The website of writer and poet Daniel Bennett
I have three poems in the latest issue of The High Window. Here's an excerpt from one of those poems, 'The Tenants', about rootlessness and our attempts to make a life for ourselves. The Tenants They offered us vine leaves and red wineand we approved of their gestureinside the English gardenthey would never share. We … Continue reading The High Window (Autumn)
My poem, 'The Panda', has been published in London Grip's Autumn issue. The sounds of the house begin above him,a family waking. He thinks of Stalin preferring a sofa to a presidential bed, of the ace of pentacles gleaming from the apocrypha of a bookshelf of the bottle of Cahors he drank last night,a black wine, dark as a … Continue reading London Grip Autumn 2020
Very pleased to have a new story 'Captured Dreams of the Dead Machine' in the September issue of Interzone. The story follows a dealer in bootleg information and his encounters in the badlands outside his home city. 'Traffic around the freeport snarled up his journey, but Ash cut down by the skud site near the … Continue reading Interzone 288
Billy watched Manny hurry across the road with a jerking, awkward movement of his cane, finally slowing down and stalking his way back to the barber shop on Coldharbour Lane. Manny turned and he waved again, a strong, sprawling gesture of benevolence and warmth. Billy huddled in his coat as he walked back to Stockwell … Continue reading Who Wants Sweetness?
The artwork for my story in the forthcoming Interzone 288.
I was raised in a small hamlet in the Shropshire countryside. Maybe it was the triumph of electronic media, the doomy news stories of impending nuclear war in the eighties, or all those odd invasion fantasies proliferating on television, but the natural world was never enough for me. A friend and I once conceived of an ideal community, … Continue reading Statement on Poetry
I liked to ride the Docklands railway in those days, sitting at the very front of the electric trains, when they were being driven by an operator at the back. As we zipped around the waterfront of the Thames, following rails set on an overpass of raised concrete, I thought of myself as living in … Continue reading I Liked To Take The Trains
Pedy had once told Billy about a film he'd made in the late seventies. The offer had come through to the North Soho News Agency to smear Harold Wilson. 'We'd got the old Trot out of Number Ten,' Pedy explained. 'But we needed to ruin his legacy. The clients involved had requested something really nasty. … Continue reading Late Seventies
Now that I have moved to the tower, I'm positioned closer to the weather, pushed up against the atmosphere and affected by its changes. Even though I live in the city, and look over the skyline from my vantage point, I feel remote and outcast, as though I've renounced my urban life for some sort … Continue reading Weather
'What should I do?"Watch lots of television, particularly game shows and soaps. Go to porn movies. Ever see Nazi Love Motel? They've got it on cable, here. Really awful. Just what you need.'What was he talking about?"Quit yelling and listen to me. I'm letting you in on a trade secret: really bad media can exorcise … Continue reading Bad Media
