Fortunately, the last full day of sixteen-year-old Toby's and Emma’s stay at Northolt dawned cloudless and warm. The storm had, however, taken its toll on the pool and the boys were occupied for a long time during the morning as they painstakingly cleaned it up. At first, Toby had felt somewhat ill-at-ease with the girls after the adventure of the previous night, but finding their behaviour towards him to be perfectly nor...

At the end of the fourth day of Emma's stay, the weather broke with a tumultuous thunderstorm which brought all four teenagers from their beds, to watch the lightning crack the dark night sky. The morning dawned cloudy and grey with that incessant drizzle for which Britain is so unfortunately famous. After breakfast, the foursome found themselves at something of a loss. Natasha's suggestion of a game of Monopoly was not p...

Over at the new Stevenson home near Northolt, during the course of the Spring, Tom and his lads had finally got the swimming pool finished in between other jobs. However it wasn't until the beginning of the summer holidays that he decided that it was worth painting it and filling it with water. 'What are we going to do today?' asked Natasha as she and her twin brother met in their bathroom one morning just after term ende...

On a hot August day in 1966, the tall skinny figure of a sixteen-year-old boy emerged from a Cotswold stone house. Pushing back the lick of dark brown hair from his forehead, he shielded his eyes against the glare of the sun and looked across to the line of trees, which followed the bend in the lane. As he had already suspected, there was not a breath of wind in the air and he knew that the four-mile bike ride from his ho...