Steps to friendship

A VISIT to the local coffee shop following their Pilates class had become a welcome routine for the three retired friends. One morning Lyn ordered her favourite flat white, insisting she wanted nothin

COME on, Auntie Jo – your turn!” Seven-year-old Sophie pushed the little cubes of wood across the table towards her aunt. Jo glanced at the clock and sighed. Still another 10 minutes before her niece

FROM its oak panelling to the worn leather chairs, the room was oddly old fashioned. Rather like Ralph Draper himself, Dolly observed, glancing around the private detective’s office. She hadn’t expect

YOU can’t just throw it all in a skip, Mum!” Bryony’s voice was muffled by a dust mask as she crouched in the loft space, carefully avoiding bumping her head on the beams. She examined a battered trun

VERONICA had only recently moved to the town, so she was surprised to recognise the woman walking towards her. Yet, when their eyes met, 30 years rolled away. “Helen?” Veronica said. “It is you, isn’t

NATALIE had done it again: spoken without thinking. Honestly, she sometimes thought she consisted of two people. There was the sensible Natalie who recycled her cardboard, and an inner, loose-lipped N