VILLAGE TALES - and other stories.

Constance and Bernard have been an couple ever since he didn’t win the Longest Carrot competition. They eventually decide to marry and move in together. They have been single for a good few years and the prospect of being married again and living with each other is exciting. What could possibly go wrong?

Shadows cast by a bright silvery moon and the movement of a gently breeze can give the impression of something huge moving silently through the countryside. A large animal, a big cat perhaps, or a monstrous dog? It could just be imagination, but if a victim of the beast proves its existence, what a story that would make!

Spring and summer heralds the season for garden parties and open air events, but with our weather, success or failure is in the lap of the Gods. Some, like Lady Blythe can afford to take no chances, but others risk it. What then happens if the weather isn't good can be a disaster and divide the village forever.

Whether you walk just to walk, or just to look and listen, the countryside is a beautiful place to explore, We are lucky to have it, but there used to be more of it, and it’s there, the other side of a wall. The ‘Enclosures Act’ robbed the people of one fifth of the whole country! It was the common land that ordinary people had used and enjoyed for centuries, but the gentry put a wall round it and called it ‘theirs’.

More Dawson catastrophes! This time the Dawson’s historic connection with steeplechasing, Davinia Dawson’s interest in animal rights, and her loss of several snakes.

The village’s first singles dining club attracts attention when an alliance forms between one of the pub’s helpers and a complete stranger who is not to be trusted. When proof is found, it’s time for friends to act, and save a lovely but naive, vulnerable lady from being taken advantage of. Or should thy mind their own business?

Animals can be our best friends, they can also create chaos.

A local becomes concerned over what he has, and what he’ll leave behind. Things can come to dominate our lives and there’s a concern that we spend all our later years just looking after everything we’ve got. Harold Poynter doesn’t want to spend the rest of his life just being a ‘caretaker’.

The Old Mill’s history once again causes concern. Some places amplify what 'stains' remain from those that have lived before. A series of unrelated events may be what it seems to the casual observer, but we know that there is no such thing as coincidence, don't we? A previously dormant energy has awoken, but by what, or by whom?

Villages often create their own entertainment. Societies and clubs abound but under the innocent facade of say, a bridge club, turbulent waters stir and it doesn’t take much for a storm to brew. Sometimes it turns out to be just a passing squall, on other occasions, a tempest.