Works
Our members are prolific writers, and have among them produced hundreds of literary works.
Books
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Short Stories
Copyright for all works published here rests with the respective authors, or the author’s authorised agent. If you are interested in publishing or discussing a poem or short story with the author, please contact the Cambridge Writers’ membership secretary, Harry Goode, in the first instance, who will forward your request to the author.
Giver of Gifts – by Michael English
Won first prize at the Cambridge Short Story Competition 2017. A cold coming we had of it, or so T.S. Eliot wrote. He may have been right about our predecessors, but, I have to admit, our journey is not so
Beryl – by Les Brookes
Won second prize at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2107 It was a fair-sized gathering. A few friends and neighbours, some aunts and uncles, a couple of cousins. His parents liked to throw a party now and again, and
The Three Kings Ritual – by Nicola Gifford
Received Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2017. There was a knock on the door. I ignored it. I was on the phone to a stolen debit card helpline, at least I was held in a telephone
Snowy Saturdays – by Helen Culnane
Won third prize at the Cambridge Short Story Competition 2017. We pull into a parking bay, the driver cuts the engine and sings out, ‘Drummer Street Bus Station’. I join the flow of passengers filing off the bus and emerge
Lingering – by Siobhan Carew
Received Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2017. It was my last day. I couldn’t say when I might return and the last few hours in the place where my family had lived became sharply precious. I
Bury The Truth – by Jane Phillips
Received Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2017. This was the part of his job that Ken most enjoyed – the opportunity for silent contemplation. The preparation was done. The T’s were all crossed and the I’s
What the Dog Ate – by Catherine Brierley
Received Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2016. A true tale of gluttony Blossom was a big black dog. She had long black legs and spotty white paws. She had a big black body and a spotty
Requital – by Les Brookes
Awarded third prize at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2016. This is a weird experience. A first for me. Never been to such a gathering. Suits, hats and rosettes everywhere. The place bustling with self-delighted busybodies. What did someone
Amour Douloureux – by Angela Wray
Received Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2016. She had been my mad, dangerous lover and I needed her back. I couldn’t think of anything else. In the year that I had been without her my longing
Work in Progress – by Will Tate
Awarded second prize in Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2016 Gerald Bowman steps gingerly over his sun-baked terrace and dives into the pool. While the dramas of chapter twenty-five are printing he swims his dozen lengths, then he dries on
Secret Cat – by Michael English
Received Highly Recommended in Cambridge Writers 2015 Short Story Competition So here I am with my friend Marvin in a big room in a big building in a place Marvin calls London. Over there is a dumpy woman in a
Out of the Blue – by Tim Love
Won Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition “My money’s running out,” said Hanna on the phone, “let’s decide quickly. How about one of the clubs by the canal?” “Which?” “I don’t know, they keep changing. Saturday night
Behind Closed Doors – by Angela Wray
Won Second Prize at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2015 Not long before she’d given birth to Dorothea, in 2038, the government had announced that 95% of the UK population were clinically obese. Hospitals were experiencing regular bed crises
Bathsheba – by Harry Goode
Was Highly Recommended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2015 I had not realised just how powerful my mother was until I saw my half-brother Absalom swinging by his hair from the thorn tree. He had tried to seize
Eggs Benedict – by Alice Turner
Awarded second prize in Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2014. Eggs Benedict, crispy bacon, Belgian waffles. Stuffed at breakfast. The waffles, strangers to the continent of Europe, just a trifle stale in the Caribbean heat. He arrives with effort, she
The Dangerous Comma – by Will Tate
Awarded third prize in Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2014. Long ago I had resolved never again to have writers for friends. I suffered too much for them, and with them, when they could not write. But the fourteen years
