The first potatoes I loved were the dehydrated shreds sold in cereal box-style cartons at Key Foods. My mother gave them some delicacy, stirring in milk, butter, salt. On holidays her mashed potatoes were perfect, and doted on accordingly. They were adjusted hourly for flavour and texture, refrigerated overnight, and reheated slowly on the day….
Tag: memory
Wood for The Trees — Joanna Garbutt
There is something in her hands. Something in a large Pyrex dish. It is hot, very hot. She nearly drops it on the floor but instead the kitchen work top catches it. The dish itself doesn’t smash. It isn’t a big enough drop for that. She looks down at it, trying to work out what it is.
Radio Music Magic – Paul Sasges
Turn it up, turn it up, little bit higher, radio Turn it up, that’s enough, so you know it’s got soul. ‘Caravan’, Van Morrison, 1970 The transistor radio came out between the vacuum tube in the fifties and the Walkman in the seventies. I spent many hours on our braided area rug prone upon my…
My Mother’s Quilt – Clare Reddaway
This is my mother’s quilt, but many other women have had a hand in it. It was started by my mother in the 1950s, and she made it for most of my life, in admittedly rather a desultory fashion. I remember her sitting on a freezing, pebbly beach in Suffolk, with the grey North Sea…
Mick Jagger Used to Call Me Mum – Jacqueline Ellis
When I was little, the dark staircase between the front and back rooms of my grandparents’ two-up, two-down terrace house had been a mountain. Each step a jagged, granite foothold; the shadowed landing a dark cloud hiding a kingdom of giants, or a castle encased in twisted branches. Their bedroom glowed yellow; the edges of…
ART: Natalie Bradford
Through countless retrievals, our memories of precious moments lose their ‘truth.’
ONE POEM – Elizabeth Wilson Davies
The unconsidered diaries of family life fall open at once favourite recipes,
bittersweet imprints on the page of stained, smeared, sticky memories.
Where I Lived – Robert Boucheron
Robert Boucheron grew up in Syracuse and Schenectady, NY. He has worked as an architect in New York City and Charlottesville, VA. His short stories and essays appear in Bangalore Review, Fiction International, The Fiction Pool, Litro, London Journal of Fiction, New Haven Review, Short Fiction. Where I Lived As the Great Recession brought construction to a standstill…
ART – Gavin Shepherdson
This artwork by Gavin is also featured in Issue Two of Porridge, available for purchase here. Gavin Shepherdson is a designer and artist from Lanchester, Durham. He studied Animation at Northumbria University and has exhibited short films at Ani’mest and Vilnius Festival among others. This will be his first publication for his artwork. His interests include…
The Haunted Present: Using the Past as an Emotional Context – Kat Hausler
Photo by Daniel Wander on Pexels Kat Hausler is a graduate of New York University and Fairleigh Dickinson University, where she was the recipient of a Baumeister Fellowship. Her debut novel Retrograde was recently published by Meerkat Press. She writes and translates in Berlin. The Haunted Present: Using the Past as an Emotional Context In James…
ONE POEM – Katie Paterson
Image: Gustav Klimt, Bauernhaus mit Birken, 1900 Katie is an actor and writer currently training on the MA Acting course at Mountview Academy of Theatre Arts. She has performed her poetry at Redgates Theatre, Arcola, and once memorably at Metropolis Strip Club. She is currently developing her solo show ‘Minor Disruptions’. Last Words ‘The birch leaves,…
PHOTOGRAPHY: MEMORY – Lucy Jane Purrington
Lucy Jane Purrington graduated with a first honours degree in Photographic Arts from the University of South Wales and is known for her video, performative and photographic work. These photographs by Lucy also appear in the inaugural print issue of Porridge which is available for purchase here. Memory is fluid. Influenced by time, perspective and place. We are made of…
Porridge 