No Bananas When we had just returned from a two week’s holiday, my husband of a year – and you can see why it was not much longer – asked me, ‘Have we got any bananas?’ ‘Where would we have got them from?’ I replied. ‘Before we went away,’ he said. Holiday. Summer holiday. Like – […]
Roll On Tomorrow
Roll on Tomorrow Of all my four children, only my one son has an English degree like me. Like me, he loves words and language, and people, and he is very funny, in a quaint, dry sort of way. One day, as a very young teenager, he said, ‘I like the idea of the sort […]
Making Whoopee
Making Whoopee Lovelorn Laura was determined to turn her life around – with the help of a little lyrical loveliness. by Pamela Pickton “Oh, dear, what can the matter be?” sang the music as the keep-fit class bounced their bottoms on the floor. And, “Oh, dear, could we all fatter be?” sang Laura to herself. She had […]
Christmas Greetings
`Posh people have better cards than most of us.` I remarked to my friend.`Yes, they do. Because they have rich friends.` Are they bigger? Mostly. Shinier? Or just of better quality material? However pretty, even beautiful, ours look like humble cottages next to Mansions Tall. The pretty, the beautiful, the funny, the well-crafted home-made. Still somehow scrappy next […]
Unmasked
UNMASKED My last magazine story – A Love Like This – is true. Though I called it The Love Seat. It all happened much longer ago than five years. The two separate episodes, with two different partners, were twenty-five and ten years ago. Not the stuff magazine stories are made of, I thought. As I […]