Chasing Rainbows

“Maybe when you are grown up, perhaps have a husband or wife,

You look over your shoulder through the days of your life.

Little things come back to you, to your mind,

Poems, stories and it is a beautiful time that you will find.”

Chasing Rainbows is a charming collection of poems encompassing the views of the author’s sixteen-year-old self on topics such as everyday life, love, happiness, and much, much more.

Cherries

The London Borough of North Wick hasn't got anything going for it till the Chief Executive of the Council makes some big plans.

She wants to put it on the map for all time, but her plans go awry with the help of the Urban Farm and the local street girls.

Mix into that a Russian oligarch and his plans for a take-over, and the metamorphosis by her downtrodden PA make this the cure reception of the century.

Cherry Pickers

18-year-old Bobby Kemp got to the ‘60s in time alright, no further than Leeds, and remembered all of it. What a year: school out and passed the 11+. So, being a white-collar worker for the council is his future. A steady job then, set for life. A steady girl, engagement, marriage, kids, house, car, pension. But steady on, is that all? He hasn’t done anything, yet.

His feeble rites of passage – steady as she goes, poop-poop, bleat – are dissed by a passing back-packing Californian, Ben Gaunt, who’s seeking his family roots near York. To Bobby’s ill-content at getting nowhere, slowly he offers, ‘It’s your life, man. Just go...’ And he does: he drops everything and goes on the road into the ‘60s.

Along this passage there are side alleys, little ginnels and dead ends, each with characters and their stories to walk with for a while, until he just goes...

Chewin Air

Dancing between the cosmos and daily life, Phil’s poetry weaves a magical path through the jungle of the modern world to a place of comfort and safety. His experiences have given him a unique perspective into pain, heartbreak, and loss so that he can best show the way out of these toxic environments. At the same time, he shows the beauty in simple things, pride in a good day’s work and joy for the love that shines everywhere. Life is a challenge, and we must be willing to meet it head on and with this book and his healing words, the way becomes clearer.

Many of his inspirations come from dreams, meditations or shamanic journeys and offer solutions generally considered esoteric. Each word is measured for its emotional impact and the stories are engaging because they have a ring of truth.

The poet employs many styles within the pages of this book from traditional forms like rhymes and sonnets as well as new, experimental free-forms. Any lover of language will enjoy this read.

Child of a Bygone Era

This book is written with charm and humour by a child who grew up between two worlds – an idyllic childhood in Hong Kong in the 1950s which was shattered by his return to England at the age of seven to a new life as a boarder at a Catholic preparatory school.

From the age of seven to seventeen, he travels between these worlds and comments on all the changes that occur in this dynamic decade. He sees Hong Kong develop from an entrepot to a booming manufacturing powerhouse with the effect this has on the Cantonese and their relationship with Europeans and compares this life to the smog-bound, tired English way of life only just beginning to recover from the devastation of the Second World War.

It is a joy to read and is a fascinating record of two worlds by a child of a bygone age.

Christmas Stories 2

Christmas Stories 2 is another collection of ten short magical stories that focus on the parts of Christmas we all love and will take you to a place where time stands still. Each story has been thoughtfully hand-picked from a range of ideas with each tale carefully woven word by word to make Christmas Stories 2 a masterpiece.

Cinderella Timkins

The staircase in Dormec House, a Ministry building, is certainly elegant, but to Arthur Timkins, messenger, one of the quota of variously disabled employees, it is the scene of an encounter that changes his life miraculously.

Selected as one of Professor Knowle's guinea-pigs in a pilot trial to enhance intelligence, he is whisked away to a world beyond his wildest dreams. Workers at Matcham Grange, from kitchen staff to the Professor himself, treat Arthur kindly.

Everything that puzzled him slowly clears, he is like a man emerging out of thick fog into sunlight. This new life comes to an abrupt end.

By the merest chance, Arthur left the Grange before the explosion that kills all his companions: his brief experience of luxury is over.

