Five Dials

A free literary magazine from Hamish Hamilton

Number 51 | The Body

God’s Photograph

Every hundred yards or so the motorway lights lit her face. She tilted her head and administered eye drops. She’d used a bronze foundation to blend the new part of her face with the old.

Her Lovely Meaningless Face

Sara Collins on Wide Sargasso Sea

As much as I hold the novel dear, for all the work it does to penetrate the experience of the white Creole, Wide Sargasso Sea never seems to cross the border of black skin.

Hannah has been in bed for a week. She knows the different textures and pressures and eccentric lumps of her bed like the back of her hand. Better. She does not know the back of her hand very well at all.

Number 50

The Five Dials Awards

Finally, our own awards show. It’s 1/17th as long as the Oscars. And more entertaining. Plus an interview with Bernardine Evaristo and a introduction to Heinrich Böll.

Number 49

Unsettled Lands

Poetry from Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. Marlon James on how to construct a fantastical world. Comics by Gord Hill. Lara Williams on eggs. Plus Tana French, Gregory Younging, Yiyun Li, Johny Pitts, Alan Trotter and artwork by Christi Belcourt. And a recipe for tamalitos.

Number 48

Glitches

Sam Byers on Autechre, new fiction from Niamh Campbell, artwork from Stanley Donwood, a treat for Scorpios from Sophie Mackintosh and an interview with Adam Phillips