chrisharding53

  • A Rook called Chicken!

    Generally speaking, ravens, rooks and crows have a pretty bad press. Think about their literary appearances and you’ll find they are usually rather sinister – what about Edgar Allan Poe, or traditional ballads like The Twa Corbies? And Ted Hughes… Continue reading

  • Still Missing

    Alex Selky, going on seven, so eager to grow up, kissed his mother goodbye on their front steps on the hot bright morning of May 15 1980, and marched himself down the street, on his way to the New Boston… Continue reading

  • More from The Provincial Lady

    My copy of Macmillan’s 1947 four-in-oneThe Provincial Lady doesn’t have a dustjacket, bit would originally have had onelike this. One of the great joys of volunteering in a charity bookshop is that occasionally – well, fairly frequently if I am… Continue reading

  • Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont

    Mrs Palfrey first came to the Claremont Hotel on a Sunday afternoon in January. Rain had closed in over London, and her taxi sloshed along the almost deserted Cromwell Road, past one cavernous porch after another, the driver going slowly… Continue reading

  • In Which I am Sent to Coventry…

    A view of the Cathedral showing the back of the building withthe zig-zag walls. . . Well, the rain has stopped (although more is forecast), and the floods have drained away, but by yesterday it was bitterly cold, the water-logged land… Continue reading