Stories from the Borders of Sleep

The strange last journey of an old man from this life.

Two girls get away from it all in a borrowed Studebaker, and get diverted on their way to the coast.

Episode 36 ... a little bit of autobiography: part of the story of the inception of 'Stories from the Borders of Sleep'.

An episode dedicated to corporate daydreamers, opponents and proponents of boardroom bluster, meeting doodlers and anyone who has ever had to circle the waggons, eat their own dogfood or deploy blue-sky thinking - this is for you.

As in the King, so in the Kingdom. But how terrible, then, for the Kingdom if the King has lost the will to live...

This is a story about a little girl and a volcano and it's also about a grandfather and a fish, and a village and a rock ... and many other things if you listen carefully.

Here we are, back after a long hiatus, kicking off a new season of fortnightly podcasts with episode 31 - a tale containing a lot of made-up words ...

A cautionary tale about drinking in strange taverns.

Can there be learning without books? Can there be as much to ponder in a day of walking as in a term of studying? A student is forced to face these questions on his way home for the summer.

Occasionally on this podcast, we feature the work of another author from the public domain. This week we have a short story by the marvellous E.M Forster. Writing in the first half of the twentieth century, his romantic soul was troubled by the march of "so called" progress and his voice is still prophetic in our own times. Enjoy!

A woodcutter, a sailor, a lace maker, and a mysterious old woman ... sounds like a fairytale to me.  

It's December 1939, a hard winter in Harlem and pianist Jelly Roll Morton is plotting his return to fame. Tragically, in just over a year he would be dead.

If you listen to anything, animal, vegetable or mineral, in time it will disclose some secret wisdom to you that you are obligated to share with others. Here is a story about a man who knew all that he knew because of what the sea brought to him.

Welcome to "Stories from the Borders of Sleep" Episode 24. Rome ... Romantic? Oppressive? You decide, but just be aware that strange things might happen if you are at a loose end in the vicinity of the Colisseum.

Turpin Whittington has a few problems: an unusual name, complete deafness in his left ear and an uncontrollable tendency to get lost in fairy-land but somehow he makes good.

Every once in a while, we have decided to unearth a short story from the public domain and to give it the "Borders of Sleep" treatment. Here's a curious tale originally published in 1910 by Lord Dunsany in a collection entitled A Dreamer's Tales. Enjoy!

What lies beyond the chess board? A few chess pieces get to find out ...

A tale in which a baker gets the better of some savage bears with the help of a mysterious miller.

Stitched together from ideas that occurred to me while out walking the dog, my ponderings on the nature of fear, a dream from a long time ago, and a more recent journey in my own soul - it kind of emerged over the course of the last week. Is there something in you that needs to be unblocked?

This story does not do what it says on the tin. Not to give too much away, but: It is based on a folk tale that is still told in many variations across the world. I remember hearing it as a child. usually the "take home message" is something to do with collaborating and contributing to a greater effort, but here's my take on it ...

Here is a deep dive into the ocean and beyond, to carry you far away in your imagination, to dream within dreams, or just to help you get to sleep ... enjoy!

A story of a young girl who intends to become a princess by marrying a prince one day, yet in a single night she meets a strange shadow and an even stranger creature who shows her things no princess has ever seen.

A fragment of autobiographical memory, introducing one of the many creatures that inhabited my childhood. 

Another folk tale adapted for "Stories from the Borders of Sleep" by Seymour Jacklin. If you are enjoying these stories please rate them on iTunes or leave some feedback on the website: http://www.bordersofsleep.com

Here is another story that is a retelling of a vivid and lengthy dream I had many years ago. A stranger is washed up on a beach, barely alive. Years later he tries to recover his memories of a very different time and place and the people he lived with before - a people whose entire civilisation rose and fell in a single life-time or even ... between two tides.