Safe haven

WASN’T it you who used to work behind the bar at the Frog and Lettuce?” Susan Tallboys looked up. She’d been fastening the buttons of her overcoat, suppressing her dislike of its worn fabric and its m

IT’S good to see you, Nora.” Sally ushered her sister from the porch into the hallway of the rectory and shut the door quickly. The winter was proving as severe as last year’s, and Sally needed to kee

MILLICENT BRADFORD dithered about going down to Portsmouth on the train. It was cold, that January of 1942, and obviously there was a war on. Travelling about was frowned upon, unless one really had t

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

IT would be perfect for us, Cliff. Not too big, but not too small. “With two steady incomes, too, we stand a good chance of getting a mortgage. “Apparently the building societies like teachers. They t