Orange blossom time

10 min read

PART TWO: The housemaids had left their old lives behind to head for America… a

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My Weekly Magazine

4 April 2023

The People's Friend

A sense of belonging

IT had been a long, hard drive. Frances had left early, hoping to get away before the rush hour – only to discover that the rush hour started earlier still. She stopped for a break further south than

The People's Friend Special

In perfect harmony

THE last specks of rain of the previous night’s storm pattered against the widow of the drawing-room. Meryl Stewart sat at the keyboard of her baby grand, working her way through the piano arrangement

The People's Friend

All hands on deck

I’D seen an advertisement in my father’s newspaper for women to work on the canal boats. It said applicants should be of a robust constitution. I’m quite robust, so why not? I’d give it a go. “Look, D

The People's Friend

A sense of belonging

THE clamour of seagulls woke Frances. For a moment, she was disorientated. Not so much in place – she knew this bedroom well – as in time. She had the odd feeling that none of the last 30-odd years ha

The People's Friend Special

Beyond the rapids

TWO figures stood on the western side of the Dnieper rapids: a tall youth and a little girl in a blue headscarf. Both were dressed in the distinctive clothes of the Cossack people. The little girl poi