Alice Little Livres

The Railway Inn has stood across the road from the station ever since the railway was built... In this anthology, sixteen authors take us inside the Railway Inn and introduce us to its landlords, regulars, and those just passing through, letting us eavesdrop on some of the conversations at the bar, and see what else goes on. From beer and karaoke to ghosts and spies - crossing genres from crime thriller to comedy - this apparently workaday pub has a number of surprises in store for those who fancy coming inside. The concept behind this anthology originated with two stories written by Mike Evis, each featuring the 'Half Moon Inn'. At one of Didcot Writers' regular pub socials, Alice Little suggested that for their next group anthology everyone's stories should be set at, or at least feature, a common pub. The Railway Inn is a fictional location, but named after a pub in Didcot, long-since demolished. Didcot Writers opened international submissions for this volume in spring 2019 with a very strict brief (a version of which has been adapted for inclusion here) and the necessity for all works to go through a two-stage editing process - in order to ensure that each story could be made to refer to the same pub, and potentially also the same events and the same characters.

From 1970s Africa to mass hallucinations heralding the end of the world, from a man haunted by the spirit of his dead grandmother to a search for justice involving a powerful figure, from a couple facing a life-changing event to estranged family members reaching out and finding each other - this collection of short stories explores what happens when they connect for the first time.This collection of short stories was brought together by Didcot Writers in 2019. 51 submissions were received and judged anonymously by members of the team; 31 were selected for publication, from 30 authors. The editors and judges had certain expectations about the sort of stories we might receive, but readers will be surprised by the sheer variety of ways the authors have dealt with the theme, with a vast range of subjects and moods, from science fiction and fantasy to humour, and gritty realism to literary fiction, from uplifting to humour, to sad and bittersweet.These stories show how a simple enough theme - just two words - can spark off imaginative journeys that go in staggeringly different directions. As one of the contributors said, 'It's just wide open - you can go anywhere with that theme.' And this collection proves it.