I was walking home from the Tender Trap. I’d had hopes that Benny would take me home but she had other plans. I had no idea what those plans were but it clearly wasn’t a quiet night in. She’d arrived at the pub in knife-creased, airforce blue trousers wit...
Phoebe Burnett was the Press Relations Officer of the local MP’s party. She called me, one of the political team at the Western Clarion, on a Saturday afternoon. We didn’t publish a Sunday paper so I guessed she wanted something in the Monday edition. “Hi...
Recollections of the whip: I got home on the Monday morning and caught up with a few household chores, then repaired to my studio to work on a piece that I’d rather neglected. Harriet was away on some sort of ‘fact-finding’ mission, a jolly in other words...
The week passed slowly. I made the adjustments I’d talked to her about and a few more. I went to my framer and had it put in a frame I thought would work well in her house, hoping she’d feel the same. On the Friday morning, I spent a good while getting re...
She was on the phone. “No, Grace, I am not alone. Lauren Noakes is here. Yes, that’s right, the artist. I’ve commissioned her to do a portrait of me. Let’s call it my vanity project. She’s working really hard.” I’d been lucky enough to get Harriet Singer,...
The tour was good. Clarrie and I managed to rent a small flat in the heart of Windsor, a stone’s throw from the Castle and the theatre. The first few days we were doing the technical stuff that has to be boringly and painstakingly precise. It’s nothin...
Flick (Felicity) Caterham was standing when I entered her inner sanctum. My agent was, quite frankly, one of the best, and, largely thanks to her, my career had flourished. I was well off, in demand and happy, despite a long yearning to find a lifetime...
Avril O’Connor was like a sister to me. I was an only child and, when I met her at boarding school for the first time, I absolutely loathed her. We were both sixteen, she, tall and skinny, I, short and dumpy. She had long, slightly wavy and very glossy...
‘She was beautiful. I’d never seen anything so beautiful. Her hair was black, like a rook’s feathers and cascaded down her back almost to her waist. Her eyes were black too and seemed to flash. Her costume was exotic, the finest, shimmering silk of bl...
“I remember that first night we spent together, a stolen opportunity. I remember it with such clarity. You said, ‘I had no idea intimacy could be so, so exciting or satisfying. I have never experienced that intensity nor the physical explosion which ma...
I fear him. He has never been a violent man but, were he to discover my secrets I fear his anger would know no bounds. His manhood threatened would be intolerable to him. We must remain cautious until I return to the Capital and to you, my love. S del...
It has been decided that I shall go to Somerset. I feel myself being torn apart but we must be strong. I shall write whenever I can and, I pray you, write to the usual place and it will reach me eventually. Hitherto our clandestine activities have exci...
We, that is my lover Glenda and I, were staying with a friend, Tessa. Tessa had a marvellously remote cottage set in a wild, wooded landscape. Everything was natural. Her water came direct from a well. The wood she burned was cut from the local woods, eve...
It was a year later and I was now living with Eleanor. It was a year during which I had been Clemency free. Well, I say free, but there had been a few very minor incidents. For example, Eleanor had found me staring at the long mirror in her hallway. “What...
Elaine sat at the breakfast table, her Auntie Jess smiling at her across the table. Auntie Jess had always been her go-to relative after she hit puberty. She always encouraged Elaine to spread her wings, as well as her legs, and to enjoy life while she co...
