Read

I am a product of words exalted by the Lord: “Be fruitful and multiply.” *Genesis 1:22

Snippets of Downshire Life – Feast of St Nicholas The traditional seaside resort of Sharpington-by-Sea with its Victorian Pier, seafront hotels, crazy golf, The Palladium ballroom, well maintained gardens, promenade, theatre and illuminations, has all the usual things to have a great time by the seaside, as well as amusement arcades and of course the Sharpington Fun Park and it was in the grand neighbourhood of Granite Hill, which in a nod to San Francisco, the locals had nicknamed Nob Hill where Church Warden of St Lucy’s, Henry Appleby, was attending a dinner on St Andrew’s Day, at the home of a local celebrity, children’s author, Alesha Khan.

Downshire is a relatively small English county but like a pocket battleship it packs a lot in, a short but beautiful coastline, a channel port, the Ancient forests of Dancingdean and Pepperstock, the craggy ridges and manmade lakes of the Pepperstock Hills National Park, the rolling hills of the Downshire Downs, the beautiful Finchbottom Vale and farm land as far as the eye can see from the Trotwood’s and the Grace’s in the south to the home of the Downshire Light infantry, Nettlefield, and their affluent neighbour’s, Roespring and Tipton in the north but our story takes place in the southern town off Abbottsford which was the biggest in Downshire, its administrative capital and the seat of the Downshire government.

Gloved and capped, fingers chapped … dreary, weary … turn a key to …

In this wretched life, it is only our petty animosities and small victories which help us get through the day. For, knowing someone is worse off than...

Every time I read the news I’m told of something bad - A murder here, a stabbing there and such things make me sad. Oh, here’s a suicidal man of...

Night and day are like two table racquets smacking Gerhardt back and forth, and every contact with the blue or black paddle ages him visibly. At 19...