Category Fiction
The man behind the photograph
He was very pleased that he’d followed her advice. The photograph turned out fine. Just the right angle and lighting, with the colouring and setting adding to the dignity. In the best magazine and newspapers too! A few things had worried him though. He hadn’t altered his hairstyle. Martina, his dear wife, suggested that […]
Enlightenment
England, in the spring of 1574, saw a greater number of monks and pilgrims than usual, making their way from one shrine to the next in search of religious enlightenment. Many of them called for food and shelter at abbeys, monasteries and religious houses dotted throughout England. Waltham Abbey, in the country of Hertford, came […]
Quite by accident
Sometimes I just hate myself. I can be so selfish. I mean, I could have stopped and offered to help Lester. I was pretty sure he’d recognised me as I drove past. When I’d checked by the rear-vision mirror, the look on his face could have stopped a clock. But it was raining. I’d had […]
Persons
This is a piece of fiction. I love noticing the odd and curious things about people. Here’s a little example: So far, I’d met a few odd characters on my door-to-door research survey on television viewing in the neighbourhood; all different characters, in keeping with the dictionary definition I’d read earlier that day. Apparently the […]
It was among some unclaimed papers
No one seeing James Worthington outside of his own home town would have given him a second look. He was just an ordinary man. Everything about his outward appearance said so. Even he himself, one month short of his 25th birthday, would have agreed, had he been asked. Yet deep within his heart there lay […]
Enquiries are continuing…
Archaeologists and scientists from around the world are arriving in Egypt in response to a recent gruesome discovery. Rasan Abdel Hassan, our Middle East correspondent, links it to a report he made in 1988. That report read: The sudden disappearance of Mr Peter Carter, aged 23 years, is causing some concern. He joined a party […]
The broadening of Ben Norwood’s mind
Picture a man, pleasant, quietly spoken, of middle-age and average build. Add a good head of dark hair tinged with silver at the temples, a ready smile and dressed as becomes of man of quality, if not of wealth, and you have a man whom many women wish to take into their arms and cuddle […]
Mr Marko’s secret
This story appears to have a very ‘dark’ beginning, but do read on… (Marko is a gypsy/Romany name meaning ‘defense’.) The little girl walking home through the park on the edge of town cuddled a teddy which was rather big for her small arms to carry. As she moved along she hummed a tune she’d […]
Andorf’s journey
I once went to a writer’s workshop with a woman called Rene, in Cambridge, a small town an hour’s drive from where I live, attended by eight or so writers from the district. Rene opened her session by asking us to jot down anything that we hadn’t thought of writing about before, just short headings […]
The writings of a Lancashire lad 
Father Boland’s faith
There was nothing out of the ordinary as far as the funeral of young Patrick O’Dowd was concerned. The usual kind of people turned up at the church, where flowers – bought and arranged by Mrs Kelly and Miss O’Leary – did their best to brighten up the quiet deadness of the building, but failed. […]