Friends

Friends, the people we choose to let into our lives, can be a joy and give us the support we need … but they can also make us feel ‘not quite right’. From the bonds and ties of friendships that develop over years or decades, to relationships forged in a moment; from the middle of an ocean of people and places to the bosom of family; what happens in moments of disjuncture and what those moments can lead to — good and bad — is articulated in the friendships we continually re-negotiate through life’s twists and turns. Sometimes, we can’t say what we feel, sometimes we swallow the hurt, sometimes actions speak louder than words.

Honouring ten years of Speaking Volumes, Not Quite Right for Us is a warning shot, an affirmation, an education ...

In forty short stories, poems and essays — by turns wry, gentle, furious, humorous, passionate, analytical and elliptical — these forty writers, new and established, speak volumes, invoking their experiences of outsiderness and their defiance against it.

In this episode we’ll hear ‘Airhead’ by Helen Mort; ‘I = You’ by Ashleigh Nugent; and ‘Olden Friends Are Golden’ by Tabish Khair. Our guide is stand-up poet, broadcaster and speaker Kate Fox.

Not Quite Right for Us is a stellar new anthology which explores the many ways we’ve all been made to feel ‘not quite right’ at some time or another.

Recorded in collaboration with Speaking Volumes.
The anthology is available at all good bookshops, or order from Flipped Eye Publishing.
If you enjoyed this episode of NQRFU, try London by Lockdown: a podcast about falling in love with a new city in the middle of a pandemic; remaining curious and open; and about making it work. Available on all podcast platforms or our website.

Information
Music composed by Dominique Le Gendre
Narration by Lucy Hannah
Extra music & SFX from Epidemic Sound
Image by Gaelle Marcel on Unsplash