A Life More Ordinary

Running backwards, forwards and sideways in time.

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Writer. 52 years old with a tendency to overthink and overshare. Likes to create worlds and people. Dad. Survivor. Rubbish at writing bio entries.

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  • Bridge Over Troubled Water

     It had been a busy day in the seaside town of Teignmouth, the sort of day that publicans loved as it precipitated heaving gardens and thirsty punters. The sun had shone and the beaches had been busy, ‘early busy’ too, as families had fought for space to lay down their towels before the sea had…

  • We Let the Stars Go – Part Four

    A Sky Full of Stars The first few flakes of snow had gone unnoticed by pre-occupied shoppers and Christmas revellers. Undeterred and perhaps a little disgruntled at the lack of interest, winter descended upon the picturesque scene that might have adorned the front of festive cards of previous years. Huge, white flakes fell in flurries…

  • We Let the Stars Go – Part Three

    Why Does it Always Rain on Me? It was raining. No surprises there, obviously, in England. But it was raining and I was getting married. In about six hours and twenty-one minutes. I checked my suit, for the umpteenth time, gave my shoes another quick polish and looked in on my so-called best man, who…

  • We Let the Stars Go – Part Two

    Just One of Those Things The sun was high in the cloudless sky as the faintest of breezes whispered across the cricket ground, teasing the pages of newspapers at the boundary edge and hinting at the possibility of the weather closing in later in the evening. Out in the middle, shimmering in the heat haze,…

  • We Let the Stars Go – Part One

    That was Then, but this is Now There was, as the song by Prefab Sprout begins, a girl I used to know. Isn’t that how all the best stories start? A boy and a girl. Or a girl and a girl or…come on, if you haven’t got the picture by now you’ve really not been…

  • Love Wars

    So, that day, that memory that I alluded to earlier. If I were telling it as a story, I might imply that it started like any other day. Indeed, it may well have done so. On this particular day, however, there was mystery afoot, a plot bubbling beneath the surface of our working-class existence in…

  • Wherever You Will Go

    If you find the dogs are crying in the morning If the piano plays a song while you’re asleep If the days we had repeat while you are dreaming It’s the echo of a heart you couldn’t keep If the cat should settle where I used to whisper If the snow should fail to lie…

  • Cover From the Sky

    The small village of Poundsgate is situated on Dartmoor and has quite the reputation. It is to be found on the road between Ashburton and Princetown and at the very least is thought to date back to the 13th century, when it was arguably little more than a cluster of farms and cottages surrounding the…

  • Life in Technicolor

    We are born from darkness. A darkness that is warm and protective and we emerge from the shadows to a world that is new to our senses. Sounds retain elements of familiarity, voices that we have heard from within our protective cocoon, while the reassurance of the first touch of our mother’s hand prompts a…

  • 20th Century Boy

     I was born on October 29th, 1973, in the city of Exeter. Wait, that’s weird, writing in the first person. Still, I digress. You may need to get used to that. Where was I? Ah, 1973. David Bowie was tearing up the charts, while the unremarkable ‘Daydreamer’ by David Cassidy occupied the top spot during…