Photos by Maleeha Mir & Kay Lacey, Words by Chris Russell You can listen to the complete audio recording of this event via this link. During the closing hours of the 2026 London Book Fair, Byte Th…
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Photos by Phoebe Ireland, Words by Chris Russell You can listen to the complete audio recording of this event via this link. On a drizzly February evening at Soho’s Century Club, Byte the Book gathere…
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By Dea Parkin “Ill Wind” was selected as the finalist of the 2022 Byte Shorts Showcase. The wind keened across the Trojan plain. Huddled in the camp, shivering in a thin fur, Lysander stared at his s…
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By Nic Mira “Shallows” was selected as the finalist of the 2022 Byte Shorts Showcase. A lone, late gull swoops across the departing boat’s wake, the oarsman standing at the stern and pushing against…
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By Laurence Kershook “Payback” was selected as the finalist of the 2022 Byte Shorts Showcase. Watch the live reading. https://bytethebook.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/05/LKershook-reading.mp4 I clearl…
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by Helen Bell “Holding In The Light” was selected as the finalist of the 2022 Byte Shorts Showcase. Ash’s family perched around his bed, looking horribly like vultures. I stood, at the back of the ro…
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by Sarah Bedwell “French Mustard” was selected as the winner of the 2022 Byte Shorts Showcase. ‘It’s nobbut shite in a jar. What’s tha be wanting that for?’ ‘Our Marilyn likes it. She had it w…
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The General was known as being a hard man. Tough as they come. He wore no expression and said little. His hands looked like old walls, chipped and grooved. When he walked, what was beneath him gave up…
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Mis Higginbottom, by Catherine Evans Miss Higginbottom had been games mistress at Highbridge School for Girls for twenty-seven years. Sundays aside, she was never seen in anything other than a navy tr…
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In the spirit of all things Byte Confluence our short story this month is by the brilliant Toby Litt. Toby will be speaking at Byte Confluence, our conference on the business of storytelling on 19th M…
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These two micro-stories are from the book Story Cities. A City Guide for the Imagination, published by Arachne Press, conceived and co-edited by Rosamund Davies. The book features over 40 writers in a…
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The Pool The Lifeguard The lifeguard sits in the chair ten feet above the pool deck, a whistle around her neck. Her shift is two hours long. There are nine people in the pool: one in the fast lane, th…
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Once a year, the last week of classes, the kids get to try out a special power for the day. We all look forward to it, us teachers too. It’s the highlight of the semester. The kids can’t choose just a…
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The weight of the hammer is satisfying. ‘Help me with the fence,’ Mother had said. ‘Get the big hammer in the shed.’ Such a heavy lump of metal, smelted and beaten into shape. The muddy black colour o…
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The honeymoon was a time to celebrate the sweetness of your connection. Aunt Harriet’s card had a real clover stuck on the front, an extra leaf drawn on in pencil. There was a large pile of them, all…
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She danced on me this morning. With her mother’s phone playing the songs she likes. She paused to change the song and then danced again. She was wearing new clothes I hadn’t seen before, white with na…
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What if there has been no turning point in your life for twenty-two years? You wait for something to spur you into a change. There have been fluctuations, and movement, but no critical moments. Never…
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Things began to fall apart: sudden, unforeseen disintegrations that were frankly alarming. It began on the top, that’s to say the third floor, which is where I have my office. The first thing that wen…
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Exposure I knew it was wrong. I did it anyway. His breath on my neck, his sweat on my torso. Just when we were supposed to stay the fuck apart, we drew together, under the sway of a gravitational pull…
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COVID in Brixton Jess picked at her teriyaki noodles. They were a bit too dry. She’d made them so many times in these 12 days of isolation, she should know better. But after the first week, she was cl…
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