WOULD you look at the man!” Maggie said. She wasn’t much to look at herself, being as black as sin from the coal dust. She’d just finished a shift at the colliery screens, picking lumps of coal out of

WHAT was the man thinking of when he did his shopping? Jessie thought. Two huge, brown paper parcels spilled food on to the kitchen table. Enough to feed a family for a fortnight at least. Slices of t

THE bell above the door jingled as Freya screwed the top on a big glass jar. “Be right with you!” she called, efficiently using the wooden steps to reach the top shelf and stow the aniseed twists wher

I’m the same age as my mum and dad were when our family moved in next door to Mrs. Dolan. They seemed old to me back then, but I know now that they weren’t. They were a young couple at the beginning o

AS you know, Anne and I are early bedders, but there is one night in the year Anne insists we stay up till midnight. That, as you can guess, is New Year’s Eve. On the stroke of midnight Anne pours out

THE toll of church bells was stifled by the winds. Sleet clawed my face as I pushed through the flurry. The orangery’s windows had shattered. Whichever way I turned, rattling, shaking trees bore down.