Latest
The newest stories from The Fence — features, facts, fiction and more.
Hold the Phone
On 11 September, 2001, a nurse was texting saucy messages to thousands of strangers across the country. But the nurse was really a 21-year-old man, bored in an office in London. We hear his story.
8 May 2025
The Boys
An extract from our young author’s forthcoming novel.
6 May 2025
Borstal Boys
A personal history of the borstal in Britain: a century of incarcerated children.
28 April 2025
In the Midnight Hour
As a working-class escort from the north of England who works in central London, I’ve come to view my wealthy clients like attractions in a zoo: precious exotic creatures to be admired.
24 April 2025
Requiem for a Scene
The Albion Rooms. Queens of Noize. The Hawley Arms. A musician remembers London in 2002.
15 April 2025
Scunthorpe Revisited
In 2003, a little black book was published that struck at the real core values of British life: bodged buildings, massive class anxiety and rampant self-loathing.
10 April 2025
A Bit of Liquor Sauce
Canning Town is the birthplace of Danny Dyer, and it’s also London’s most rapidly gentrifying neighbourhood. Our pints correspondent went there for a few scoops.
4 April 2025
Hotel Britannica
An anonymous report from a clinician working inside one of Britain’s asylum hotels.
2 April 2025
Getting the Band Back Together
In my fortieth year I was going to be in a band. And I was going to be unfuckable.
13 March 2025
A Failure to Convalesce
Five years since the pandemic started, there are millions of people suffering from Long COVID, including tens of thousands of Millennials, bedridden for days on end. One writer is attempting to recover – furiously.
11 March 2025
Psychopaths’ Comic-Con
Meet the people who glorify the worst people in society for money.
25 February 2025
Gaming the System
If irony – of a kind – is the layering of comedy and tragedy, there are some places in London where it becomes fully three-dimensional.
20 February 2025