan asked for the third time t