Paul McDonald

Bognor Regis Esplanade, Bognor Gaming Lounge, Bognor Beachside Brew Bar. When she lingers at Bognor Gelatos he tugs her by as if she’s a toddler.   They’re on a diet because his blood pressure and cholesterol levels are high. She suggested he take statins and live a little, but he says that dieting is good […]

His girlfriend, Sue, has twin sisters – they’re seven years old and she wants to give them a treat. He agrees to a day at the zoo, though he and Sue are just nineteen and he’s wary of playing mom and dad. Besides, he struggles with kids, and before leaving home drinks a beer to

She has the red stag’s head down. It’s bigger up-close than it seemed on the wall: antlers that must be a yard across, tapering branches swaying on her lap. They’d been casting weird shadows for years, now she grips them like handlebars. She’ll struggle to hold it for long, its backboard pressing on her thighs,

Smoking at the breakfast table seems wrong, but he does it, despite her complaints. He promised her he’d quit, as she did years ago, but he never delivers.    She observes his fag as it smoulders in the ashtray: it points at his empty seat, poised for his return from the loo. It’s too close

I was seven when I had my tonsils removed. The children’s ward was full, so they put me on an adult ward. The sister said I’d need to jump over the bed before I’d be allowed home, and an adult patient in the next bed, Mr O’Donnell, confirmed this with a wink. Mr O’Donnell winked

Forty years ago, aged eleven, Helen White put her arm through his. He can still feel it: her pristine blazer-sleeve against his wrist. It stunned the school playground into silence, and a couple of his friends feigned epileptic fits.    Childishly in love, this is all he could have hoped for! He should have turned