The Taxi Driver – by Angela Wray
Highly commended at the Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2014. Leila slipped through the hole in the fence and looked around. How strange, she thought, that this garden could be so completely different from her own – no climbing frame,
Tracking James -by Les Brookes
Highly commended in Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2014. And after all she was not a prying mother. She had always respected his privacy, his right to live his own life without interference. She had never so much as passed
Wimbledon to Wood Green – by Les Brookes
Awarded first prize in Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2014. Oh, hullo. Is that Stew? It’s Rog. Yeah, that’s right, Rog. Rog Molesworth. Bit of a shock, eh? This voice from the spirit world? No, honestly, it’s not a hoax
Red Snapper – by Karin Milner
Frank always drove the 132 bus down Marine Boulevard to the Farmers’ Market in Seattle and nothing got him in more of a bad mood than Maddy coming to work with him. “Don’t tell me fresh fish for dinner again
A Chapter of Accidents – by Will Tate
Commended at Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2013 A bunch of them clever professors up at Harvard, or maybe it was Oxford, England, or someplace, reckon the whole universe was caused by accident; some Big Bang or something. Now
Of the fathers – by Alice Turner
First prize at Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2013. They said the sky could drive you mad. Wide open, flooding light, far as far to see. But I think he was born crazy. They said on a full moon you
Three Little Piggies – by Stephen Hammond
Recommended at Cambridge Writers Short Story Competition 2013 ‘What’s this story called?”It’s called THE THREE LITTLE PIGGIES OF THE APOCALYPSE.”How does it go, Mummy?”Once upon a time -”What time?”It’s a story. That’s the way stories begin.”I want to know exactly.”Ten
Fallen Angel – by Will Tate
Awarded 2nd place in Cambridge Writers short story competition of 2012 It was a quiet day at police headquarters. I hoped it would stay that way. If I could be bothered to haul my feet off my desk and stare
Every Shepherd Tells His Tale – by Will Tate
Read at Cambridge Writers’ Short Scripts Meeting, 19 June 2003 “WRITER VALERIE LAWS HAS BEEN AWARDED A £2,000 GRANT FROM THE NORTHERN ARTS COUNCIL TO CREATE ‘WALKING POETRY’ BY SPRAY-PAINTING WORDS ON TO SHEEP. UP TO 15 SHEEP WILL HAVE
The Porlock Institute – by Will Tate
Sunday 5th February “Every addict thinks that he can stop- just like that. But it isn’t that simple. It gets in deep. He tells everyone, especially himself, that he’s okay. He can handle it. But one day he wakes
Lingering in the Lane – by Helen Culnane
“There’s a dead body in Pasture Lane,” said Michael. “No there’s not!” said Susan kicking him hard under the table. “Don’t speak with your mouth full,” scolded their mother who was struggling to coax a spoonful of mashed carrot into
Poetry
Copyright for all works published here rests with the respective authors, or the author’s authorised agent. If you are interested in publishing or discussing a poem or short story with the author, please contact the Cambridge Writers’ membership secretary, Harry Goode, in the first instance, who will forward your request to the author.
Pathfinder – by Dr. Emily Bilman
With our rings as round as the “o” in Galileo We exchange our nuptial vows, our hearts beating In close
The dogs that chase bicycle wheels – by Ilse Pedler
stare out of windows, checking the boundaries checking the boundaries. They have territories to protect, circling from the backs of
Autumn sonnet – by Harry Goode
Now it begins, slowly the drift of days,singly at first, in whispering descent,each loss imperceptible, but shall layin clots at
Eating Passion Fruit – by Emily Bilman
Like Eve eating the first fruit,I savoured the fruit’spassion, luscious like milk-weed in my mouth. I pickedand ate and ate
November Argument – by Karin Milner
Will you break the silence or shall I?Like the glass carpet on the Cam deep winteror shall we sit in
Non-Fiction
sublimation
By Emily Bilman Like a serpent the tram slithered around the city surreptitiously. Amid the passengers, I held on to a railing in the middle of the tram with one handand faced the river Rhône. Geneva
How to avoid… centipedes and millipedes – by Jane Wilson-Howarth
A must read for anybody phobic about small creatures. First published in BBC Wildlife magazine Most centipedes are nocturnal predators that feed mostly on small arthropods; the largest scolopridrids have been reported to take mice, small