When I last closed my drowsy eyes it was to the accompaniment of an apt, from my biased point of view, cryptic song. The song was new to me, yet notwithstanding my poor state of being, I fell in love with it at once. Its title? ‘Fly Me to the Moon’ sung originally, I was … More THE REBIRTH OF THE BLUE-EYED CAT
During the occupation of Paris the actress Arletty had a relationship with Hans Jürgen Soehring, a Luftwaffe officer, and gave the famous riposte to a member of the French Forces of the Interior interrogating her after the Liberation: ‘My heart is French, but my ass is international’ It seems that the French authorities had Ms … More THE SNOW WHITE TIGRESS by Mike Steeden
DISCOVERING NANCY London, England, Midsummer 1941: Was London the dullest city in the whole of Europe? Perhaps ‘dullest’ was the wrong word? The question irked. Afterall the natives of the East End were far from ‘dull’. Intuitive, sharp-witted comics as they were they could get away with murder and, in reality, often did that very … More DISCOVERING NANCY
In the early hours, around the time of the summer solstice of 2016 the torturous drip, drip, drip of a blocked guttering woke me up from a zonked-out nightmare. I found myself contemplating the fact that for reasons unclear I was bored beyond measure. I’d previously written a couple of books of what I had … More NOTORIOUSLY NAKED FLAMES
Under the unsympathetic, blackest vault of a grieving heaven, an agitated bulkhead creaks, butch stringers snap, robust rivets moan in metronomic rhythm and herculean girders groan as a remorseless nor’wester’s kindred waves of replete urchins torment a rickety hull, of late in unbridled panic. Little wonder a weak-kneed full moon shies away. No place for … More POOR BASTIAAN?
Istanbul, the place where Byzantine and Ottoman architecture hold infatuated hands, still managed to cling on to its cosmopolitan impression despite the establishment of the Turkish Republic some 30 years past. It was upon the warmest moonlit evening under oblivious stars, sat at a table set outside of a culinary shrine in the form of … More THE COMPASSIONATE KIDNAPPER
Cambridge had taught her the reflective ways of philosophy; likewise, covert operations had taught her to think on the hoof. It is thus that contradicting her previous well thought through ‘theory of his full-time protection’, she concludes she needs a space within which to think. Hence a little later, mid-mornings prospect of strong coffee only … More ENTICING ASYLUM
Oppressors who find themselves incapable of mastering hypnosis generally further their nefarious ambitions by way of implementing the contrived premise, ‘supremacy by way of inflicting terror upon the general populous’. Insofar as the highly-prized prisoner was concerned, he served that purpose well. In essence, he was an example and a warning to one and all. … More A PENNY WHISTLE ORCHESTRA
In times of war there is no such thing as a fashionable venue. Fortunately, the long years of combat were at last over. Sadly, and of dire necessity in the fall of 1944 during the month-long bombardment in order to gain access to the port facilities at Antwerp, The Allies had, albeit successfully, pounded the … More A MINOR COMPLICATION
The uninvited weasel, occupying appropriated lodgings had had better days. Certainly, none worse. So much for the mouth-watering anticipation of red light potential and the sheer delight snapshots of ‘spring again’ tulips would bring to loved ones back home. Deathly quiet within four walls, yet in the street below the sissing of cyclists, the chitter-chatter … More APT REVENGE
