I’ve always been attracted to the sound of crickets. As a child, I was enchanted by their presence in American films, when characters sat on the porch in the evening to a soundtrack of crickets chirping; and then, when I visited Italy several times during summer, I was amazed by the constant background noise, even […]
Category: Haibun
Hiroshima Spores
I wasn’t alive in August 1945 – I arrived eleven years and a day after Fat Man was dropped on Nagasaki. I knew nothing of the horrors of those atomic bombs until I saw ‘The Bomb’, Episode 24 of ’The World at War’, a documentary series I watched with my father and, more recently, with […]
Under the Table at Grandmother’s House
Although my grandmother was quite open and modern in her outlook, her tastes were old-fashioned. This was reflected in the house where I grew up: in its solid furniture, embroidered cushions and tablecloths that hung low to cover the table legs. For a small child, the dining table was a house or a tent, where […]
Dragonflying
It’s the vivid season when colours are like splashes from an artist’s palette: ochre fields untold shades of leaves and grasses […]
Measuring Time
When the whole world measured time in light and dark, descent and climb, civilisation was still new my child, an infant just like you. One drab June, we wandered ancient grounds, round rain-soaked prehistoric mounds, counting a nursery rhyme of stones. We imagined thousands of dawns and shadows pierced by shafts of light – the […]
Wild Bird Tamed
When I was a teenager, I felt that I was caged by my parents, by school and by petty rules of society: wear suitable clothes, don’t smoke, don’t drink, be home by ten, that sort of thing. I rebelled, escaped from the cage and did my own thing. Later, I felt trapped by responsibility: earning […]
Sunrise Whispers
Yesterday morning, I woke up really early and couldn’t get back to sleep. I’d left the blind up in my study the previous evening and, just before five, peeking through the branches, the sun was a red ball hovering over the river. The house and garden were silent, not even a tweet of birdsong, but […]
Felicitous Felinity
When our beautiful Tosca was killed two years ago to this day, I thought I would never find such feline companionship again. I didn’t mourn alone. My husband, who found her, was equally stricken, and Luna, who had never been a lone cat, sat in the garden waiting for her mother to return. After months […]
Testament
Yesterday evening, I watched the beautifully made film ‘Testament of Youth’, which is based on Vera Britten’s autobiography of the same name. It follows her coming of age and blossoming into womanhood during the First World War. Vera Britten was one of the few women accepted into Oxford at that time. When her sweetheart signed […]
Walking with Jasper
I used to love walking with our dog, Jasper. He was a cross-breed Jack Russell and the funniest, most inquisitive dog I’ve ever known. He died on 10th March ten years ago. He was my reason for walking three times a day: in the morning before work, again in the afternoon, and a short walk […]
writing in north norfolk 