After many years of service Edward's old jeep had finally given up the ghost. He'd had it for twenty-three years and went all over the estate in it. I was pleasantly surprised by his replacement mode of transport. A huge jet black stallion and he was qui...
When I was seventeen, I received notification that I had been accepted by Oxford University for a three-year degree course in Business Studies and Economics. This meant that I had less than one year left on Edward's estate. Edward had recently got a new d...
My Uncle Edward made his fortune from the gold mines that he owned in South Africa. He was smart enough to sell out when the gold price was at its peak. He invested some of the proceeds into land in England. Quite by chance, he heard about an estate that...
The year was nineteen-seventy-one. I was at the local college studying for a diploma in advanced engineering. One lunchtime, a girl of about my age sat at my table. Quite by chance, we both had ordered the same meal. She was no beauty. She had brown mousy...
There were always fifteen boys in the sixteen age group and the same number in the most senior group. There were also only ever six Madams and they came from six different countries. They were the very best and all had PHDs. In the school's long history,...
I followed my father and grandfather into the parachute regiment when I was eighteen. I married my cousin Susan Haylock when I was twenty-one. We have three children and five grandchildren. I served with the regiment for twenty-seven years before I was fo...
I was not very good at school. I was the kind of person who sat at the back of the class and hardly ever said a word. Rugby was my sport. I was the captain of the senior team. I left school at sixteen, at the end of the Autumn term with no qualifications...
The country had been at war for six long years. At the start of the 1950s things began to improve. My sister was a helper at our local church. Nothing wonderful just to help out generally with the evening functions in the church hall. I was not over keen...
I knew quite a lot of the men who enlisted to fight for King and country; I went to the same school that they did. The townspeople lined the streets as the battalion which became known as the Dover riflemen marched proudly through the town down to the doc...
Towards the end of the year 1913 Mr. Thomas' wife Murial died after a long illness. The shop was closed for the next week whilst arrangements could be made. The funeral was held at St Margaret's church and it was well attended. At the request of Mr. Thoma...
I had been at the shop for just over two years when I decided to leave home and get a place of my own. I had some savings and a regular weekly wage. There was no shortage of accommodation because of high unemployment in the town. People needed money. I he...
Things at home were not good for myself or my three elder brothers. Our father was killed whilst working down a coal mine and our mother was in a deep depression. The boys all worked at the coal mine it was the town's biggest employer. To help with the fa...
The silence of the night was almost deafening. The sun had set a couple of hours or so ago. I was home again and there were no helpers or instructions about what I was allowed to do. The clouds were gathering it looked like rain was on its way but I was n...
Recently during a clear out of the attic, I came across a couple of photo albums that I had not seen for several years. The first album was of my wedding to David but it was the second one which I found to be of more interest. There we all were in our Gu...
My marriage to Peter had changed so much since we left the bright lights of the city and moved to an old house in the country. We were both employed by the same company which is where we met, but I was now working from home. At first, it was really good;...
