Empty nest

TESS was completely disorientated when she woke up. Her eyes flickered open and she found herself facing an unfamiliar pale green wall. The room, wherever it was, held a faint hint of the new wallpape

B ELLA KOSINSKY waved and smiled as her daughter-in-law stumbled up the path. Jodi was pushing the buggy with one hand and holding on to little Aaron with the other, while trying to keep various bags

THERE’S a nice new girl working at the Post Office,” I said casually, as I unpacked my shopping on to the kitchen table. “Oh?” my daughter Debra answered, without looking up from her book. “Yes,” I co

Gina was more than familiar with the expression ‘familiarity breeds contempt’ and suspected it had first been said by someone who had been married for at least twenty-five years. Because what she had

WHEN Jenny and Jake broke up, at first Barry and I were shocked. Jenny had met Jake during Freshers’ Week at university and they’d been together ever since. She’d brought him home to meet us that firs

Ben hunched over in the cab of the lorry, eyes cast down, earphones firmly in place. He tugged his hoodie further over his face and ramped up his music, trying to drown out his stepdad, along with the