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Twenty years ago, three twenty-somethings officially launched a new video platform. It was called YouTube, and the first video was of one of its founders at the zoo. Since then, estimates suggest that

Youth worker Sophie Sullivan is happy for her 16-year-old daughter to travel alone to Australia, but she won’t let her or her four siblings have their own smartphones. While she admits to being addict

An old man lives at the bottom of my garden. His name is Robert Barkus, or Bakehouse, or Bagust. Nobody is quite sure. But I often sense him around when I’m gardening, and I’ve found out a fair bit ab

This month’s story, ‘The Surrogate’ by Tessa Hadley, is a study of two men through the eyes of one woman. The title suggests that one man is a surrogate for the other, but is it as simple as that? As

When the Fireflies Dance is set in Lahore, Pakistan and a significant challenge when writing it was to ensure the reader was able to place themselves in the setting. I wanted to be able to transport t

Emma Cooling on navigating the pressure