Claudia decides to get revenge on a girl in her class. But has she gone too far? 1908 There was a sudden sharp kick to the back of her chair, sending her abdomen hard into the desk. There was a familiar, tinny laugh and then another kick, sending the metal legs…

Short twist story — She was beautiful. That’s how most stories begin, and it is indeed how this one will begin. In the low yellow lights of the dressing room and the soft blur of the mirrors, her face gazed back at her in a gaussian shutter of ivory, chalk, shell, and ice. The…

What do you do when someone’s disorder makes them behave in an evil way? — It was a dark, cold late January day when a message flickered up on my screen as I huddled under the covers. A former work colleague, from some years ago, had reached out. I hadn’t spoken to him in maybe a year, maybe more, as he’d been in an intense…

How you make other people feel is 90% of making friends — I now make a conscious effort not to be unkind, every day. If I’ve lost my temper, I’ll always say sorry straight away. If I’ve been self-absorbed, I always try to make amends. If I’ve said something unpleasant, I’ll try to rectify the situation. I’m not a naturally good person…

28 children disappear. But nothing is as it seems — If you go north of Viljandi where the great lake swallows the skies and sinks the forests in the spring floods, you’ll come to the Beria Valley. Well, that’s what they want you to call it. The guards with their tobacco brown spit and their hard cold gloves demanded you…

The good, the bad, and the dying — ★★★ Okay, I confess. I’m not exactly the target market. In fact, I’m so far out of the target market orbit that I’m pretty sure the thousand or so quinquagenarian men in the audience thought I was some kind of plant. My friend, also 26, also a woman, and also a…

She was written up by the tabloids as a 30 day bloodthirsty bride. But what does the Khatun case really tell us about how Britain views women of colour? — Mahmuda Khutan murdered her husband with a single stab wound to the chest while he was watching television. You know that part of the story. But you probably don’t know Mahmuda. I know many Mahmudas. I know their histories, the way their faces crease behind sheets of tissues and bottled…

Why does Putin’s Russia have such a warped worldview? — Two plus two equals five. — 1984, George Orwell The Old Lie: Gloriosum est iacere in proelio Have you ever had someone lie to your face? An obvious, ridiculous lie that left you unable to hide the incredulity, if not laughter, at the idea you might have believed them? A lie that was so false, it was almost…