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The newest stories from The Fence — features, facts, fiction and more.
Snooker Loopy
Two writers face off in a grudge match of snooker: the fanciful, ludicrous game of punished error and forced embarrassment. Róisín Lanigan cues off first...
9 December 2024
A Long Stretch
Ever wondered what happens on a long-term jury trial? A jury foreman reveals all. Well, not quite all. That would be contempt.
4 December 2024
This Turbulent Priest
Cake and coffee with Pat Buckley, a whistleblower; ex-priest; newspaper columnist; gay rights activist; HIV activist; husband; and the scourge, in his own words, ‘of everyone’.
27 November 2024
A Professional Service
A visit to the oldest undertakers in London, who have been in operation since the Battle of Trafalgar.
25 November 2024
Goodbye England’s Rose
A grotty hotel that stood against the forces of east London gentrification is no more. But what exactly was happening within its four walls?
22 November 2024
A Hackney Story
In the early 2000s, Clapton was the scene of a spate of public shootings, often conducted in broad daylight. The area earned the tabloid sobriquet ‘Murder Mile’. But who was behind the violence?
18 November 2024
Last Days of Soho
London’s most infamous neighbourhood has a glamorous mythos. Meet the dwindling band of residents who call it home.
12 November 2024
Empty Orchestra
A short story in a pub.
6 November 2024
The More They Feel, the More They Buy
Mad//fest, or Madfest for short, is an advertising and marketing conference where speakers declaim that 'brands are dead' or 'brands are God.'
22 October 2024
War Games
The Colonel was at the pub, plotting up an ethical mercenary company to do battle in Ukraine: here is the bizarre story of the Mozart Group.
22 October 2024
A Load of Bollocks
What do revellers at one of London's most naked sex clubs think of the Labour Party? Our special correspondent stripped off and asked other bare clubbers what they thought of the Autumn budget.
15 October 2024
Icarus Also Flew
Deep in the heart of the world’s first lockdown, Our writer flew from Perth to London to move in with a man she'd fallen in love with but had never met. This is their love story.
14 October 2024