Julian Walker
About
This site is for written work by Julian Walker, comprising fiction, writing for performance, and non-fiction.
Fiction
Julian Walker's short fiction is published by StuffLikeThat books
Performance writing
In Knossos
A four-act play about ambition, beauty, revenge, power, and how much we are responsible for the consequences of our actions. Tapala, a young architect arrives in ancient Knossos, and describes to Heba, a sex-worker, his plan for building a huge stairway from the sea to the citadel. Heba is excited by the plan, but realises it will bring massive upheaval and unrest, and prepares to leave. Tapala presents his plans to the authorities, but they read them as an attempt to bring down the city. Outside the city Heba and Tapala meet again, and he describes the rejection of the plans. Years later, Heba, now enormously wealthy, returns to the city, offering a donation of a vast amount of money. But the state sees this as a further act of subversion.An excerpt from 'In Knossos' is presented by the KDC theatre company at a Scratch Night at the Castle pub, Aldgate, London, on 8 October 2026.................................................................
Two Blokes and a Kiss
An eight-minute short for two male actors in their sixties. Bob and Alan reminisce about their first kiss, and discover it was with the same girl.Two Blokes and a Kiss will be presented at the Redbridge Drama Centre, London E18, as part of the October Scratch Night, 25th October, 2026.
................................................................
Marcia and the Dogs
A ten-minute piece for six actors, about coercion, chaos, dementia, and cleaning. Marcia's home life with her parents breaks down because of an obsessively chewing dog. Her mother has to go into care, and Marcia, now living alone, is befriended by a persuasive dog with a nasty cough.................................................................
Thirst
60 minutes
A play about the climate crisis in two contexts: the irreparable diversion of two branches of a family, and two drivers in a traffic jam at the end of the world.A grandmother and daughter watch a family’s post-funeral drinks. Strong disagreement about the cause of the climate crisis emerges. Drawn into the argument by virtue of having been a teacher of one of the family members, the grandmother tries to arbitrate. Meanwhile H G Wells’s image of the end of the world in The Time Machine instigates a fantasy of a couple stuck in a traffic jam at the end of the world. Memories of holidays increase the rift in the family, and a history of gambling addiction has split the family to the point where wealth and social class are making it impossible for them to communicate.................................................................
News From France
3 minutes
MonologueIn 1916 a woman is annoyed that her sister is giving way to despair over not having heard from her husband after the Battle of the Somme. She takes her to see the documentary film about the battle, during which her sister sees her missing husband on screen. The next day the sister gets a postcard from her husband, and overjoyed, kisses the postman, much to the annoyance of the speaker.Presented at the PenToPrint Speech and Drama Festival, 2025
................................................................
Goldfish Eye Lens
A 50-minute piece in blank verse for six actors.A boy and a girl get back to her flat ready to have sex, but she gets stuck in the bathroom with a post-curry tummy upset, telling him to have a conversation with her goldfish while he waits. Finding he and the goldfish are both called Nigel, he phones a friend, also called Nigel, who’s involved in some marginal sexual activity, while the girl runs out of toilet-paper, and asks the boy goes to go and get some. While he’s away the goldfish tries to escape, some racist horses in a picture try to avoid getting involved, and decide to move home. The goldfish gets stranded outside of its bowl and Nigel-on-the-phone tries to resuscitate it by phone. Nigel (1) returns with toilet-paper and rescues the goldfish, the girl can't reach the bathroom door, the boy tries to change the polarity on the hoover with a fish-slice, so he can blow toilet-paper under the locked door; he gives up and gets exhausted trying to blow it through using the hoover hose, and passes out. The girl comes out of the bathroom fabulously dressed, but disappointed, and the goldfish tries to get off with her.................................................................
The Arrangements
A four-act play about coercion, guilt, failure and family secrets.When Dorothy and Simon’s father dies, they are forced to deal with their uncomfortable relationship with teenage Hettie, who may not actually be their full sister, their mother having died from drug abuse not long after Hettie’s birth. Dorothy is in a clandestine coercive relationship with Bernard, who is theoretically refurbishing the family home, but has been obsessively watching Hettie from a distance. Simon and Dorothy’s conversation about funeral arrangements reveals a possible incestuous relationship when they were children. Arrangements for the eulogy cause more tension, Hettie condemning them all for their boring lives, with doubts as to whether Simon will be able to read at the ceremony. At the wake Bernard accuses Simon, already overstressed by his job teaching in a girls school, of an act of sexual abuse at a party when he was younger. Fatima, Simon’s wife, alienated by the family’s casual racism and Dorothy’s closeness to Simon, accuses Bernard of coercion. Bernard reveals that he is Hettie’s father, and back home reveals his relationship with Dorothy, and seems to be taking over both the family and ownership of the house. Simon, in an attempt to stop Bernard revealing the sexual abuse story to Fatima, throws himself downstairs, but fails to do himself a serious injury. Dorothy reverts to her position in their childhood relationship, as his surrogate mother.................................................................
Non-fiction books
Tommy French
2021, Pen & Sword Books.
How British First World War Soldiers Turned French into Slang.
...Words and the First World War: Language, Memory, Vocabulary
2017, Bloomsbury.
The effects of the First World War on the English language.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/words-and-the-first-world-war-9781350001923/...Multilingual Environments in the Great War
2021, Bloomsbury, with Christophe Declercq, eds.
The differing ways in which language has been used to try to make sense of the First World War. Offering further developments in an innovative approach to the study of the conflict, it develops a transnational viewpoint of the experience of war to reveal less expected areas of language use during the conflict.Taking the study of the First World War far beyond the Western Front, chapters examine experiences in many regions, including Africa, Armenia, post-war Australia, Russia and Estonia, and a variety of contexts, from prisoner-of-war and internment camps, to food queues and post-war barracks. Drawing upon a wide variety of languages, such as Esperanto, Flemish, Italian, Kiswahili, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish, Multilingual Environments in the Great War brings together language experiences of conflict from both combatants and the home front, connecting language and literature with linguistic analysis of the immediacy of communication.
...Languages and the First World War
Two volumes: Representation and Memory & Communicating in a Transnational War, 2016, Palgrave Macmillan, with Christophe Declercq, eds.
Essays on the changing nature of European languages during the First World War.
...The Roar of the Crowd: A Sporting Anthology
2016, The British Library.
An anthology of writing about sport.
...Trench Talk: Words of the First World War
2011, The History Press, with Peter Doyle.
Soldier slang from the trenches.
...The Finishing Touch: Cosmetics Through the Ages
2014, The British Library.
An anthology of texts on cosmetics.
...How to Cure the Plague and Other Curious Remedies
2013, The British Library.
An anthology of texts on medicine through the ages.
...Team Talk, Sporting Words ad their Origins
2013, Shire Books.
An exploration of the history of the language of sport.
...Discovering Words in the Kitchen
2010, Shire Books.
A miscellany of words to do with food and cooking, exploring origins and changes in form and meaning.
........Discovering Words
2009, Shire Books.
A miscellany of words, their origins and changes through history.
Awards
News From France
Monologue award
PenToPrint Speech and Drama Festival, 2025.Central Line Westbound
Short story, in 'On Three Trains'
Second prize, PenToPrint short story award, 2025.................................................................
Get in touch
Email [email protected]
Instagram JulianWalkerandstufflikethat
Facebook JulianWalkerCopy and paste the email address.
I don't use social media much.
Don't phone, I get alarmed.
I don't know how the stuff underneath this works, but I suppose I'd better not delete it.
Text