Clyth in Caithness, north-east Scotland was the original source of my mother’s parents. I was seventy-seven when I felt a renewed need to drive up there. A journey I should have made years ago when I was a shade spritelier. The motivation, in 2011, was ba...
I sat at the back of the hall, as far away from the blare and screech of the music as possible. Did they still call this tuneless, booming stuff music? Gone were the days when you could hear the words and whistle the tune. No way to shut out the laughter...
A nine-year-old coerced into writing thank you letters to relatives after Christmas, finds tact a problem. Dear Aunt Maude, I hope you had a lovely Christmas. Thank you for the present. Socks were just what I needed (Mom says), and such an unusual pattern...
Rain rattled on his large black umbrella, as Mark Dexter leaned over the promenade wall. It had pelted down non-stop since early that Sunday morning and looked set in for the day, accompanied by a gusty breeze. Below him, the sand was hardened all the way...
Yorke Millen sat back and viewed the letter on the desk in front of him. How, in the present circumstances, was he going to manage the next few months as temporary head teacher? Being deputy head was fair enough, the buck didn't stop with you. But now, he...
Moving into our bungalow over thirty years ago we found that the front lawn had a variety of standard willow as a centre piece. For the first three years, the tree developed vigorously, its head getting wider and wider. No flowers, just musky green leaves...
When Harry met Sally, he thought, ‘Somebody up there likes me.’ Totally bewitched at finding her among the bridesmaids at her best friend’s wedding, while he was best man. Laura, his favoured pretty woman, went, but he managed only a brief encounter with...
October 27th, 1814, and the wind blowing over the clouded northern moors had winter on its breath and darkness in its heart. Rustling over the heather, hissing through the bracken before moaning down the slopes of the natural bowl which couched the still...
A bright, warm May afternoon, and 79-year-old Jack Turnby stood on his drive viewing his 2002 Toyota, contemplating whether he might outlive this scarred vehicle. Purchasing a newer model had much appeal. His imminent rebellion against the so-called ‘care...
“One day, you’re going to thank God you’ve got that speed, lad.” Those were the words of old Jack Linley to eighteen-year-old Danny Friar after the young man had run a solo one hundred metres trial on grass. While Danny, in his running gear, and spiked tr...
At 1.00 am on the 6th May 1941 a German bomb made a direct hit on the Apollo Picture House, reducing it to rubble. On hearing the news, I, just turned seven, cried all that day. Not the Apollo, where my visions of life, truth, or fantasy, were just coming...
Ten years. Yes, almost exactly. Biking to school I, all big-mouthed and cocky, sped past her on my racing bike, grasping at her jet-black plait. Me, away laughing. At fifteen, a tinge of jealousy when she held hands with Norman? I would vehemently deny th...
For all her infant life and some way beyond, Jane hated the sea. It was always there in all its forms lapping gently at the rocky shores of Clyth, like some friendly faithful dog, or giving a harvest as generous as a fertile field. Yet Jane believed tha...
Scotland, the Caithness coast, specifically the fishing village of Clyth. It is the evening of January 26th, 1876. A dark chill evening. No breeze, but grassed slopes that tilt to the cliff edge, wear a veil of frost. A shadowed sea heaves, gently slappin...
That’s it. Breakfast dishes all cleared away. Cups neatly stacked, in the lower cupboard, Cereal bowls alongside with the plates. Now, why do I find something so menial satisfying? Oh, don’t I know the reason very well? It’s a form of security. Just like...
