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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 fell in love for the first time when I was ninety-four years old. Ridiculous as it may sound, it’s true. I met the woman I fell in love with, Molly, in hospital, in the cardiac critical care ward, where we were both being held after undergoing heart attacks, which we’d successfully, putatively recovered from….
I died when my motor bike crashed into the wall and I was thrown under the wheels of the bus. One second I was riding along, the next, a screech of brakes and then… What? I was in a big open space. All around me there were people standing around, looking as bemused as I…
“Come on, Peter, come on! “Sorry, sorry, I’m trying my best. I j-just can’t.” “For heavens sake! God, what kind of man are you? How can you leave me up in the air like this?” “I can use the gadget if you like? You know, that vibrating thing—” “Don’t bother. I’ve gone off the boil anyway…
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…