The School of Time

I’ve attended this school For such a long time, Knowing that I will grow old And graduate, Take leave of stories we’ve told, Songs we played by ear And games we’ve won and lost. At the end, when the last chapter’s read, When the villain is dead and the heroine wed, Let me sleep with […]

Whispering Walls at Dragon Hall

I am named after a dragon carved on one of my rafters in fourteen twenty seven. I started life proud and tall, born from a thousand English oaks as a medieval trading hall. I was a shop, warehouse and meeting place for wealthy traders of wines and spices, worsted cloth and pottery, conjuring money in their finery. […]

After the Clocks Go Back

Shadows spill into living rooms; at four o’clock, car headlights blaze, terrace windows glow and televisions flicker. The trees know: their sap retreats, they shed their leaves, drops of colour pooling where they stand, swirls of colour blowing in the wind. Every afternoon, well before three, I pull on hat, gloves and Wellington greens for […]

Winter Ghosts

Bereft of winter ghosts, I dreamed all spring and sleepwalked through the summer until I noticed leaves and colours turning and suddenly the world was burning. Now tendrils of smoke are curling, twisting into shapes of ghosts and ghouls; damp rises from the earth each morning, creeping misty wraiths and lonely souls. All Hallows Eve […]

First Glimpse

We were new to the North Norfolk coast and couldn’t agree what we loved the most: the flatness of the landscape, the drama of the clouds, the wind so loud, the skies so wide and flaming with gorgeous sunsets and expansive star-filled nights. In the charcoal-shadowed garden, listening to the sea beyond the dunes, I […]