Arts
The Swaling, Part Sixty Six
“Mesdames et Messieurs, welcome to Le Salon Privé of the Lucky Saddle Craft Company, Geylang Road, Singapore. Are you ready to rumble? I said, are you ready to rumble?” Mr Tan was enjoying himself. A [more…]
Memoir
Arts
The Swaling, Part Sixty Five
We are in a secret corridor beneath the Lucky Saddle Craft Company at the quiet end of Geylang Road. ‘We’ being myself and Mrs Dora Clogg (still clutching her handbag) both of the Spanish intelligence [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Sixty Four
“Hostage swap.” “Hostage swap?” I repeated. “Yes, hostage swap. You’re going to be late,” said the voice at the other end of our Dumfries Street townhouse street gate intercom. I shouted to my Chinese cousin, [more…]
Arts
Postcard from Narvik, Part Two
Riding the Stambanan to the Malmbanan In part one of our Postcard from Narvik your humble author, his wife, children and a niece struck out for the Artic to celebrate his late October fiftieth birthday. Having [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Sixty Three
Pandemonium has broken out. “Why the f___ would I want to marry you? Why would anyone want to marry you?” Natasha is yelling and has started to throw things about. At first, Jakey laughed so [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Episode Sixty Two
I’m in the lobby of an Islington apartment block. Natasha has directed me and my ward, a wet and dripping pushchair containing a toddler called Jakey, to the lift. Too small for the three of [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Sixty-One
We are in Battishill Street Gardens, Islington. It is raining. Myself, Natasha Williams and Jakey the borrowed toddler are sat on a bench, sheltered by a tree, next to bushes over-growing a monument. Natasha had [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Sixty
It is nineteen eighty-four. If Big Brother is watching he will observe myself, my colleague Natasha Williams and a disguise enhancing borrowed toddler (called Jakey) in a pushchair hunkered on a bench beneath a tree. [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Fifty Nine
Myself, Natasha Williams and a borrowed pushchair bound toddler called Jakey are on a bench in a rain-soaked Battishill Road Gardens in London’s Islington. We are disguised as a young family while having a secret [more…]