Character, created

HOW quickly Sylvia’s life had changed! At New Year, she’d wished that the next 12 months would mean better health for her grandmother, a new washing machine for her mother and, if at all possible, a p

IT was a fine, windy day in September, and Rosalind Aston had an odd feeling that she was in love. The emotion was new, and she could not be sure, but she luxuriated in it as she walked towards the ha

EVERY time I smell the sweet scent of September air, I am transported back to Alderley Cottage. I am walking up the garden path strewn with grass and twigs towards a faded blue painted door with a bro

Muriel Spark’s irrepressible creative drive

A short while after we married, Tom and I made the decision to leave behind our hectic London lives and relocate to the tranquillity of rural living. We wanted a slower pace of life where the countrys

BACK in my day, they called it misbehaving!” Linda, my glamorous mother-in-law, quips, her blonde highlighted bobbed hair bouncing. I chew on the side of my cheek to stop the words inside me from esca