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At this year’s Brockley Max festival, I performed a new short story, ‘The Leaving Present’, a fictional throwback to my former corporate career with a vengeful twist.

Along with my friends the Writers of Our Age, we returned to the upstairs bar at the Brookmill Pub which was also home to an exhibition of photographs, taken locally, by Robin Green and Kerry Bailey.

Their pictures, which you can glimpse in the background below, represented the natural world. Inspired and surrounded by their beautiful work, we thought it would be fun to construct our stories around the idea of ‘image’.

Robin is also a sound engineer, and kindly recorded all our performances.

You can listen to this short reading from anywhere – FREE on Soundcloud.

Photos © Nicola Rossi, 2024.