Readers Stories

You’d be up for child cruelty today if they heard you let the wee ones lick the bowl in which the cake ingredients were mixed!

There was a dogfight every time in our house for the opportunity.  I’m trying to remember the taste…  easy when it contained rich seasoning, ginger or dried fruit.. whatever, we loved it and fought over it.  It took mum to brandish the wooden spoon before peace could be restored.  We must have felt that wooden spoon in anger more than once, for no lion-tamer’s whip could have been more effective in restraining us!

It had to be wielded too to keep us off the cooling confections.  Mum determined a minimum time before the new cake of bread could be cut.  We paced like convicts in anticipation.

After a sleepless weekend of trepidation it was a relief  finally to get to work on Monday morning and to meet this ogre that they all feared.

Read moreGoing Round in Circles

It was Christmas morning and the phones in the various homes belonging to the Martin family had been in overdrive since breakfast. The women of the family were exchanging views about the impending hassle of cooking the Christmas dinner at their parents’ home – a family tradition. 

Read moreStuff the turkey

My wife and I visited Chester City last year as part of a tour.  It was a lovely September day …

Read moreA Visit to Chester

The next morning my vehicle pressed its way through the sand-encrusted track that was the main street and there I saw Rachel, just as she had said – sitting with her friends.  A smile broke across her dark complexion as she stood up and walked in the direction of my on-coming land cruiser. 

Read moreRachel: 3

In their desperation to retain the few bus conductors they had managed to recruit, the East Thanet Bus Company found accommodation for those who required it, with landladies in the immediate vicinity. They, of course, were of the xenophobic, nagging, take-it-or-leave-it type and, difficult as it may be to believe, we found it genuinely preferable to work as long hours as possible, in order to avoid their company. And their soggy dinners. 

Read morePhilosophic Driver

Perhaps it’s Seasonal Affective Disorder:  it might be due to recent sad losses:  I might just be growing old;  but something, this time of year, brings me back to my favourite Shakespeare sonnets.  Just thought you might like to share one or two with me.

Read moreSonnet LXXIII

He might have been Joe’s father or grandfather. Certainly he displayed signs of similar mental function. The time was back in the war

Read moreAir Raid Shelter

I used that half-hour wisely, diligently studying the contents of my ready-reckoner card. In the end I felt confident that I had memorised a small section of it, and was familiar with the names of most stops – if not their location. I was ready to face the customer.

Read moreLost on a Bus