Excerpt from A HOUSE NOT MADE WITH HANDS.  The man in the wide-awake hat and darned coat paused in the taproom doorway of  the Midland Counties Arms Hotel to stamp the snow from his boots. His sharp black eyes were full of whimsy as he took in the scene.   Flames as long as posthorns raced up the chimney and the bottle-glass windows were ...

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           Once a woman has forgiven her man, she must not reheat his sins for breakfast. Marlene Dietrich The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong. Mahatma Gandhi Forgiveness is the fragrance the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it. Mark Twain Always forgive your enemies - ...

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       Random excerpt from my Marion Grace novel, THE GODMOTHER, as yet unedited and unrevised.  Godfrey hadn't introduced his mother to Annabel until after the fait accompli. She had spent Christmas as a guest at the house party of some landed aristocrat in Buckinghamshire and had uttered something about the importance of being in Norfolk for the ...

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        I'm taking the lliberty of re-posting this poem, which first appeared in February, because it is my magnum opus (as regards significance) on repentance, this week's blog topic.  ONCE UPON ASH WEDNESDAY...  It was the same date as today, Ash Wednesday of that year, An opaque sky heralded the bleak disciplines of Lent. Cremated palm ...

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         A further excerpt from my Marion Grace novel THE GODMOTHER, as yet unrevised and unedited.  It had been so liberating in Venice, so civilised. The visit had coinicided with the Carnevale. Piet's sister, Marty, a clothes designer based in Milan, was married to an Italian Count and her brother and Jack had joined some other guests for ...

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        An excerpt from my Marion Grace novel THE GODMOTHER, as yet unrevised and unedited.  It had been Jack’s salvation that he was cunning with words. Who cared whether the literal and spiritual truth were poles apart? You judged a book by its cover. Readers were scarce, and if they gave up on the contents, the cover remained intact, its ...

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