Horses tended, all ten stable stalls, swept and cleaned, and the resultant manure loaded onto the wagon, Jack Wetherley, apprentice stable manager on the Brandling estate, considered that a decent Monday morning’s work done. Jack blinked in the bright noonday sun. Heat from that same sun, and the heavy work just completed, had his shirt clinging to his sweated body. Without delay, he pulled the rough garment over his head...

It was the largest department store in the city, with the food department covering most of the ground floor. And it was there that I had taken up a part-time job on the Saturdays of my final year in college. Quite a comfortable little job loading bakery shelves. Then came Christmas! “The Saturday before Christmas will kill you!” George, head porter, gleefully informed me. “Time of year always kills off part-timers.” It wa...

Up, unwilling out of sleep’s sensuous pit. Again, the cry, thin, tentative. Fourth time tonight? Fifth? Cosy-rosy dreams fade. Windows, still winter dark. Time? Late—were there streetlights? Reach blindly for clock on table. Sleep-numb fingers touch but only push. Crash on floor. Shockproof? Hope so—hope so—Heavy eyelids flicker, warm waves drift towards slumber— Again, the cry, louder! So close, the warm, womanly, wifely...

I went to the doctor’s recently, and after hearing my symptoms he diagnosed that I had Age Activate Attention Deficit Disorder. These were my symptoms: I need to wash my car. As I head towards the garage, I notice the mail on the hall table. I decide to go through it before washing the car. I put my car keys down on the table, and put junk mail in the bin. I notice the bin is full so I put the bills on the table to take o...

That November night, Mira would later learn, went down in history. It seemed normal enough as the nuns tended the various children in the dormitory. But before they could even get to sleep, the noises from the heart of the city began. Mira thought she heard a window breaking, then another, and very quickly, more windows were breaking. Then, a rifle shot, was it? Mira sat up in bed and saw some of the other girls doing the...

That Thursday, all pupils were called into the minor-hall in the convent, where the Mother Superior, her voice cracking occasionally, told them that under a decree from the German High Command and with immediate effect, the Roman Catholic nuns would no longer be allowed to teach them. She added, “Apparently, we are not capable of following the Aryan policy. Whatever that may be.” Ominously two men in black uniforms stood...

It was 1938 and Mira Wurtz, eleven years old, loved to eavesdrop the gossip of the customers in the grocery store where she bought the weekend bread and milk for her busy Grossmama (grandmother), Jana Kanner. Here in the city of Vienna, talk, for a long time, had been full of despair involving the cost of living, and work prospects for the future. But recently, a new word had crept into conversations. That word was ‘Ansch...

The river, smooth as a land-locked pool glows silver below us, and the snow crunches under our feet as we stroll towards the mid-point of the bridge. So many times, my searches for nature’s gifts have led me here. But never in winter. And never with a woman. Bashful Barry, that’s me. twenty-five years old, my nickname has tracked me since university. Bluebells delicately border this riverbank in springtime. Today, snow, s...

If I could write a poem, I’d celebrate her style How roses blush in envy, At the radiance of her smile. As I sit in awe, just watching Her form, aglow in silken white. Now she waits, in peace and loveliness For her chosen, loving knight If I could write a poem, I’d fill it to my own delight Perfectly adapted so I could be That bold and blessed knight. Our hands they’d clench together Our hearts would mingle too No matter...

Hospitals have always made me uneasy, and that was only when visiting. Now, here I was, a patient, and breathing easy. Not allowed to get up yet, though. They don’t half fuss over me. “You’re a special case, Mr Fuller,” the nurses keep saying. Doctors, who come and check me over, have said that too. But my darling Helen, bless her, says I’ve always been a special case to her. I just wish I wasn’t putting her through all t...

At 3.23 a.m. on the 27th of November 1998, the body of 64 years old Norton L. Broadbent was found on the quayside beneath the old Cosborough Bridge. Given the extensive injuries there was little doubt that he had fallen the twenty feet from the bridge. Broadbent, a widower, managing director and owner of Broadbent Industries, and a member of a family whose business skills could be traced back into the 17th century, had no...

Strange, isn’t it? Those small things that get listed in the memo pad of the mind. Brief, inconsequential in their setting, and outcome, yet noted, sharp and clear as any major incidents that give our lives direction. A lifetime ago, drawn by the music, I briefly lived in the thrall of Laura. The music lives on, rarely heard today, yet, when it is heard, it becomes slyly evocative. Laura—and Benny Goodman giving out with...

Just that—a moment. Not a life resolving, world changing event. Trivial, you will think it. But for me, a just-turned-sixteen, raw, callow adolescent with little knowledge of the way of the world, it was a mind stirring, almost upsetting moment, recalled here from decades gone by. Kate was my cousin, and I was one month her junior. She was the daughter of my mother’s sister, my Aunt Rita living in Middlesex. I still have...

APRIL 1918 Loose soil, mud and clay, dropped from his head and face as he raised his shoulders and chest. Legs still buried, he struggled to free them. Dirt-blurred eyes viewed devastation. Slowly, ears reached beyond a ghostly silence, to take in harsh distant explosive noise. Clearing vision saw distant flashes. His mind would not tell him where he was, why he was half-buried, what had happened. A bare arm lay close to...

Elderly Joe Vickers faced Doctor Reed and asked for a full physical examination. The doctor looked puzzled, “Why now?” Joe smiled, “I’m getting married.” “That’s splendid.” “I’m eighty-two and she’s twenty-four,” Joe said. The doctor looking dubious, but he conducted the examination. Afterwards, he observed, “No real problems considering your age. Could I make one suggestion?” “What’s that?” Joe asked. “Having a lodger mi...