Don’t get me wrong, at heart I am a petrolhead, and have enjoyed some fast, exotic, gas guzzling motors over the decades of my long driving life. I still hanker after my Maserati, Porsche, open top Jags and Alfas. However, old age, realism and concern for the environment has tempered my tastes. The alternative is […]
Last week I was privileged to attend a talk and an event that are inspiring examples of endeavour by spirited individuals working in the natural world. On Wednesday eveningI watched a film presentation by Marek Borkowski, a man who during the last fifty years has managed to save and preserve ancient wetlands in the Biebrza […]
I must have been about 10 years old when I had my first rush of creative writing. I had been asked by my English teacher, the indomitable, Mr Horne, a man with keen sense of the absurd, to write an essay on anything we fancied for a homework exercise. This was better than the usual […]
The little girl clambered into her wooden bed and pulled the wool blanket up to her chin. Lying back on her straw mattress she could see the lighthouse through her tiny bedroom window. The lighthouse was painted white and it stood proud atop a small rocky outcrop surrounded by crashing seas. In the summer months, […]
Chapter 13 The manorial court rolls in medieval times mentions Jacob’s Acres as common land used by villeins to raise cattle, sheep and grow cereals. Under the feudal system they paid dues every year to the Lord of the Manor. When the Enclosure Act came into being in the early 1700s land was parcelled up, […]
Chapter 10 Simon Padfoot is looking over his business plans for the fifty houses on Jacob’s Acres. He will trigger his option to purchase as soon as planning is granted. The vendor is a Cayman Island Trust Fund, the real owner is surrounded in secrecy. All his dealings to date have been through a large, […]
The Return Chapters 7-9 Chapter 7 ‘Hello, what can I do for you?’ Ask the Rector, as she is about to put on her blue clerical blouse and collar. A man has emerged silently through the vestry door into the robing room of St Mary’s. He is dressed as a clergyman in an old fashioned […]
Chapter 4 Sir Shackleton Huntswick is feeling out of sorts. The last council meeting had been perfectly satisfactory although there was worry that the planned housebuilding on Jacob’s Acres would do untold damage to the fabric of the village. Fifty new houses was a lot to absorb. The open pasture and burial mound held a special […]
Chapter 4 Sir Shackleton Huntswick is feeling out of sorts. The last council meeting had been perfectly satisfactory although there was worry that the planned housebuilding on Jacob’s Acres would do untold damage to the fabric of the village. Fifty new houses was a lot to absorb. The open pasture and burial mound held a special […]
Author’s Note: This is a Novella, only 15000 words. The chapters are deliberately short. The following 3 installments will appear in another week. The Return: Chapters 1-3 Chapter 1 Dr. Kirsty Daventry slams her cottage door and on hearing the reassuring sound of the lock click into place, she places her hand into her wax […]