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Tom All Alone 16 (ii)
At school every morning now, the first thing they did was their News Book . They all had to write down something about what they did at home after...
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Tom All Alone 16 (i)
As time went on, Tom began to feel more settled at school. He got to know a few of the other children in class, but Barry was still his main friend...
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Tom All Alone 15
One night, as Tom was drifting into sleep, he heard a shout come from somewhere. He opened his eyes and sat up, listening. He could just make out the...
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Tom All Alone 14 (v)
After that first day, Tom felt more relaxed about going to school, and soon got into the routines of the day. Lining up in the playground when the...
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Tom All Alone 14 (iv)
At half-past ten, the bell rang for playtime and they all went out into the main playground. It was a large rectangular area at the back of the...
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Thanks, airyfairy. I tried to
Posted on Tue, 23 Jun 2026
Thanks, airyfairy. I tried to strike a balance between those that are useful and those that are frivolous. I have a few on my PC (including a useful one to limit my internet usage), but I have a dumb phone, so none on there. I think it came home...
Read full commentPosted in APP-titude
I cried at night for weeks -
Posted on Fri, 19 Jun 2026
I cried at night for weeks - and in a new and strange place.
When we moved to Devon in 1974, I was 14. We got a dog there, Penny, who was the dog in my poem 'Blue'. She was my first real 'grown-up' pet. She finally died during my final...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 19 (ii)
Sorry - I suppose it was
Posted on Fri, 19 Jun 2026
Sorry - I suppose it was technically a flat because we only had the top floor. But I always think of it as the house where I was born. It was Putney Common.
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 19 (i)
Me, too. As Joseph Brodsky
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
Me, too. As Joseph Brodsky said: 'There are worse crimes than burning books. One is not reading them.' And I don't read anywhere near enough, and have got no excuse for it.
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 18 (iii)
I'll look it up, thanks. Can
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
I'll look it up, thanks. Can I suggest 'Photographing Montana' by Donna M Lucey - about the photographer Evelyn Cameron (in case you don't know of her). She was a 19th-century British aristo who gave it all up to marry a Scottish naturalist, and...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 18 (iii)
I agree. Strong and
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
I agree. Strong and independent-minded women at a time before universal suffrage, and where women usually had a 'place' in society, and needed to know that place.
What a fascinating life your great-grandmother led, too. White Star liners....
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 18 (iii)
That would be something! I'l
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
That would be something! I'd like to imagine it. Or maybe he ate at Sloppy Louie's!
I'm re-reading 'Up In The Old Hotel' again. It remains my desert island book. Glad you like those books.
You might remember the piece, earlier in '...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 18 (iii)
That's probably a better idea
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
That's probably a better idea, Kat. I find I get ideas when I'm a few sheets to the wind, and write them down with enthusiasm. Trouble is, next day I realise they're a load of rubbish! I remember Bruce Robinson saying that when he was asked to...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 18 (iii)
Thank you, Kat. More
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
Thank you, Kat. More reassurance when I need it. Sometimes it feels like a plod, and the prose feels pedestrian. But I suppose it says what it needs to. Yes, the Iceberg Principle... I've experimented with that before. Not so much what's said,...
Read full commentPosted in Tom All Alone 18 (iii)
It's funny, but I was reading
Posted on Thu, 11 Jun 2026
It's funny, but I was reading through it and thinking 'This reminds me of the power cuts we had in the '70s, during the oil shocks.' And I was also thinking that I know you're from across the Pond - but you've got the dialogue spot on! A really...
Read full commentPosted in §tandby - The Light
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