Author: Geoffrey David West

“So if you hadn’t braked with the dual controls and grabbed the steering wheel we’d have crashed head-on into the bus?” “Yes, I’m afraid so.” “But I am improving aren’t I, John?  You won’t give up on me, like all the other driving instructors have?” “No, Bernard, not to worry, we’ll get there in the…

My life is hell. Ever since I can remember I’ve been looking for something. I hated my mum and dad, who pissed off when I was five. Mum was always yelling at me, so I ran away from home at ten, then when she got me back she started yelling even more, so I yelled…

As I drove down the muddy track the thunderstorm broke, the car went out of control and I lurched into the ditch. The satnav had broken a few miles back, and travelling to this rural part of Devon to my new job was turning out to be a nightmare.  The rain lashed across the windscreen…

I had always loved my Uncle Bill. My earliest memories are of being in his workshop, watching him tinker with old cars, a hobby I went on to enjoy throughout my life. Looking back on it I can see I must have been a nuisance to him, but he had never once made me feel…

I met myself in the pub, where I’d gone to celebrate landing the part of handsome middle-aged surgeon Daniel Kane, heartthrob doctor in the brand new TV drama series Doctor Doctor, which everyone was saying was tipped for massive success. Being an actor has its ups and downs, and most of us have more downs…

“Thing is, Jamie, when my wife died, my little girl took it hard.” Ray Tomkins was verging on drunk, chattering away almost to himself, even though he kept leaning towards me, to make sure I was still listening. “How do you explain to a three-year-old that her mummy has gone for ever?” Ray was a…

“I’m a murderer, see?” “Wasn’t it manslaughter?” “Well. . .” Gigantic Tony Clifford certainly looked like a murderer, with his huge muscular torso, shaven head and massive frame. The old-fashioned tattoo on his arm of a large anchor seemed somehow in keeping with our gloomy Victorian surroundings. Murderer or not, I found myself liking Tony…

“See these hands?” said the elderly man who’d introduced himself as George, holding up his fingers to show me.  “These are killing weapons.  The army made me sign a form to say that I’ll never get into a casual fight, because I couldn’t be responsible for the consequences.  If I hit you I’d kill you,…

As the flames grew higher I saw the little girl in the upstairs window. She was waving frantically, banging on the glass. I had been walking along the road shell-shocked, stunned, still reeling after having had the biggest disappointment of my life. You see, during all the time that I was desperately fighting to break…

“Did you know him?”  asked the nurse as we looked down at the dead man, seventyish Harry.  In the grey early-morning light, the hospital ward with its bed-fuls of weary suffering patients, looked as dismal as I felt.   I really didn’t want to be here. “Oh yes,  I knew him alright,”  I answered, feeling a…