Carys Davies

‘His name was Arthur Pritt, he said, and he was sorry for the day.’

Emma Martin

‘This was a tiredness that caused Hannah to walk into a travel agent in Clapham High Street on a grey Tuesday morning and buy a ticket to New Zealand.’

Diana McCaulay

‘Lloyd heard his grandfather’s voice in his mind: I come from a line of fishermen.’

Andrea Mullaney

‘I did not meet my husband until six years after he died.’

Jekwu Anyaegbuna

‘It is always an honour to have women cry during someone’s burial, but yours is too silent for comfort.’

Anushka Jasraj

‘We have been married five years – too soon for us to take pleasure in each other’s absence.’

Alan Warner

‘Each man’s right hand was stained black with glossy wet muck.’

Esther Freud

‘When the Lindens arrived in Los Angeles it was raining. Not drizzling, or even pouring, but streaming down outside the glass doors of the arrivals lounge in thick, grey sideways slices.’

Lawrence Norfolk

‘After a turn they came to a high arched entrance from which cooking smells drifted.’

Ross Raisin

‘A few drivers had slowed to look up at the side of the coach as it circled the roundabout.’

Issue 119

Mario Vargas Llosa

‘He stood, rubbing his arms. How long had he slept? Not knowing the time was one of the torments of Pentonville.’

Issue 119

Tania James

‘Gama has defeated them all, and more, but how is he to be Champion of the World if this half of the world is in hiding?’

Cynan Jones

‘In the car lights he could see just beyond the runs the bodies of cars like some disassembled ghost train littering the field.’

Issue 119

Mark Haddon