Barry Lee Thompson

fiction

  • The story behind ‘The Ministry Man’

    I grew up in Margaret Thatcher’s Britain, where the government pursued and actively encouraged intolerance and hostility towards same-sex attraction. A culmination of the Tories’ damaging agenda was Section 28 of the Local Government Act 1988, which forbade local authorities from promoting homosexuality, or from teaching its acceptability in maintained schools. The clause wasn’t repealed until

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  • The story behind ‘Their Cruel Routines’

    There are two mother-son relationships within ‘Their Cruel Routines’, the opening story in Broken Rules and Other Stories: that between the fictional mother and her adult son, and that between my own mother and myself. The latter was the spark or inspiration for the story. A few years ago, I went to stay with my

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  • Final days: Fundación César Egido Serrano VI International Flash Fiction Competition

    Es su última oportunidad https://www.fundacioncesaregidoserrano.com/es/ The deadline has finally been announced. We have until midnight Spanish time on Friday December 31 to enter micro-stories for the sixth edition of the international contest of the César Egido Serrano Foundation. Two stories per author, maximum 100 words each, in Spanish, English, Arabic or Hebrew. Details and participation

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  • Festival reflections

    When I first began sending work to publications and competitions, I realised that something strange happens once a story is submitted. Despite all the time spent honing, refining, getting it just right, almost immediately after hitting ‘submit’, issues and ideas previously hidden become apparent, opening up new and exciting ways to think about the story.

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  • Life Drawing

    Maybe you could sketch me. I’ll recline, here on the couch, and you can study me all afternoon. No clothes, isn’t that the way it’s done? Turn up the heating, I’ll cover the cost. I’ll fall asleep eventually, drowsy with warmth, and you’ll be able to take your time, to notice the unguarded in my

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