Vox Meditantis

Ancoats, Manchester – 30th June, 1837 I was twelve when they stopped putting folk in the pillory, same week our new teacher arrived at the mill school. Most reckoned it coincidence, but I came to believe there was something fitting about it—as if Manchester itself was shedding its old skin,…

Toulouse, France – 29th June, 1935 The examining room smelt of carbolic acid and leather, that peculiar mixture of antiseptic and the worn chair where countless aviators had sat before me. Dr. Martineau adjusted his spectacles and peered at my medical records, the pages rustling like autumn leaves in the…

Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary (Bosnia and Herzegovina) – June 1914 The cobblestones beneath Gavrilo’s worn boots still held the morning’s chill as he made his way through the narrow streets of Sarajevo on the twenty-fourth of June, 1914. Four days until the Archduke’s visit. The city stirred around him with its familiar…

St Keverne, Cornwall – June 1497 The bellows wheezed like an old man’s chest as Michael An Gof worked the leather handles with practiced rhythm, coaxing flame from the charcoal that glowed like scattered rubies in the pre-dawn darkness. Steam rose from the quenching tub beside him, carrying the sharp…