September squalls punctuate the day. Puddles return to the lane and the stream resumes its gentle chatter. The trees, still green, defy...

I stole the coat. The phone was in the pocket along with a bar of chocolate that I ate immediately. I don't know why I took it - I've...

The ship set sail with the setting sun A twelve hour stretch its course to run The forecast fair, a chance of rain But naught to make the...

A heatwave hit Lancashire the week that we left The gardens were blooming and trees were well-dressed The birds were in song and the...

After the rain, a sigh of relief The storm has abated, the world is at peace Garden blooms standing up straight to attention Their thirst...

She stood at the window. This should have been the greatest moment of her young life, but all she felt was the clench of nerves in her...

I have always loved the idea of miniature worlds: a whole community of sea creatures living almost invisibly in a rock pool, an army of ants building their intricate world and feeding their queen, beehives - a world of honeyed hexagons, the insects that live their whole lives in the bark of one tree. This inevitably informed my early reading material: The Borrowers by Mary Norton - a family of tiny people living in the walls of an ordinary house; CS Lewis' Chronicles of Narni

As I walk my mind is freed From dull responsibility From angst and negativity forgotten as I walk   The stomach clenching knot...

As the crack of light widened, my heart raced. At last, the possibility of one last performance. I had lain here since 1974, fifty years...