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.

More from this edition

FictionNow Pidgin didn’t say much to nobody, but he was different around his feathered friends, and also with me, coming to overlook my human bits. Plus I never poked fun at him the way others did, about the slowness, the bung eyes or walking like a string was tied from his ankle to the back of his nog – you know, pidgin-like – or being good with nothing else but bird things, which never holds much bargain for others, and they’ll want to tease and knuckle what they don’t get. Truth is I was in love with Pidgin, not that he knew – though it could have been mooch, since he was always calling me up.

At the end of the line

Non-fictionTHE CALLS STARTED the night I was released from hospital. My lungs again. I’d coughed so hard inside my motorcycle helmet that I’d blacked out as I slowed down for a traffic light, slipped off and under my bike, and out into a rain-slick intersection.

Escape rooms

IntroductionClick here to listen to Editor Ashley Hay read her introduction ‘Escape Rooms’. THE RAINBOW LORIKEET – a fledgling, brilliant green with texta-colour highlights – stumbled around like a...