Fancy some Northern folkloric charm this weekend? My new short story 'Kow' airs on BBC Radio 4, this Sunday at 19:45pm. It is one part of the fantastic Enchanted Isle series. Tune in, teaser below!
Soon enough I’m walking through the woods on the way to big Tescos. I’ll show her, stupid cow. The Waggonways are the old coal lines where my dad’s lot worked. Blokes like him are easy enough to spot. Worn for their years, in a hard way. All cheekbones. Back then, old nicks and tears healed up cobalt. The coal would sneak into cuts and knit itself into their skin. Dad was pitted with these flashes of blue-coal tattoos. Little seams of colour. So when he said it was in his blood, mind, he meant it. Better in the blood than on the lungs, like his mates.
Thomas Bewick's bogle wood engraving.