Sitting alone in a room writing is one thing, having people read your work later can be nerve-wracking enough, but reading it out loud can be exhilarating and terrifying all in one.

At the recent launch of gorse #8 I was delighted to be asked to read part of my story, Cinq à Sept, and was full of confidence on the night, all the way up until two feet from the microphone. However, nerves or not I think I managed to get through it without cocking it all up, which is nice.

What’s more, there’s now a podcast of the readings on the night which you can listen to here (my own reading starts at about the 36 minute mark, but I strongly urge you to listen to the whole podcast, there was some really outstanding work on show that night, and I was humbled to be a part of it all)