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

WE nearly owned a cat once. He caused something of a neighbourhood dispute, too. My other half advised keeping our heads down because of it, but I really couldn’t do that when pegging out the washing.

I WOKE up after a vivid dream of Eleanor. I’d had quite a few recently. Eleanor was my half-sister. She was older than me – the daughter of Dad’s first wife, Dorrie. My mum only found out he had a fir

DINNER time, Duncan!” I call, setting down a dish of the expensive cat food the vet recommended on the kitchen floor. Duncan trots in, sniffs it suspiciously, gives me one of his disdainful stares and

Why was their new neighbour so rude? Harriet was determined to find out

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