Ars Amandi

I didn’t fall for her because she was beautiful but rather because she wasn’t. I was hers the moment I saw her, on an October day twenty years ago. I was wondering through the Moravian Gallery, on my final day in the city. Brno is actually a pleasant city, once you have penetrated the dystopian outer ring of Communist era panelaky, and like peeling off … Continue reading Ars Amandi

City of Whores -Part Three

Read the previous instalment here Part Three – Leah Chernivtsy formerly Czernowitz Ukraine – 2010 By the time their tourist party had reached Przemysl, on the sleeper train, Leah was tired, and starting to feel that sense of loneliness and depression that can overwhelm solitary travellers.  Not that she was the only single in the group but, despite her six months of study at the … Continue reading City of Whores -Part Three

I Want to be Your Skivvy

Claire was her best friend. She shopped with Claire, drank cocktails, caught up over coffee, moaned about boyfriends. Claire was her only friend. And then she wasn’t. She knew this when Claire stopped answering her texts until the time she invited Claire to her birthday and read the reply “Your birthday? Certainly not!” She knew although Claire would not tell her. She knew that she … Continue reading I Want to be Your Skivvy

How I Became a Woman

As I lost consciousness I fell into dazzling whiteness at the bottom of which was a long shining corridor to a large oak door. I entered into a chamber where a magnificent woman sat on a throne, peacocks at either side. “Come kneel  before the Goddess of Cunt and make your petition.” “Gracious Goddess of Cunt, oh Queen of all Vulvas, I humbly request that … Continue reading How I Became a Woman

All the Sex We Never Had, All the Places We Never Went

Heraclitus wrote that you can never step into the same river twice. I have been thinking about this a lot recently while reading Olga Tokarczuk’s fragmentary travel novel Bieguni. The English translation is called Flights which is not a particularly accurate translation. There are an journeys in this book, journeys of different kinds, journeys by train, by boat, by plane, journeys in time.  Journeys of … Continue reading All the Sex We Never Had, All the Places We Never Went