(1) The Fancy Dress Party Sam had a problem. His friend Abbie was having a fancy dress birthday party on the last day of the school holidays and he couldn’t decide what he wanted to go as. ‘What about being a wizard with a cloak, a wand and a pointed hat?’ his mum suggested.… read more
A second chance – that’s what I was being given when, having skirted death during that first round of Covid, I left hospital just over a year ago. I was, I was told, only half way there. It would take twelve more months before my body got back to near where it had been before… read more
She was out of his league, no doubt about that. Beautiful, fair and expensively casual, she was reading a brochure when he arrived at the hotel. He thought she might be waiting for a husband or a lover. She wasn’t. He was there by accident, the car he’d been road testing around Scotland… read more
Helen heard the news at the monthly lunch party. All the wives who regularly gathered at the home of one or another of them knew about the problems that Sally and Tom Stewart had been having in their marriage. It was such a pity, everyone agreed, because they had such a beautiful… read more
He cried that first morning – although that wasn’t what he’d expected would happen. His mother had taken him there promptly at nine-thirty in his new red fleece-lined jacket, and he’d dashed ahead of her through the park, so keen was he to begin his new adventure. At almost four years old he’d… read more
Suddenly he was apprehensive. Was he making a terrible mistake? What was the point in all this? He wished now that he’d made an excuse and cancelled. He looked across the narrow street. A troupe of Polish tourists was gazing respectfully as a guide pointed up at a red neon sign. The Cavern,… read more
Harry watched as Amy, the tip of her tongue poking from between her lips, compiled her list. Finally at the bottom of the page she wrote in n fluorescent pink: ‘Happy Christmas. With love from Amy xxx’. Then, sticking a couple of shiny stars next to her name, she folded the paper and … read more
‘A virus?’ ‘That’s what they said. And they can’t fix it!’ ‘It’s a twelve hundred pound laptop, for heaven’s sake. It’s hardly been used. Of course they can fix it. They’re just not trying.’ The young assistant frowned nervously. ‘I’m sorry, Penelope, but the shop agreed with Jim in IT. They can’t erase… read more
