The Third Policeman

The Third Policeman

‘The first beginnings of wisdom,’ he said, ‘is to ask questions but never to answer any. You get wisdom from asking and I from not answering. Would you believe that there is a great increase in crime in this locality? Last year we had sixty-nine...
The Secret People

The Secret People

Smile at us, pay us, pass us; but do not quite forget, For we are the people of England, that never has spoken yet. There is many a fat farmer that drinks less cheerfully, There is many a free French peasant who is richer and sadder than we. There are no folk in the...
The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor

The Last Voyage of Somebody the Sailor

“To the handsome and the privileged,” she declared, as though addressing the night itself, “who can scarcely imagine being otherwise, it appears that their elders choose old age, for reasons as mysterious as their choosing to be ill or ugly. Servants...
Born Yesterday

Born Yesterday

I tell him I’m waiting for my dog who has found some interesting smells a little way back, to find me. (‘Reading his wee-mails,’ I think of saying parroting a woman with a wire-hair Parson Jack Russell, but don’t.) And now you could read......
Leela’s Friend

Leela’s Friend

‘If we stand on the roof and stretch our arms, can we touch the sky?’ ‘Not if we stand on the roof here,’ he said. ‘But if you stand on a coconut tree you can touch the sky.’ ‘Have you done it?’ asked Leela. ‘Yes,...
Television

Television

I examined my son’s drawings one after another. They were magnificent (and I’m not just saying that because he’s my son). The majority were executed in colored felt-tip, except one more complicated drawing that incorporated a number of substances I...