Home of The Naughty Stories Series
How will Kateryna woo Shevshenko? Will the Count elude confession on his death bed? Can a true Scot really appreciate a holiday in the Med? How will you grow old? Gracefully or with a bottle in your hands? Are you a Naughty Girl or Nice Girl? Have you ever encountered your double? Can you read the cards, or do you stick to the runes?
Carte Blanche is a collection of naughty short stories, a series of sly vignettes and comic tableaux, compiled and curated by best of friends, Maude and Mabel. Why not become a member of the lazy book club, and get your news from nowhere? Carte Blanche is the indulgent companion for idle days by the pool, the longeurs of the airport lounge and the post-industrial metro of the modern world.– M T Sands
“To the victor belong the spoils.” Senator William M. Macy Mabel says she is not remotely patriotic or nationalistic, and therefore refused point blank to write this introduction. (She is only interested in the isle of Mabel (what would that be: a few palm trees and someone serving her dates or Turkish delight whilst she …
Hamid and Ali were playing in the street one day when Hamid asked a poignant question. “Who do we belong to?” “What do you mean?” “Well firstly I know we belong to our families at home.” “Yes, that’s true.” “Secondly, if we are all together at school, we would belong to the school!” “Yes, that …
They were in the middle of the Kyzl Kum Desert; the carriage was infernally hot. The conductor Ermat, who was already drunk, sat down and offered the American some vodka. “What are you doing here?” he said. “Soldier?” The American shook his head. “Ex-soldier, like me… I was in Afghanistan.” Ermat began to describe his …
Writers’ conferences always brought out the most bookish of folk, reflected Axel. Then he bumped into Lulu. They chatted genially about Gunter Grass and blogging, Georg Pabst and, funnily enough, Jonathan Livingston Seagull, when she dropped the unexpected. “Thing is, my father was a donor. I was brought up by two women.” A throw-away line, …
At the end of the war, fleeing the advancing Americans during the Battle of the Bulge, a band of German soldiers found themselves in a remote valley of the Upper Rhine. The band had long forgotten what it meant to be soldiers in the Third Reich. If they owed allegiance to anything, it was the …
Well, that just about sums it up. Maude’s fallen asleep, snoring, and I can’t find my ear plugs! Then I see we have a text from Pushkin, who, naturally, is always up at this time of night… There is a link to a site in Cyrillic, and some rather grisly photos, followed by this rather …