Jennifer Winterton and her family face the disrupting results of sudden fame after she publishes her late mother-in-law's country journals.
"Other girls can type sixty words a minute. I can come ten times an hour." Thus speaks Thea Morton, a randy, greedy, mixed-up child-woman who is part Wife of Bath, part ecstatic St Teresa, forever hoping to bump into God. For Thea, sex and religious experience are one. "You soar beyond your own c...
Of course you’re upset – any mother would be – but it’s not the end of the world.’ ‘It feels like it,’ Maria sobbed, sitting hunched over the kitchen table, the pale pinewood branded with dark stains from her tears. ‘I’ve never said those things to Amy before, so now she thinks I didn’t want her....
I’m in a rush.’ Adam snapped his fingers at the small, white, curly creature that had been following him since he left the Rose and Crown, despite his constant attempts to shake it off. But the dog merely seemed to smile, as if enjoying a good joke. ‘Scat, I said! Go back ...
Charles shut his eyes against the sugar-coated smile of the air hostess. He wished to God they’d leave a man alone. He didn’t need all those airborne little simpers and the swish of skirts and petticoats interrupting his work, and no, he didn’t want a cocktail, and yes, he did have a headache, bu...
How are we?’ She bridled at the ‘we’. He was probably fighting fit, judging by his sleek appearance. ‘Never been better,’ she said. The sarcasm was lost on Mr Hughes. ‘Splendid!’ he smiled. ‘So I take it the foot’s improved?’ ‘No. It’s worse. A lot worse. I’ve been getting...
The plumber shook his head, as if despairing of the radiator. She hadn’t caught his name – something unpronounceable. He seemed a decent type, though, with a friendly face and kind, brown, trusting eyes. ‘You can’t get the parts, you see. This gland-valve’s had it, so I’ll...
But he could hardly stop the car and risk losing track of the vehicle ahead – the small white private ambulance which contained his mother’s coffin. He had tried as far as possible not to be parted from her body. He had taken leave from work, so as to devote every waking moment to her: sorting ou...
The thought of it induced a choking panic, as if he were the hapless bloke being bound and gagged and hooded; the noose closing round his neck, as he prepared for the dizzying drop. And, yes, it could have been him, he reflected – just as he, too, could be banged up here with the other 1400 men. ...
I yell. “Go away. Get off. Get bloody off.” His truncheon is as big as a champagne bottle, his eyes are green glass goblets, his smile is a bow-tie. “Get off!” I struggle up. Thank God they’ve sounded the alarm. I can hear it shrieking very loud and close. Someone ought to...
In her day, the step had been lower, just as the trains had been cleaner and quieter. She had spent most of the journey listening to one-sided conversations. The man opposite had made seven phone-calls between Charing Cross and Ashford. By now, she felt she knew him: his sinus trouble, his mother...
