The Goblin Child: and other stories

Michael Forester’s award winning short stories and flash fiction range from fantasy to young love and old fear, Gay & Lesbian to spirituality & religion, metaphor to morals to literary fiction. Always these powerful, highly original tales are gripping and readable, stories that surprise, illuminate engage and enrich.

A woman who is certain she has given birth to a goblin child
A child who takes his god to school for show and tell
A priest confronted by a man who believes he is Santa Claus
A worker in a care home who is never permitted to leave
A man who sees the purpose of his life only after he dies

In this apparently unconnected and eclectic group of tales, Michael Forester explores the circularity of our lives. The collection culminates unexpectedly in the story of a dying poet who finds, then loses, interracial love in a racist age, and discovers with TS Eliot that he ‘arrives where he began, to know the place for the first time.’ In so doing Forester reveals to us the circularity of our lives and that the events in them, so independent, so seemingly random, are truly interdependent, connected, planned.

Buy from Amazon Interested? Contact me…

review

“

5.0 out of 5 stars Michael writes as you would yourself, were you not so woefully inarticulate...... Reviewed on Amazon on 2 February 2023 What can I tell you about Michael's work? Or rather, how can I limit all that I have to say? I can perhaps open a small window....... I've carried my copy of Goblin Child with me (if not physically, then always metaphorically...) since meeting the author four years ago. I wouldn't say that I always agree with Michael's point of view, but I swear I ALWAYS believe him. Goblin Child has become almost talismanic to me. Of these short, incicisive stories, I suspect if I dug deep enough, there are probably one or two I could recite.

David Channell

read an excerpt

For Show and Tell

For show and tell this week Miss said we had to bring our gods to school. On Monday morning we lined up outside the classroom, everybody holding tight onto the hand of their god. It’s easy to lose a god if you’re not careful, you know. The gods were well behaved. Well, mostly.

Inside the classroom, Miss said to leave the gods in the corner by the coats. I’m afraid they got into a bit of a muddle, so that at show and tell time some of the kids couldn’t find their own god.Then there were arguments over whose god was whose. Some of the kids started crying and others were fighting. Ali and Mary had grabbed the same god. They both said it was theirs and no one else’s and they pulled so hard it broke.They ended up with half each and now they won’t speak to each other. I suppose a bit of a god is better than no god at all, but I think it would be better to share the god. Gods like being shared and they work much better when their children allow them to be whole.

James said it didn’t matter, ‘cos his god was the only one that was real anyway. That made Amber cry and throw hers away. She said she didn’t want a god unless it was real. Later, when she stopped crying, she realised James was wrong and her god had been real after all. She went to look for her but I don’t think she’s found her again yet.

When my turn came to talk about my god, I was a bit shy. You see, he’s a very old god. He was my dad’s when he was a kid and his dad’s too. He’s really worn from being cuddled and loved so much. I don’t care though, because he’s a very wise god and I tell him all my troubles in bed at night. Sometimes I wonder if he’s nearly worn out, he can take so long to answer me.

No items found.