Latest
The newest stories from The Fence — features, facts, fiction and more.
Big in Japan
You wouldn’t have met their fans, they go to a different school. In Canada.
16 June 2025
Diamonds in the Rough
Rogues Gallery is an initiative bringing art to inmates. We sent our writer to hang out with the set of creative crims behind the whole enterprise.
10 June 2025
I Write Eulogies, Not Tragedies
After his nan died, this writer discovered an unusual line of part-time student work: peddling paeans from his dorm room, for strangers who couldn’t find the right words of their own.
9 June 2025
Ersatz G.B.
How do Lidl and Aldi get away with their imitation brands? We unpick the Cuthbert & Colin caterpillar wars.
5 June 2025
The Beadlean Library
Legendary presenter Jeremy Beadle had a big secret hiding in his Oxfordshire mansion.
3 June 2025
A Shark Tale
Russell Gray is a redoubtable property developer, who has, among other projects, remade Bermondsey. He is also a self-styled anarchist and an arts patron. What keeps him going?
30 May 2025
No Scrubs
Everyone has a limit to what they can handle, even doctors. One writer tells us what it was like to leave his former profession behind.
29 May 2025
On Minge Lane
A dispatch from Worcestershire, famous for its sauce – and saucy street names. Our correspondent hears from the residents who suffer through sniggers when they give out their address.
21 May 2025
Roots Manoeuvres
A dispatch from one of the most singular club nights in Britain, right next to Heathrow Airport.
13 May 2025
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