Refugee Tales

Upon changing his religion, a young man is denounced as an apostate and flees his country hiding in the back of a freezer lorry…

After years of travelling and losing almost everything – his country, his children, his wife, his farm – an Afghan man finds unexpected warmth and comfort in a stranger’s home...

A student protester is forced to leave his homeland after a government crackdown, and spends the next 25 years in limbo, trapped in the UK asylum system...

Modelled on Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, the second volume of Refugee Tales sets out to communicate the experiences of those who, having sought asylum in the UK, find themselves indefinitely detained. Here, poets and novelists create a space in which the stories of those who have been detained can be safely heard, a space in which hospitality is the prevailing discourse and listening becomes an act of welcome.


All profits go to the Gatwick Detainee Welfare Group and Kent Help for Refugees.


Tales include:

The Smuggled Person’s Tale - Jackie Kay

The Mother’s Tale – Marina Warner

The Lover’s Tale - Kamila Shamsie

The Abandoned Person’s Tale - Olivia Laing

The Student's Tale - Helen Macdonald

The Support Worker’s Tale - Josh Cohen

The Voluntary Returner’s Tale - Caroline Bergvall

The Barrister’s Tale - Rachel Holmes

The Soldier’s Tale – Neel Mukherjee

The Walking Man's Tale – Ian Duhig

The Witness' Tale - Alex Preston



'A wonderful way of re-humanising some of the most vulnerable and demonised people on the planet.’ - Shami Chakrabarti 


'This stark short story collection will shake you to the core' - Reader's Digest