A snap moment
Casual photographs from a century ago are not plentiful. The cost of a camera combined with the cost of developing and printing film meant photographs were for the affluent or the enthusiast. Family photographs tend to be of two types, either studio portraits of people dressed in their Sunday-best outfits or wedding photographs, marriages seeming to have quickly become occasions … [continue reading …]
Lines the English don’t read
At eleven o’clock tomorrow morning, the school will stop for two minutes of silence to mark the anniversary of the armistice. Lines from the English war poets Owen and Sassoon appear in students’ work on the walls. Perhaps it would have disturbed the English teachers, but it would have been different if they has included the work of Tom Kettle. … [continue reading …]
Marks and Spencer have the wrong tune
The Marks and Spencer Christmas advertisement features an idealised scene from a Christmas market. There are snowy scenes in an ancient town square and a children’s choir is humming a tune. The tune seemed odd, familiar but out of place. It didn’t have a Christmas feel about it, perhaps it was a pop song. Suddenly, I remembered what it was … [continue reading …]
The old scams seem to work
There can be few people with email addresses who have not received at least an occasional email that seeks details that would allow the sender to defraud them. The “Spanish Hostage” scam is the oldest approach used (thus named because when it began two centuries ago people wrote letters claiming to be held hostage in Sapin and promising abundant reward … [continue reading …]
Morning light
There is a moment soon after dawn on a clear autumn morning when to be able to stop time would mean to capture light of a magical quality. The greyness of wispy mist and the watery blueness of the sky combine to paint impressionistic landscapes across the Gloucestershire countryside. Such mornings seemed special in childhood years, the times when the world … [continue reading …]
Taking religion out of remembrance
In the Belgian city of Ypres, every night of year, at eight o’clock, the Last Post ceremony takes place at the Menin Gate. No matter how many times one attends, the stark simplicity of the bugle tones and the profound silence never loses its power to move. Even when every note and every movement are familiar, there is a sense … [continue reading …]
Not going to Disneyland
The assistant head teacher invited me to join the Year 7 trip to Disneyland Paris in July. “I won’t be offended if you say ‘no’ as a number of staff would like to go.” I said, “no.” If the bell had not rung, I would have explained that I would have enjoyed a trip to Paris, if I did not … [continue reading …]
Unlikely villains
A listener to BBC Radio 6 requested a track by The Stranglers, it being the fortieth anniversary of them having been at a Stranglers concert for the first time. The Stranglers were on a UK tour that year, a fact remembered from having a ticket for the concert they had been scheduled to play at The Odeon in Taunton. Somerset … [continue reading …]
Settling the account
This story was expanded from a piece of flash fiction. It was entered for this year’s RTÉ Francis McManus Short Story Competition. The evening classes at the college gave her the opportunity. It was a computing class that had taught her to use the Internet, something of which she had been frightened. It had been the stories in the papers … [continue reading …]