At the Hotel Swinburne

I think I remember a line from The Story of Lucy Gault by William Trevor, "Things can go wrong in an empty house." Also in a seemingly empty hotel and arguably an empty relationship, perhaps. Intrigued? Read our Story of the Month for May by Cath Barton to find out what happened. (Ed.)

The Willesden Herald Story of the Month

May 2024: At the Hotel Swinburne by Cath Barton

When we returned to our room after breakfast on the fourth day of our holiday, Arnold told me he didn’t like the mirrors in the hotel.

‘Really? We can cover that up if it bothers you,’ I said, pointing at the full-length one opposite the end of our bed. ‘I suppose some people get a kick out of looking at themselves performing.’

‘For goodness sake, Marie,’ he said.

Cath Barton

Cath Barton is an English writer who lives in Abergavenny. Her novella The Plankton Collector won the New Welsh Writing AmeriCymru Prize for the Novella in 2017, was published by New Welsh Review the following year, and is due to be republished by Parthian Press later in 2024. Subsequent publications are In the Sweep of the Bay (2020, Louise Walters Books), Between the Virgin and the Sea (2023, Novella Express, Leamington Books) and The Geography of the Heart (2023, Arroyo Seco Press). Her most recent publication is a pamphlet of short stories, Mr Bosch and His Owls (2024, Atomic Bohemian).

Author: Stephen Moran

I was born in Dublin and made my way to London on a bike in my mid-twenties. It’s where I can still be found though ever further out, most recently as far as Harrow. I no longer own a bicycle.