Monk and schoolgirl? Hmm, that title sounds a bit naughty, now I come to think of it. Maybe I should change it. But you must believe me when I say it’s honestly not meant to be naughty. It’s just meant to convey the bitter-sweet pangs of young love, from a dewy-eyed schoolgirl’s point of view. [...]
And now, Mother, it’s your turn! Enter Molly Williams, heroine of all my life’s journeys, protagonist of my memoir! Imagine the scene. I have just stepped inside the large entrance hall of Belle View, our Victorian Bed & Breakfast home in Lyneham-on-Sea. I’ve dropped my bags and guitar case on the floor, and am bombarded [...]
I wrote this poem one Valentine's Day many, many years ago, when my heart was full of longing for a forbidden love. I never sent it to the man in question, because ... well, I just didn't. I couldn't. So here it is now, several decades late. Wonder if he'll finally read it? LOST LOVE [...]
I’m staring out of my frosted kitchen window right now, gazing at the white-coated garden that has been rendered Siberian after last night’s heavy snowfall. And while drinking in the wintry scene, I’m remembering another freezing February day, all of four decades ago and a thousand miles away from where I am now, as I [...]
EMPTINESS The snow is falling and I am falling with it. Softly, silently it falls. No sound as the flakes touch land. Just a vast, empty winter’s landscape, inside and out. Enough is enough. Let there be oblivion: an end to the live sparks of human emotion. Just the snow out there, softly falling, carrying [...]
Here's a not-your-average Christmas story. I should know. I was there. The crackling strains of Silent Night filled the room from the antiquated radio. It was a German recording of Silent Night, very close to the original score that had been composed by Franz Xavier Gruber in December 1818. ‘Could you turn it louder?’ I [...]
Here’s a true-story Advent Tale with a difference. The sky was gradually darkening. She sat on the deep window sill in her bedroom, hawk-like in her vigilant perch. Sometimes it seemed to her that from this position she could view the entire world. Clusters of young stars were popping into existence, their neon dust [...]
