Our prose piece this month is ‘History’ by Alan Passey. Alan has been writing and making up stories for most of his life. He’s amazed at how little has survived despite having a loft full of boxes. As a young man, his reaction to sitting his GCE Chemistry exam was to write a poem and submit that instead of wrestling with the Periodic Table. He wasn’t given his poem back. Since then, poetry and short stories have slotted in between the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune and the travails of ordinary life. He had some success with publication in the 90s but sadly failed to build upon it.
In 2012, Alan began blogging at singlemaltmonkey.com and soon found himself on the front page of WordPress. An honour which brought him short-term international recognition and thousands of views in a matter of days. His 15 minutes of fame had begun but quickly came to an end when a comedian on Radio 4 pinched his tagline – “another sandwich-related injury”.
Alan still blogs, writes poetry and short stories, and dreams of becoming the new Raymond Carver. ‘History’ can be read by clicking here.
Somewhere Else Writers Group 