"Tonight she was going to see a unicorn, a real live one just like in the movies. She knew because Uncle Tom had said so. He'd said that every full moon the unicorns all came out to eat the apples in the old orchard. Mum had shushed him and said not to be so silly, but that's when he'd winked, right at her so she'd know for absolute sure it was true."

Bizarre and beautiful bedtime stories from the wonderful Adam Barnett, originally published in 'The Back of Beyond' and 'Between the Leaves'.

Music by Gurdonark.

"What do you wear to meet your lover's lover on an August summer's evening that calls for light clothes, light make up. Lightness? When all you want to do is hide away alone and allow your thoughts to rise in the darkness as you try to work out what just happened. She is on her way, in a taxi, to my house. She is wearing a fitted black fifties repro dress, red hot lipstick and is carrying a bottle of Veuve Cliquot. Can you imagine a more glamorous or confident image than this?"

The latest news from the magazine, alongside short fiction by Karen French. Music by Gurdonark.

Poet Georgi Gill met up with our Jess to do some bird-watching from an Edinburgh tower. We also establish the rules for the 'port of rejection' and listen to the most poetic shipping forecast ever to come out of dry land.

Poetry by Georgi Gill, music by Gurdonark,

A slightly different podcast this time round: we chat to our (fairly...) new editors and fellow mischief makers about their website The Rookery in the Bookery and -- drum roll please! -- announce our latest call for submission.

Music by Gurdonark.

The Far Off Places podcast is back! For real this time. We introduce new podcast host Jessica Johanneson Gaitan and talk about why reading out loud is special -- and how it can go wrong. Plots are hatched. Coffee is drunk. Poetry is read.

Poetry by Jake Reynolds and Juliet Wilson. Music by Gurdonark

Happy Bloom's Day! It's 110 years since Leopold Bloom and Stephen Daedalus wandered through Dublin, going to funerals and brothels and forgetting to buy soap. We're celebrating with a podcast dedicated to James Jocye's Ulysses, presented by Far Off Places editor Annie Rutherford. Expect amazing writing, confusing pronouns, and very bad Spanish.

"The insistent door knocker pounds its way from the other side of the house up the stairs. It feels like three in the morning. No hum of passing traffic. I roll over in bed. 11.40 glows green. Peering out, I can see snow softening suburban sounds. I look at Jamie's unfilled half of the bed; my stomach churns.

More banging invades the snowy silence before I reach the hall. The opaque glass panel in the door hints at a figure, slight, practically childlike. I'm disappointed. Orange from the street lamp catches the snow falling onto whoever's out there, motionless except for a hand raised to knock again."

An unseasonal tale of snow and sleepless nights, by Martin Redfern, read by Trevor Fountain. Music courtesy of Gurdonark (http://ccmixter.org/files/gurdonark/34368).

"Monster had come to Boy to scare him, as was the agreement between monsters and children, but when he arrived the worst had already happened and Boy had no want or need of fear. Monster found pity and wound his thick tail around Boy's ears to muffle the sound of sobbing Father from the bathroom below.

Boy named Monster, and Monster named Boy, and that was that." (The Space Beneath, Joely Badger)

Learn how to blow out the stars, burp the alphabet and make your last lie count with these unexpected stories written by Joely Badger and read by Annie Rutherford. Music courtesy of Gurdonark (http://ccmixter.org/files/gurdonark/34368).

'The mother wakes early, fumbling for her only pair of heels by the light of a cancerous moon. Glimpsing its baldness, she feels stifled, her chest tight with that old, rising swell. She tries to pry open the window, searching the dark for signs of rain, but it sticks and she strains, making too much noise. The little face, a second moon, hangs in her doorway, wondering why.' (Pandora, Kristina Wojtaszek)

The Far Off podcast is back! Excuses and exciting things, plus extraordinary prose by Kristina Wojtaszek. Music by Gurdonark.

A merry Christmas one and all! We have some seasonal and rather less seasonal short prose from Dave Clark and Liam Hogan.

Creepy Christmas music by SackJo22. To be consumed with Christmas cake.