I have a recurring dream. In it I fly back to Tempelhof, again and again. I pass under the giant canopy. It is raining, but I am dry. I hear my footsteps crossing the empty concourse. No-one looks at my papers; there is no-one here but me. Outside, my car…

BRAINCHILD It is crying again. Which one? Which one is making the noise? I am in charge here. I am The Nurse. The light is bright. I wear a gauze mask; I move slowly and heavily; the urgency of the labour I have been engaged on for so long is…

The Major had realized, brushing his moustache with the back of his hand, that he knew us. Or rather, my husband. They had been together somewhere, I didn’t catch the name, but it was hot. The two men sighed in unison remembering how the sand burned the soles of their…

  MOTHER’S BEADS   ‘This is the drawing-room’, I told the dealer. ‘The best pieces are in here.’ ‘I can see that’, he said, eyeing the delicate porcelain that covered every surface.  There was silence; he, I supposed, pondering what offer to make and I imaging the big white room…

  ABSENT WITHOUT LEAVE Lady Stretton was unaware that she lived in a large mock-tudor villa just south of the A3. She sat for most of the day in a small room at the back of the house, away from the noise of passing traffic and from her relations.  …