Category: Palace of Strangers

Extracts from A Palace of Strangers

christ jews atheism

And neither do we

‘But it is true,’ he said; ‘and you must not be rude to your elders.’ He looked at her for a moment and, with satisfaction, identified her as a newcomer whose name he could remember....

pub chance encounter

His first break from work

Solly looked round the office. ‘You have done well here, Benno.’ ‘I have survived.’ ‘I meant that. The worst is over now?’ Dadda nodded. ‘I think so. It has been bad, and now it is...

A trip to the pub

During all his time at the office, Dadda had never yet been into a public-house in that district, and it was Solly who suggested The Grapes, a solid late-Victorian establishment whose great expanses of mirrors...

Drinks on the firm

‘You are in the estate business?’ Maier said. ‘Let me get you both a drink. What are you having?’ Solly pointed to the glasses. ‘Beer.’ Maier said: ‘On my expense account no one ever drinks...

Moving day

Mamma accepted the idea of the change, but without any enthusiasm. She told herself that she was afraid of Dadda overreaching himself, but the real trouble was something else: she was a child of the...

New home, new name

That night Dadda was back early. We sat in the kitchen, all four of us, drinking cocoa under a gas-mantle that flared nakedly because the shade had been packed, and Dadda spoke to us seriously....

Pas devant les enfants!

‘Standards of behaviour,’ Aunt Peggy said stridently, ‘do count for so much. It is easy enough to poke fun at them, but they are the … the backbone of our society. Without decent behaviour, everything...

Do as you like

She went to dancing lessons for over three months and then, one afternoon, she danced for Solly. It happened accidentally; he was sitting as he so often did, playing the piano for his own soul’s...