Faun, 1898, by Wilhelm von Gloeden This is Chapter 22 of GOMERY KIMBER's novel The Killing House, about a would-be hitman who finds he's the one who's in danger Outline: American Troy has one ambition in life, to be an international hitman, so when he gets the chance to work for veteran assassin Rickardo Hanratty,…
This is Part 3 of LIAM GUILAR's still-being-written epic of Britain. Chapter 1 was published in Long Poem Magazine #25 Spring 2021, and you can read Chapter 2 in the previous issue of The Brazen Head. The story so far: 449 AD. The Roman province of Britannia is tottering. The Legions have long gone and…
The U.S.S. Constitution, "Old Ironsides", one of the United States Navy's first frigates The Gun, the Ship and the Pen: Warfare, Constitutions and the Making of the Modern World Linda Colley, Profile, 512 pages, £25 KEN BELL finds a new way of looking at global constitutional history A history of constitution making does not sound…
CHRISTOPHER SANDFORD evokes an age of desperate belief On 7 September 1919, the 60-year-old Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, GP, lecturer, seafarer, sportsman, indefatigable social campaigner – and globally-renowned author of the Sherlock Holmes tales – shared the platform of a Spiritualist rally at the seafront Grand Hotel in Portsmouth with a 38-year-old medium named Evan…
MICHAEL YOST is a teacher, freelance essayist and poet. He lives in rural New Hampshire with his wife and two sons. Samson’s Riddle From the stench of rotting hide, From the hot and muscled weight of death, From the hunter’s tawny jaw, From the ancient eater’s mottled mouth, Comes wealth of peace; Comes a…
GREG HUTESON's poems have appeared in or are forthcoming from Orbis, The Honest Ulsterman, A New Ulster, the Alabama Literary Review, Trinity House Review, BigCityLit, and various other journals. For the past 20 years, he’s lived in China and Taiwan. The Break of Day Though still, I’m ringed by flocks of middling angels, smudged guardians…