Liars' League

The Suitcase by Rosalind Stopps

 Read by Carrie Cohen

It is everybody’s duty to be on the alert for terrorists and snipers in London these days, but as a senior assistant in a shoe shop in a large precinct, I am obviously used to living on the front line. Things are not necessarily what they seem, that’s the important thing to remember. You have to look behind the obvious for the extra something that might be lurking there, a bit like when you meet someone’s boyfriend or husband.

If you would like to read the rest of this story, please check out London Lies, the Arachne Press anthology in which it, and many other London-based stories from the League archives, appears.

Alternative Navigations by Nichol Wilmor

 Read by Paul Clarke

Leo’s godfather, Benoît, lives by himself in an apartment in the sixième.

— You know, Leo, he says. One should always marry a foreigner.

Leo smiles. He has heard this from Benoît before.

— Find a woman whose first language is not English. In my case, naturally, I mean French. This is the way to avoid misunderstandings.

Benoît speaks from experience. He has, successively, married a Greek, a Guatemalan and a Hungarian; until recently, he lived with a Texan. Their months together constituted an interlude of bliss, he says, and he and Mary-Beth barely understood one word the other said.

If you would like to read the rest of this story, please check out Lovers' Lies, the Arachne Press anthology in which it, and many other sexy and lovable stories from the League archives, appears.

Now Stop Worrying and Enjoy your Life by Niall Boyce

Read by Ray Newe

Dr Frank Blood wasn’t bothered when people made jokes about his name. After all, it gave his patients and their families something to laugh about, and in his line of work there weren’t too many laughs.

In fact, Dr Blood found that if a new acquaintance didn’t pick up on his name, it was a sure sign that they took things too seriously. This was the first thing he noted about the man standing in his office on the Euston Road one Friday morning in mid-April. The second thing he noted, as the man removed his coat, was that his visitor wore a black shirt and a smart white dog-collar.