Hunted down by the spies responsible for destroying Matcham Grange, he changes identity with the tramp killed by a bullet intended for him. Grief-stricken and suffering physical hardship, he owes it to the Professor to reach the Ministry, proving there is one guinea-pig left. An outcast from society, after a hard journey, Arthur has to convince headquarters that he is the real Timkins, not a spy impersonating him.

The transformed Arthur is taken to Dormec House. The psychiatrist (who had selected him) swears that no one will recognise the down-trodden slow-witted messenger in this handsome, well-heeled executive, but someone does, on that very staircase...

Clairvoyance

“…What I needed was one look,

and with that,

I was clairvoyant.

Your soul and your mind,

the tiniest part of your heart,

I knew it all and I made a promise

that I would teach you

about you,

share my knowledge,

and from this fruitful kinship,

we rise and raise each other high,

me seeing all of you

and you there,

right by my side.”

Trying not to think about it but to see how it makes you feel.

Class Act

Biggsy is an idealistic 50-year-old English teacher in a West London boys’ secondary school. A maverick head of department who battled against the educational establishment for twenty-five years, he’s beginning to crack. His departmental colleagues love him, but he suspects that the school’s management team is out to get rid of him.His wife, Myra, a medical secretary, is his mainstay. She patiently endures his total commitment to his calling without complaint. However, when she realises that his work is taking an inordinate emotional toll on his personality, her patience wears thin.Through his exchanges with teenage Ella, their only child, Biggsy reveals his beliefs about the connections between literary theory and the lives we all lead. But a violent assault on one of his students, an unexpected sexual encounter and professional betrayal expose the flaws in his philosophy. He discovers that trying to think one’s way through life is all very well, but the time comes when one has to act. 

Cleaning Stories And Other Tails

Cleaning Stories And Other Tails is a broad sweep of mainly the underclass. Bread crumbs of prostitution, idyllic adoption and the mumblings of a white woman near an indigenous reserve make the reader ponder, lash out and albeit care for the various winners and losers that cross days and nights.

The characters drawn from a realm of healers, liars and ordinary Joes populate urban landscapes with self-deprecating wit, emotional shortcomings and identifiable crisis.

The first incarnation of this book was a rough sketch I did while working as a maid in the Jewish ghetto of Montreal, Quebec.

There have been many stained mattresses, unavailable rooms, and smoke-inhaled lobbies in the interim.

Clone Ladies

In Clone Ladies, dive into a near-future where medical advancements have made cloning not just possible, but commonplace. As technology evolves, it’s not just organs that are replicated – entire humans can now be duplicated, possessing the same abilities, thoughts, memories, and skills as their originals. While this brave new world promises enhanced happiness and longevity, it also introduces unprecedented challenges. What does it mean to be truly unique in a world of mirrors? This gripping exploration into the promises and pitfalls of cloning raises profound questions about identity, ethics, and the very essence of human existence.

Coffee Time

The essence of a good writer is to find that ‘writer’s moment’ – that little piece of observable idiosyncratic behaviour where humour lives. How Susanna loves to discover those eccentricities in people’s characters that she can frame on her artist’s canvas.

Humour is found in the ordinary, the everyday, the awkward and the sublimely ridiculous events that grace our faces. When faced with the Covid-19 pandemic during 2020 Susanna’s pen had hardly time to rest between scenarios, furiously recording stories, such as the stupidity of the Tissue Issue – ‘Spare a Square,’ or about the sneaky company tricks in ‘Plays and Ploys’.

Other stories share precious family time with her little granddaughter, whilst many raise issues prevalent in all our lives. Instead of becoming exasperated by incompetence, or the folly of people’s foolishness, Susanna’s pen quickly slips into writing mode to create each immensely amusing saga.

‘That Perfect Little Writing Day’

Knock, knock.

“Who’s there?”

“Me,” a newly turned three-year-old gives her nanny a kiss.

“Where did you come from?”

“From the door.”

“How d’you get here?”

“I walked. Silly Nanny – I don’t drive!”

The stories and poems are written for entertainment. Coffee Time invites you into the coffee shop to sip one or more of the delicious brews on offer. Please stay a while and chat and share these little treasures with your family and friends.