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 quite magnificent. Edward called him Titan a most fitting name, I thought. We were moving steadily into the Autumn and the multitude of coloured leaves were falling from the...

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 dog he was of good size and had a pleasing disposition. We decided to call him Brutus.  Sometimes when running through the woods I found such an experience more than a lit...

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 was up for sale by a family that was on hard times. The estate was in the Norfolk countryside and well away from the nearest town. He managed to buy it at a knockdown pri...

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 hair and wore glasses. She averted her gaze. She was clearly not going to talk. Accidentally on purpose, I knocked over my glass of orange juice and most of it landed on...

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, no boy had ever been disrespectful to a Madam. The punishment for such a thing would have been severe and followed by the disgrace of expulsion.  Within a couple of weeks...

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 forced into retirement by Government cutbacks in the number of Army personnel. I was a Major at the time and I had high hopes of becoming the regiment's commanding officer....

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 whatsoever. It didn't take my mother very long before she made it clear that I needed to get out of the house as there were no jobs around for people like me. I was sent...

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 on the idea but I  went along with it. I had never been so bored. My first evening was assisting a group of about thirty stamp collectors? The meeting lasted three hours....

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 docks to embark on a troopship to take them to France. I knew as indeed did most people that some of those men would never return home.  For the first few months, nothing ha...

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. Thomas, I stood beside him throughout the service. His wife's passing was probably a blessing for her because she was no longer in constant pain. When the shop reopened the mo...

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 heard quite by chance that Sarah Steinway who owned the drapery store had recently created a room to let above her shop. That evening I left work early and went around to s...

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 family finances I left school at fifteen and went job hunting. Our house was almost derelict, small, and at times very cold indeed. It was usual for me to sleep with one or...

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 not at all concerned. In my haste to get to the trading room, I just grabbed the nearest thing which was my dark blue tracksuit which I wore for jogging.  There was a smal...

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 Guides uniforms, all smiling and full of hope and expectation for the future. I could even remember the names of all the twenty-two girls. My best friend was Dee. We were i...

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; my job was checking figures online before they were posted onto the company's ledgers. However, after a few months, Peter began having nights away from home, citing compa...