Arts
The Swaling, Part Fifty
“Very nice,” declared the Colonel while the pair of us looked towards a bungalow, stable block and paddock, one of a number of exclusive homes sitting in a knot about twenty minutes drive from the [more…]
Mystery
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty Nine
“Silly old fart.” Never slow to turn thoughts into words, Davies expressed that one from his side of our shared room, above a Sleescale corner shop, while sat in bed reading a three-day-old newspaper by [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty Eight
Having been indoctrinated into my new task by the Colonel, I wandered into the town centre with his money to suit and boot myself. Jeans, T-shirt, top and trainers made way for a Marks and [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty Seven
The Colonel toured Sleescale’s backstreet digs in his battered Transit van picking up our colleagues as if they were black economy workers to be delivered to building sites, cockle beeches or docks. Most of us [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty Six
Davies brought me breakfast in bed. Was it genuine concern or his army humour? I was in a bit of a state. His cooking wasn’t great. The culinary school that he relied upon seemed to [more…]
20th Century
The ‘Crockford’s Clerical’ Murder
On Sunday 6 December 1987, the Reverend Doctor Canon Gareth Vaughan Bennett returned home after spending a most agreeable weekend with friends in Cambridge. On the way he had given a colleague a lift home, [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty Five
A Queen’s Messenger had called through the night with a letter. Unhelpfully, I was asleep under a bed at the time. My colleague, Natasha, took the call but, also unhelpfully, had gone work before I’d [more…]
Arts
The Swaling, Part Forty Four
We are together alone on the floor of Natasha’s Dolphin Square apartment. She has closed the curtains and sat on the opera glasses to attract my full attention. In doing so, she ended our nighttime [more…]
Literature
‘I Will Haunt You’
James Irving was….Well, even at this early juncture in our story the sources are ambiguous and contradictory. Said to have been a prosperous Liverpudlian businessman, the nature of his business is variously described as a [more…]