Alan Beard
@alanbeard.bsky.social
Short Story/Flash writer. Third collection Afternoon Drinking out now from Floodgate Press, UK. Previous collections: Taking Doreen out of the Sky (Picador, 1999); You Don’t Have to Say (Tindal Street Press, 2010).
Pinned
Alan Beard
@alanbeard.bsky.social
· Oct 13
The night before we’d had a sesh, afternoon drinking stretching into evening as the kids came back and told us drunken on the sofa of their swotty day, how Shay had fallen out with another friend because X fancied her. I can’t help being beautiful! We laughed and agreed she was.
So pleased to have a new microfiction at @fictivedream.bsky.social
my first publication since my book launch www.floodgatepress.co.uk/books
Thanks FD!
my first publication since my book launch www.floodgatepress.co.uk/books
Thanks FD!
December 8, 2025 at 3:36 PM
So pleased to have a new microfiction at @fictivedream.bsky.social
my first publication since my book launch www.floodgatepress.co.uk/books
Thanks FD!
my first publication since my book launch www.floodgatepress.co.uk/books
Thanks FD!
A satisfying night out for him: witnessing a raging row, later he’d cuckold the husband and laugh all down the lamplit street, stolen music in his head. If he could he’d steal the flavour out of coffee. He’d stolen the essence of people and left them crumpled, windless, made off with their souls.
December 7, 2025 at 4:33 PM
A satisfying night out for him: witnessing a raging row, later he’d cuckold the husband and laugh all down the lamplit street, stolen music in his head. If he could he’d steal the flavour out of coffee. He’d stolen the essence of people and left them crumpled, windless, made off with their souls.
So happy to be amongst this lot!
December 3, 2025 at 5:50 PM
So happy to be amongst this lot!
Reposted by Alan Beard
Christmas reading sorted thanks to Alan Beard's latest collection "Afternoon Drinking" (Floodgate) @alanbeard.bsky.social #newbook #shortstory#fiction. And here's the title story. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/04/13/a...
December 2, 2025 at 10:18 AM
Christmas reading sorted thanks to Alan Beard's latest collection "Afternoon Drinking" (Floodgate) @alanbeard.bsky.social #newbook #shortstory#fiction. And here's the title story. Please click on the link and enjoy fictivedream.com/2025/04/13/a...
The autumn that she went was shoddy, mulchy, the leaves I’d kick with my daughter in the park seemed too sticky and vile to step in. Fog hung about. At work everyone crushed by monotony, routine, winter coming, the rain splattering the fire exit window.
December 1, 2025 at 5:54 PM
The autumn that she went was shoddy, mulchy, the leaves I’d kick with my daughter in the park seemed too sticky and vile to step in. Fog hung about. At work everyone crushed by monotony, routine, winter coming, the rain splattering the fire exit window.
Now I know what a wealthy Saxon woman would be wearing pre-1066.
December 1, 2025 at 5:50 PM
Now I know what a wealthy Saxon woman would be wearing pre-1066.
With a flat palm he batted away an angel.
December 1, 2025 at 5:46 PM
With a flat palm he batted away an angel.
A bandy, tall bloke walks ahead of me, mobile to ear, now & then shouts, fuck no! tell him no! & stops, turns away from the traffic, towards me. His haircut a Beckham attempt that failed, the jeans with the pale faded patches on the thighs. Wasina of a flookabat! Wasinaflooka!
November 29, 2025 at 5:30 PM
A bandy, tall bloke walks ahead of me, mobile to ear, now & then shouts, fuck no! tell him no! & stops, turns away from the traffic, towards me. His haircut a Beckham attempt that failed, the jeans with the pale faded patches on the thighs. Wasina of a flookabat! Wasinaflooka!
[1982] Mum and George enter with gateaux, glad rags and stories of kitchen units, the houses of parliament and Freddie Starr at The Night Out which is where they are headed.
November 20, 2025 at 4:35 PM
[1982] Mum and George enter with gateaux, glad rags and stories of kitchen units, the houses of parliament and Freddie Starr at The Night Out which is where they are headed.
People jump out of their disguises, jumble of blood and anxieties.
November 20, 2025 at 4:27 PM
People jump out of their disguises, jumble of blood and anxieties.
Alan Beard & Wendy Erskine at Voce Books - It's Standing Room Only as Birmingham's excellent Voce Books hosts Alan Beard's Afternoon Drinking book launch ...the latest story in Outsideleft - outsideleft.com/main.php?sto...
Alan Beard & Wendy Erskine at Voce Books - It's Standing Room Only as Birmingham's excellent Voce Books hosts Alan Beard's Afternoon Drinking book launch ...the latest story in Outsideleft
Outsideleft.com an independent Arts, Music and Culture Magazine our newest story is Alan Beard & Wendy Erskine at Voce Books
outsideleft.com
November 19, 2025 at 12:12 AM
Alan Beard & Wendy Erskine at Voce Books - It's Standing Room Only as Birmingham's excellent Voce Books hosts Alan Beard's Afternoon Drinking book launch ...the latest story in Outsideleft - outsideleft.com/main.php?sto...
Man with one eye in the pub on his way to the Old Vic to see the Story of Live Aid! Another man says he’s a salesman from Norfolk. A little dog barked, all hair and sharp teeth by the chair his owner sat in, looking down, mouthful of cheese and onion roll, too full to speak, a Lager beside him.
