‘Those who control the image of the monarchy did not then know the power of indifference.’
I came across a portrait of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II in the National Gallery in London. In the picture, the Queen is long and thin. Except for her crown and the flecks of gold sprinkled on her pink dress, she might be Olive Oyl from the old Popeye cartoons. From her left hand she swings one of…
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‘We meet at various points in the great swathes of the past that neither of us were alive to witness.’
Allen Bratton on a daytrip to a castle with his older boyfriend.
‘Listening to three white poets, whom I suspect are academics, talk about the state of poetry.’
Oluwaseun Olayiwola eavesdrops on an older generation.
‘I’d been dubious about his company at first.’
Sarah Moss on watching Shakespeare with her twelve-year-old son.
‘She didn’t trust us because, to her, tenants were like children.’
Kate Zambreno on negotiating with her older landlady.
‘A moment now swallowed in embarrassment, I asked a question only a young person might ask an older one.’
Lynne Tillman on trying to understand what makes a generation.
‘There they found a man and a woman dressed in face masks, rubber gloves and white coats standing behind a white table on which were placed an assortment of tools’
‘It was a clear, uncomplicated space, a brand image, a label that could be stuck on a billion sauce bottles.’
‘It was 1 a.m., and it was Los Angeles; they were used to indiscretion.’
A story by Rhian Sasseen.
Caryl Phillips on being chosen as a Best of Young British Novelists in 1993 and the nascent culture of literary celebrity.
‘It was a peculiar, alopecic landscape of hummocks and gullies, with patches of grass growing on what looked like white earth, and rarely a soul to be seen.’
A cat walks across the empty tarmac of the yard. The place is once more local and domestic.
