Classic fiction from 1964
1964, it seems, was a great year for adventure novels. Joshua Glenn, in his HiLoBrow blog (‘Middlebrow is not the solution’), has listed his ten favourites published that year, and the list reads like a...
Category: Cloud on Silver
Extracts from Cloud on Silver
Courtesy, warmth – and persistence
An elaborate cold buffet had been laid out in the dining-room. Marriott waited until the ladies had been served, and then made his own selection. The choice was wide and many of the items exotic:...
Home thoughts from abroad
She had chosen to remain on board because she did not feel like sight-seeing or merry-making, and because Marriott had been so persistent in pressing her to come with them. She considered how much she...
A little surprise for your guests
Sweeney said: ‘Captain Cranach has sold me the Diana. I shall be running her myself.’ ‘But you can’t,’ Susan said, ‘can you?’ ‘I was at sea,’ Sweeney said, ‘as a younger man. My ticket is still valid.’
A slightly more adventurous voyage
Lydia had been watching Tony Marriott: his eyes had not left the curve of Susan’s breast, under the wrap, since she came out. When Sweeney spoke his name, interrogatively, he looked at him abstractedly. ‘How...
Why did the boy stop singing?
Billy put the tray down on the table beside Willeway’s deck-chair. He said: ‘Here you are, sir. Tea and muffins. Dripping with butter.’ They were: the butter had soaked golden into the honeycombed surface and...
Placing a spanner in the works
‘My dear Joe, intervention in human affairs is something that always requires a great deal of justification, and generally offers very little. The man who intervenes is himself suspect – rightly so because his motives...
In the Doldrums
They came into the Doldrums that evening. The sails hung slack and lifeless, the air itself had a dead quality, as though the great expanse of sky were boxed and shuttered, the sea flowed past...
‘All animals are equal’
Silence was broken as they scrambled out of the boat, for the most part getting their feet wet. Candie cleared the lapping water with a great leap, only to fall prone on the sand, and...
A walk along the sea shore
‘Snakes?’ Toni asked. ‘Are there snakes, Sweeney?’ ‘I doubt it. Nothing terribly virulent, anyway. And snakes, too, will keep out of your way if you make enough noise crashing through the brush. Shall we investigate...
