Poley said: ‘Got the bottle? Good. Climb aboard.’ He drove along the coast road, westwards, towards the distant enemy. I let him drive in silence, feeling that in that way he would be most likely...

Poley plunged forward and began to swim away from me. ‘Don’t finish that bottle off,’ he called. ‘I’ll want a drink when I get back.’ I watched him until his head was very small, and...

‘Taken in error,’ Poley said. He threw over a square envelope, with the flap tucked in at the back. ‘A bill. Some hopeful tradesman.’ I recognized Isaak’s writing on the address. The card inside was...

‘I should never have let us drift apart as we did. I blame myself for that.’ ‘I shouldn’t worry about it, Jinny,’ I said. In fact, Jinny had made tentative moves towards a resumption of...

Hilda started to go upstairs with Patrick; on the turn, halfway up, she stopped and looked down to where I stood in the hall. She said: ‘I wonder if I could have a glass of...

‘Good business,’ I observed. ‘Ours is not as healthy as that.’ He shrugged. ‘It brings money. As for your business, think of what is to come. Millions of people wanting homes, all at once. God...

We had reached the entrance of Hampstead Court. The years had not dealt kindly with it; it had escaped bombing, but there were jagged cracks in the facing, which was no longer white, but different...

‘I want to kiss you now,’ I pointed out. ‘In due course, Jinny will be back.’ ‘I hope so, coz. I’ve got no intention of being left alone with you in a flat for long.’...

‘To get back to the point – are you going to marry me?’ She sat up, and ticked off points on her fingers. ‘I hardly know you. I’m too young. And you haven’t had enough...

‘I shall ask you again.’ Serious, as she was now, she looked very young; the sophistication was no longer there to mislead, and she was only eighteen. ‘You must be prepared for that.’ Her smile...