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Continue reading →: 16 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Terry Harvey is Dead
Terry Harvey is dead. They’re all saying it. He died last night. “A Car ‘it ‘im,” Matty Murter is delighted to spill the beans, “an’ then another ‘it ‘im again on t’other side o’ road. ‘Is brains were spread everywhere like.” The girls gape and cringe at the thought, pleasing…
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Continue reading →: 15 – A Life Lived Through Stories: The Circle
Embed from Getty Images The Church hall stands empty, dusty, unused except by the very few who crowd into the tiny room on a Sunday after squeezing into a church barely any bigger. Chairs are stacked to one side and it is completely silent bar the occasional squeak and a…
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Continue reading →: Day 14 – A Life Lived Through Stories: A Good Match
I’ve had the privilege of working with Bangladeshis for many years but one thing I never did, until very recently, was actually live with any. This was a special wish I’d harboured for a long time but really didn’t think the opportunity would arise. When it did, I took it…
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Continue reading →: Day 13 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Insignificant Woman No. 2
Sometimes a personality comes into your life, touches you in a way you can barely describe and then leaves, never to be seen again. You’re left with an indelible mark on your soul which the years cannot touch and you simply can’t deny, even if you wanted to, though words…
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Continue reading →: Day 12 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Daniel in the Den
Daniel Fort looked at the great wrought-iron gates looming in front of him and stared through the bars. He could see them all milling around, some in packs, others alone or in twos. Some had already noticed him and were watching carefully. Once again, Daniel wondered to himself: did he…
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Continue reading →: Day 11 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Fish
Aleyn held the coregonus albula in his hands and looked down at it in amazement. The young boy couldn’t believe his luck. Although he’d never caught one before, he’d seen this fish many times in his books on fishing and fishes. He knew that this fish – known more commonly…
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Continue reading →: Day 10 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Insignificant Woman no. 1
The end of the Seventies was a difficult and confused period – not just for myself having moved from the north of England to the Midlands – but for the country. Ordinary people were both delighted and dismayed with Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power as the first female Prime Minister…
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Continue reading →: Day 9 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Babu
Babu looks out over the green fields from high up in the Mango tree and grins. She can see for miles around: green fields with men working hard to harvest the rice from the paddy fields. The Bengali sun is beating down hard and the leaves of the mango tree…
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Continue reading →: Day 8 – A Life Lived Through Stories: The Man in the Attic
I wake up in pitch blackness and have no idea where I am. Again. I’m sweating but not sure if it’s from fear or how warm and clammy it is up here. I fumble around trying to get my bearings. I can’t even see my hands. Then I remember. I…
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Continue reading →: Day 7 – A Life Lived Through Stories: Into the Dark Woods
Terry Harvey is dead. There’s no doubt of it all. He’s absolutely a dead man. His mam is going to kill him when she sees what he’s done to his brand new trousers. Jimmy stood half in the stream not unsympathetic to his best friend’s whimpering as he tried to…
