The house next door had stood empty for many months and the weeds in the overgrown garden were spreading into my flower borders, becoming a nuisance. I’d taken early retirement when Jack became too il

S ian had been home for an hour and growing more irate by the minute when her phone rang. “Have you met your neighbour yet?” asked her friend, Abby, cheerily. “No, I have not!” “No? Didn’t the estate

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

PIPPA woke early and went down to the shop as soon as she was dressed. She had big plans for today. Along with her usual duties, she was going to make a start on clearing the back room, and she wanted

HELEN anxiously closed her curtains. The wind was tearing around the house, slamming rain against the windows and harassing the trees. The rain hadn’t stopped since lunchtime. She’d spent this first d

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