“Next to the milk carton is the cake he bought last night from Patrick’s Patisserie. He went in last thing, twenty minutes before closing. The cakes are cheaper at the end of the day. The man that works there, who he’s always imagined may well be Patrick himself, was reading the newspaper, a crinkled morning edition that he was probably only just getting an opportunity to peruse. The man watched him from over the paper as decisions were made at the cake cabinet.”

My short story The Birthday will be broadcast on Cover To Cover on Vision Australia Radio this week. The program can be heard on analogue and digital radio in Australia, or streamed live online from any device anywhere in the world via the VAR website.

Broadcast times vary depending on how and where you’re listening. In Melbourne, tune your wireless to 1179 AM at 8 o’clock Friday evening (tomorrow), or catch the repeat on Sunday afternoon at 1.30, or hear the live stream at those times from the ‘Listen live in Melbourne‘ link on the website. You don’t have to be in Melbourne if you have an Internet connection!

A podcast will be available from the middle of next week (details to follow).

Cover To Cover is produced and presented weekly by Tim McQueen for Vision Australia Radio.