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THE TOTHILL REVIEW
CREATIVE WRITING SUBMISSIONS
Editor: Sophia Verai
Sep 202 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...
Sep 163 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...
Sep 122 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...
Sep 61 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...
Sep 21 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...
May 251 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...
May 194 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...
May 122 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...
Apr 221 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...
Apr 201 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...
Mar 124 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...
Feb 276 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....
Feb 52 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...
Jan 221 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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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,...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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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