Issue Four

The death of Mary Doyle

To commemorate the Official State Visit to Australia 2017 by Michael D. Higgins, President of Ireland, we are deeply honoured and grateful...

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Seize the Moment

By Errol Bishop   James McFarlane eagerly absorbed the sights and sounds of Australia as the ship made its way up the Mary River,...

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The Letter

By Chris Childs   I try not to retch at the sickening stench of boiled cabbage. The queue is moving slowly, but no one complains....

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Fetes Des Ramparts

By Denise Ogilvie   Caen station fills with tourists, all jostling for seats on the train to Pontorson. The July morning is warm,...

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Transit

By Lauren Chater   Carr House, Lancashire 1639 Eliza Stone was hot. Moisture pricked beneath her arms. A bead of sweat inched its way...

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The Call of the Stars

By Eleanor Limprecht He woke at the usual time, before dawn. Andrew closed his eyes again, pulling the coverlet beneath his chin. When he...

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A Breakfast Shared

By Chris Childs   I wake coated in cold sweat, my throat dry and raw. For a moment I don’t remember where I am. Then reality flashes...

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Again

By Belinda Lyons-Lee   She stood in the octagonal room where she could see, as if in the middle of a spiders web, through the...

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My Mother as Walden Pond

By Tess Barry   Out of her twig-filled lungs a strong wind whirls   she is a small stream     obstructed a standing body...

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Diaspora in F Major

By Tess Barry   Eat lemon altogether, she says, cold go out.  What you play?  Luna Sonata? My fevered fingers stumble through...

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Remembering Bridget

(Bridget Cox Bishop, 1848-1912)   By Geoff Budden   J Cox and his five sons lost in their boat off the Harbor April 24, 1859....

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Remembering Robert

By Geoff Budden   At home in taverns, not in homes, you left when your daughter was four years old. Your own final home was a needle...

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Lest we forget

By Dr Wendy J Dunn   Lest we forget The First World War They said Ground soaked With blood With countless dead Lest we forget Another...

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Travel Memories

By Jordan King-Lacroix       I. On a leaky boat, they came, needing to change their name once, in the village to sound less Jewish...

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Repeated History

By Jordan King-Lacroix   The clouds, ha! The clouds! Did you see them when they passed overhead?   So slow, like molasses,...

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Ablution

By Eleanor Hooker                            Ghost me. Fossil me.                                        ...

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Nativity

By Nathanael O’Reilly   In a centuries-old English church where Jane Austen worshipped, my daughter performs her role on the steps...

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Pitter

By Kenneth Pobo   My grandmother’s house, weathered, a dirt driveway.  When I visit she makes a cherry pie. I help her pit.  She tells...

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A Tour of Richmond Palace

By Jonathan Greenwood   This palace, ’tis a thing of splendour and class With chimneys of pepperpot and weathervanes of brass;...

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Credos

By Anne Casey   A penny in a new purse (that it may never be empty) The Child of Prague left out all night (to bring a dry day for the...

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The Unpaid Debt: Getting credit for lies

By Diane Murray   In 2007, I set out to write the biography of Marion Leathem, who operated the Molong Express and Western District...

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Knit Two, Drop Four: Finding lost heroes in the holes of history’s knitting

By Cheryl Hayden   Introduction In the latter part of the 20th Century, a new historiography emerged through the University of Exeter...

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Writing Hidden Stories

By Glenice Whitting   There once was a drummer who’s name was Oskar, who lost his mother who ate too much fish. There once was...

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Interview with Justin Sheedy

By Oscar O’Neill-Pugh and Senaj Alijevski The subeditors at Backstory were fortunate to be able to interview Justin Sheedy, an author...

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What we do without knowing: identifying silencing, inclusion and stereotyping in historical fiction

By Gillian Polack   History and the past give us cultural tools. They help us interpret our world. Novels use history and create...

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