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.
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...
Overheard: Outer Hebrides every other year, stop in a Glasgow Travelodge, now Airbnb: no need to eat out, with wine 30 quid, all that... said I'd love to see a picture of her mum & dad & her dad was in a coffin – in his blue suit – her mum leant over, weeping, & I said, couldn't help it, lovely.
November 18, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Overheard: Outer Hebrides every other year, stop in a Glasgow Travelodge, now Airbnb: no need to eat out, with wine 30 quid, all that... said I'd love to see a picture of her mum & dad & her dad was in a coffin – in his blue suit – her mum leant over, weeping, & I said, couldn't help it, lovely.
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.
Things extracted from him like a machine that operates and turns him, that has him spinning like a top, the room is everything it has absorbed and now it’s him, his behaviour his soul in its walls and floors.
November 18, 2025 at 5:16 PM
Things extracted from him like a machine that operates and turns him, that has him spinning like a top, the room is everything it has absorbed and now it’s him, his behaviour his soul in its walls and floors.
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...
‘There’s even a shortage of beggars,’ she said, ‘or perhaps it’s their day off.’
October 13, 2025 at 4:28 PM
‘There’s even a shortage of beggars,’ she said, ‘or perhaps it’s their day off.’
Hey I wanted to tell him, we can be equally miserable. We can sit in Wetherspoons together with its 7 quid rounds and cheap burgers growing into our frailness together our white hair. Our bar stool future ahead, our Stella and crisps life, our Sunday gatherings at the Toby Carvery.
October 13, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Hey I wanted to tell him, we can be equally miserable. We can sit in Wetherspoons together with its 7 quid rounds and cheap burgers growing into our frailness together our white hair. Our bar stool future ahead, our Stella and crisps life, our Sunday gatherings at the Toby Carvery.
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.
October 13, 2025 at 4:10 PM
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.
Turned out all the friends he thought he had were her friends & he spent 20 years alone, apart from visits from his son. Then this bloke he worked with decades ago, on the line, turned up. Praised him, said the years had been kind to him & what a lovely son he had. Are you proud, Des? You should be.
October 13, 2025 at 4:04 PM
Turned out all the friends he thought he had were her friends & he spent 20 years alone, apart from visits from his son. Then this bloke he worked with decades ago, on the line, turned up. Praised him, said the years had been kind to him & what a lovely son he had. Are you proud, Des? You should be.
Had lazy country eyes, hardly ever looked straight at you. He used to bring me coffee in the mornings before he went off to Computer House. He had a uniform. I’d wake to find the coffee cold, clingy in the clear Pyrex mug.
October 13, 2025 at 3:56 PM
Had lazy country eyes, hardly ever looked straight at you. He used to bring me coffee in the mornings before he went off to Computer House. He had a uniform. I’d wake to find the coffee cold, clingy in the clear Pyrex mug.
Front and back cover of my new story collection, coming out November (launch on the 6th at Voce Books, Birmingham 7pm). Floodgate Press have done such a great job!
October 12, 2025 at 11:43 AM
Front and back cover of my new story collection, coming out November (launch on the 6th at Voce Books, Birmingham 7pm). Floodgate Press have done such a great job!
Reposted by Alan Beard
🗣️ AUTUMN/WINTER EVENTS AT VOCE BOOKS
📚 Hear from a true specialist of short-form fiction as Birmingham-based writer @alanbeard.bsky.social joins WENDY ERSKINE to launch his new @floodgatepress.bsky.social collection AFTERNOON DRINKING.
🎟️ Please book your ticket via Eventbrite, link in bio
📚 Hear from a true specialist of short-form fiction as Birmingham-based writer @alanbeard.bsky.social joins WENDY ERSKINE to launch his new @floodgatepress.bsky.social collection AFTERNOON DRINKING.
🎟️ Please book your ticket via Eventbrite, link in bio
October 8, 2025 at 12:55 PM
🗣️ AUTUMN/WINTER EVENTS AT VOCE BOOKS
📚 Hear from a true specialist of short-form fiction as Birmingham-based writer @alanbeard.bsky.social joins WENDY ERSKINE to launch his new @floodgatepress.bsky.social collection AFTERNOON DRINKING.
🎟️ Please book your ticket via Eventbrite, link in bio
📚 Hear from a true specialist of short-form fiction as Birmingham-based writer @alanbeard.bsky.social joins WENDY ERSKINE to launch his new @floodgatepress.bsky.social collection AFTERNOON DRINKING.
🎟️ Please book your ticket via Eventbrite, link in bio
Picked up by car & the city is windows in lights & music
slanting up over the bonnet like a slow wind & the detritus,
paper, sticks & dust lifting, look delicious & the people are like models sashaying & everything looks ready to be tasted & drunk of like a feast or party we will arrive at soon.
slanting up over the bonnet like a slow wind & the detritus,
paper, sticks & dust lifting, look delicious & the people are like models sashaying & everything looks ready to be tasted & drunk of like a feast or party we will arrive at soon.
October 7, 2025 at 4:47 PM
Picked up by car & the city is windows in lights & music
slanting up over the bonnet like a slow wind & the detritus,
paper, sticks & dust lifting, look delicious & the people are like models sashaying & everything looks ready to be tasted & drunk of like a feast or party we will arrive at soon.
slanting up over the bonnet like a slow wind & the detritus,
paper, sticks & dust lifting, look delicious & the people are like models sashaying & everything looks ready to be tasted & drunk of like a feast or party we will arrive at soon.