Frederick the Great

About the author

Nick Mansfield

Nick Mansfield has published one volume of poetry, and has also been a teacher of English, cultural studies and creative writing.

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The menaced assassin

FictionSOPHIE STANDS IN front of the painting, flexing her toes. She pushes one heel off the ground and then the other, as though she...

FictionIt was always busy there in Palermo. During a snow shower I’d sit in the cafés, small corner net connections. Sometimes the weather was a little heavy – I’d kick my boots clean of ice at the entrance, umbrella heavy with sleet. The man you paid to use the internet would be singing in Farsi; a woman would speak in hushed tones in the cubicle. Sometimes not so hushed. Talking to her family on the other side of the world. Where maybe it was snowing, too. And together they could listen to each other. Together in the snow they could talk.

The night sky from the surface of Mars

PoetryWell, first off, it’s not home. Your sharp intake of breath tells you that, as you clock the horizon-to-horizon stars from the Mars robot’s black-bubble swivelling eye all...