Filling in

OH, how I was looking forward to my birthday! Now that the war was finally over, I could have a proper party, like I’d had when I was small. All through the years, I’d never forgotten how my little ch

THE timing of it! How unfair can it be?” Gilly Hyde clamped her hands to the sides of her head in despair, and immediately regretted it. She had spent an hour on her hair that morning. She took her ha

TENDERLY, Violet touched her frail mother’s cheek. Ruby gazed wide-eyed at her daughter. Eventually, shocked and disbelieving, she spoke, her voice a feeble whisper. “Violet, I’m begging you. Don’t go

Sally’s dad didn’t come back from the war – but she never gave up hope

DEIRDRE leaned back on her sunbed and sighed. The view couldn’t have been more beautiful: rocky arid terrain rising from the sea, boats pottering about in the bay . . . Nearby, a luxury yacht was anch

Ihadn’t heard from Roy Biddle in nearly thirty years when he called my home number. This was 1991, and an October day when brown, slippery leaves coated the pavement outside our west London house. Roy