Truffles and Mast – A Review of Hogwood: A Modern Horror Story

Thick corn fields and rolling hills, folksy farmers, hay bale pyramids and mangers attended by contented cows, sheep and pigs. These are the images of the holy British countryside, the New Jerusalem, England’s green and pleasant land, images immortalised by countless novels and poems. Of course, it has not always appeared this way to everyone.

The Drowned Dove

The murmur of the seaside, waves-upon rocks, scuttling, clicking crabs as they dash across baking sand: winter on the Cape. All the white picket houses snooze along the bay and distant brown beachheads, dotted with boulders give way to dark, foreign trees. We saw a mongoose at the Green Hole once. Since then I always

Seventeen Million Mink

A new strain of coronavirus has appeared in Danish mink farms and has quickly spread from minks to people. The response has been to plan a cull of all seventeen million of Denmark’s minks. Perhaps there is no alternative at this late stage, although the choice should have been made long ago to desist from

My Friend Bob

Spiders are much maligned creatures. Their furry carapaces inspire everything from cold chills to shrill screams – I should know, because to tell you true Bob made me feel the same way. Even though I stood barely higher than a kindergarten stool, Bob’s sluggish crawl dosed me with a jolt of primeval fear when he

Speaking of Eugenics: A Macabre Study of Animal-Testing Advocates

Speaking of Research is an organisation dedicated to upholding the right of scientists to perform experiments on animals. Now, it has been well-argued by many why animal testing, for both scientific and cosmetic purposes, is cruel, wasteful, unhelpful and unnecessary. I for one am not in a position to say – and as such I

Pig-Headed – Our Hypocrisy over Animal Cruelty has led to Flat House Farm

Flat House Farm is the latest revelation in a long series of exposés of the meat industry. It suffices to say that the images that have come from this ‘high-standards’ farm are nothing short of horrific. The emaciated skeletons of dead and dying piglets litter the floors of the barn, older pigs weighed down with

Bambi

Red drool in a river of shit But all the abattoir is dark: Despite the darkness, little sleep Under the starless roof. In a small suburban home Someone sucks the pulp from ribs And consoles his flabby boy: ‘Don’t worry son! Who doesn’t cry When they see Bambi’s mother die?’ By Matthew Chalmers