November 18, 2025 at 5:36 PM
Man with one eye in the pub on his way to the Old Vic to see the Story of Live Aid! Another man says he’s a salesman from Norfolk. A little dog barked, all hair and sharp teeth by the chair his owner sat in, looking down, mouthful of cheese and onion roll, too full to speak, a Lager beside him.
An opinion I quite like.
November 16, 2025 at 11:47 PM
An opinion I quite like.
Photos from the launch: 1) Wendy Erskine interviews me about the book. 2) Voce Books outside. 3) Post launch with Clare and daughters Chloe and Grace outside the Kilder bar. 4) more post launch antics with Nigel, Jonathan, Hazel and Ashok.
More coming..
More coming..
November 10, 2025 at 12:44 AM
Photos from the launch: 1) Wendy Erskine interviews me about the book. 2) Voce Books outside. 3) Post launch with Clare and daughters Chloe and Grace outside the Kilder bar. 4) more post launch antics with Nigel, Jonathan, Hazel and Ashok.
More coming..
More coming..
Here he is in the pub again, licking the crisp sludge off the back of his teeth. Near a group sat around involved in the story one was telling, leaning forward. Except for the glum one at the end, tight lipped. Looking around, reluctantly sipping his pint, putting it down.
November 9, 2025 at 5:59 PM
Here he is in the pub again, licking the crisp sludge off the back of his teeth. Near a group sat around involved in the story one was telling, leaning forward. Except for the glum one at the end, tight lipped. Looking around, reluctantly sipping his pint, putting it down.
I couldn’t cope with him not coping. Him not getting up. Him reaching for an anger from his history from the men in his family, reverting to type.
November 9, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I couldn’t cope with him not coping. Him not getting up. Him reaching for an anger from his history from the men in his family, reverting to type.
We had mice for a time everything we ate was peppered with mouse pellets. Spiders lived in our bath, plants grew mushily in our brains fucking everything up. The days joined up and sank away.
November 9, 2025 at 5:44 PM
We had mice for a time everything we ate was peppered with mouse pellets. Spiders lived in our bath, plants grew mushily in our brains fucking everything up. The days joined up and sank away.
In my mind I stabbed him just behind his large clean earlobe; I stabbed him in the hall just big enough for two as I opened the door for him on to the thin sloping street.
November 9, 2025 at 5:44 PM
In my mind I stabbed him just behind his large clean earlobe; I stabbed him in the hall just big enough for two as I opened the door for him on to the thin sloping street.
Wants to get high will go to great lengths will tackle the dark the twisty streets of love canal reek beside him the trembling hand on the door the spots and boils the bloodshot eyes the days drummed out of town, the seas within broiling, coughing up cabbage. The peace that might come.
November 9, 2025 at 5:42 PM
Wants to get high will go to great lengths will tackle the dark the twisty streets of love canal reek beside him the trembling hand on the door the spots and boils the bloodshot eyes the days drummed out of town, the seas within broiling, coughing up cabbage. The peace that might come.
He could see his end wrapped up in his beginnings, the coming round of things, the circling that happens.
November 3, 2025 at 3:11 PM
He could see his end wrapped up in his beginnings, the coming round of things, the circling that happens.
The book exists! So happy.
October 29, 2025 at 1:21 PM
The book exists! So happy.
He was recovering. If he could stitch all his wasted minutes together, waiting for the computer to load or fix itself or update or whatever it’s doing; waiting for a bus, anyway if he could stitch all those minutes together he could build himself a whole other life where he did nothing wrong.
October 23, 2025 at 2:15 PM
He was recovering. If he could stitch all his wasted minutes together, waiting for the computer to load or fix itself or update or whatever it’s doing; waiting for a bus, anyway if he could stitch all those minutes together he could build himself a whole other life where he did nothing wrong.
Something shifting in him, sorrow welling in him, something off centre, something going on in his body and his soul. He ate raspberries. Reverted to childhood. His son commented on it.
October 21, 2025 at 4:54 PM
Something shifting in him, sorrow welling in him, something off centre, something going on in his body and his soul. He ate raspberries. Reverted to childhood. His son commented on it.
Her & dad giggling together following me through the Lickey woods, down to the golf course where I could get ice-cream & feed ducks with the sandwiches they brought for me. Hiding & watching them pass, not looking for me but kissing each other & laughing because they knocked teeth, drew blood.
October 20, 2025 at 3:38 PM
Her & dad giggling together following me through the Lickey woods, down to the golf course where I could get ice-cream & feed ducks with the sandwiches they brought for me. Hiding & watching them pass, not looking for me but kissing each other & laughing because they knocked teeth, drew blood.
Afternoon Drinking with Alan Beard - One of Britain's Best short story tellers has a new book of flash fiction out in November ...the latest story in Outsideleft - outsideleft.com/main.php?sto...
Afternoon Drinking with Alan Beard - One of Britain's Best short story tellers has a new book of flash fiction out in November ...the latest story in Outsideleft
Outsideleft.com an independent Arts, Music and Culture Magazine our newest story is Afternoon Drinking with Alan Beard
outsideleft.com
October 16, 2025 at 10:13 AM
Afternoon Drinking with Alan Beard - One of Britain's Best short story tellers has a new book of flash fiction out in November ...the latest story in Outsideleft - outsideleft.com/main.php?sto...