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THE TOTHILL REVIEW
CREATIVE WRITING SUBMISSIONS
Editor: Sophia Verai
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Feb 121 min read
Reflecting | Sophia Verai
He looks up when he thinks aloud. What is he looking for? She sees the light above them leap into his mirroring eyes until like two moons...
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Feb 12 min read
Sitting Down to Write Once Again | Sophia Verai
It's a restless sort of feeling, one which you might have been carrying around all day or which sprung up with insufferable urgency...
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Jan 262 min read
The Texture of Vulnerability | Anonymous
Some of us hide parts of who we are, because the glamour of secrecy is too much to give up. It’s too sensual, it’s too sensitive. Secrecy...
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Sep 20, 20242 min read
Beholder | Danny Andrews
The stem stands tall, A pillar of stability. Of sustenance. Reliable, trustworthy, Vital. To the flower, at least. To the gardener it is...
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Sep 16, 20243 min read
Admiration into Nothing | Anonymous
Another night with no objective. Another night with nothing, not even sleep on my mind. On this very familiar night I gazed upon the...
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Sep 12, 20242 min read
Sonder (Commuting) | Sophia Verai
Sonder: (neologism) The profound feeling of realising that everyone, including strangers passing in the street, has a life as complex as...
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Sep 6, 20241 min read
Coalescence | Danny Andrews
Light. Weightlessness. The doors of the train spring open and I leap aboard. It seems even the commuters are living brighter days: one...
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Sep 2, 20241 min read
Changing Seasons | Sophia Verai
As golden days begin to wane And dim their laughing light The yawning Summer, ripe with grain Lies down and fades from sight The skies...
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May 25, 20241 min read
Surface | Douceur
Gliding softly on the surface of things And not really letting anyone in Diving deep into a web of blue dreams With only brightness for...
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May 19, 20244 min read
Pomegranate: The Story of Persephone Retold | Chadae Labeach
[content warning: references to abuse] I ran. I ran until my feet bled and my vision blurred. I ran from my mother's home where love was...
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May 12, 20242 min read
The Old Mossy Staircase | Jack Morhen-Romero
2nd place for Prose category in the school creative writing competition in October 2023 The old mossy staircase was a relic of forgotten...
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Apr 22, 20241 min read
Defining Love | Douceur
Ambitious task, isn't it? I don't presume to have the answer. If anything I have the question. What is that thing that happens when I...
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Apr 20, 20241 min read
Tangents Meet | Sophia Verai
(written with the narrative voices of 'The Gun' by Vicki Weaver and 'Chainsaw Versus the Pampas Grass' by Simon Armitage in mind) A...
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Mar 12, 20244 min read
The Vessel | Danny Andrews
It’s been thirty days since the attack. I have not left the reactor core since then, but every morning I awake to the thrumming of...
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Feb 27, 20246 min read
How Do You Spend the Last Morning of Your Life? | Danny Andrews
Dawn rose slowly that morning. The violet Sun shone across the desert, the sands shining bright with the purple light of a dying star....
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Feb 5, 20242 min read
Power in The Tongue | Chadae Labeach
Her eyes were a love letter. Their sweet chocolate encapsulated everything that I loved about her. That passion that somehow never...
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Jan 22, 20241 min read
In the Eyes of a Beholder | Sophia Verai
I'd draw him if I knew how - Trace the line of his back and his brow Touch him lightly with a pencil Frame him by a windowsill...
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Dec 12, 20231 min read
Misleading Pleasantries | Sophia Verai
With her clear gaze and soft little smile she shows you the same good-natured indifference she'd show everyone in the world. She's...
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Dec 5, 20232 min read
Ageing Beside Stones in Bloom | Milo Ghandai
O soft speaking stones frustrated by time, Show me the gentle hand encased in frigid stone. O Green-plagued, yellow-speckled face, your...
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Dec 5, 20231 min read
Staircase | Sophia Verai
You’ve found your way up, now find it back down. Turn to see what’s gone before The light behind a closing door A newly pressed footprint...
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Dec 5, 20232 min read
Hands Shaking with Adrenaline | Eve Franklin
Hands shaking with adrenaline, I turned the page. Halfway down, below a regimented paragraph of words in Calibri and a short, instructive...
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Dec 5, 20231 min read
Whispers in the Abyss: Embracing Life's Paradox | Kayleigh Coulibaly
Each step a sigh, a fleeting breath, In the spiral's dance, where life meets death. Pointless whispers in the cosmic air, As we move...
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Dec 5, 20232 min read
Temple | Hasan Jubril Alao
Nestled amidst a thick enigmatic forest were the remnants of an antiquated temple, a testament to the bygone eras of old. Its strange...
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Dec 5, 20231 min read
Changes | Shaheera Kuchai
In the heart of the tower, where plants held sway, A father and daughter, in their own special way. Amidst the greenery, in that secret...
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Feb 23, 20235 min read
Silver | Melodi Dogru
It was the day the Moon fell. He started down in haste as if the scale had been tipped off by the flick of a finger. The clouds moved...
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Feb 4, 20231 min read
The Teary Eyed Boy | Milo Ghiandai
There is a teary eyed boy, they're big and brown they taste, lick and breathe the watery sigh of the world. He lives for autumn orange...
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Jan 24, 20231 min read
The Linoleum Headquarters | Mia Spiller
Straight backed and tight lipped, She commands her office. Constant ringing, conversing on the Kremlin-Whitehouse hotline Seeping through...
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Dec 7, 20221 min read
The Baby (Celia) | Willow Jopp
How does such a simple, innocent face Paint one thousand colours with a smile? She had as well a smile to be seen: Soft as a willow tree,...
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Dec 7, 20227 min read
A Man and a Woman | Melodi Dogru
Once upon a time, there lived a beautiful man and a handsome woman. They had not known each other for long but had already developed a...
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Nov 20, 20225 min read
The Unavoidable Walk | Melodi Dogru
He began climbing the steps of the escalator. There seemed to be so many at first, but he took his time with them. The upside was that...
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Nov 20, 20224 min read
Prayer of Absolution | Yolanda Trujillo Rodriguez De Ledesma
I wish I could write, but the obscenity of that deed forbids me to do so. My inexperience, weakened by my distaste for condolences, puts...
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Nov 6, 20221 min read
The Underground | Zoe Fernandes-Beepat
the overground may be fine everything’s functioning life keeps going time’s still changing the overground may be fine but what about the...
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May 8, 202219 min read
Porcelain | Harland Cossons
« Those who sharpen the tooth of the dog, meaning Death Those who glitter with the glory of the hummingbird, meaning Death Those who sit...
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