the Plain – STUFF HAPPENS

Easter iv

After communion, the little congregation scattered to roasting tins and claret we climb the church tower, one father and his two sons, stone steps screwing us heavenwards, the tower stinking of winter, its four bells hanging in a bat chamber like green bombs, their detonators fouled with bad years. Upwards! The screw tightens us up […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on tobogganing

BA182 is the final British Airways flight out of JFK on Thursday night and six hours later the heavy snows falling over southern England oblige us to circle a couple of loops over Heathrow before we can land. One of the airport’s two runways has been closed and at last we descend into cloud the […]

by Alex Hickman

Notes on Salisbury Plain

Early in the morning I walked back up the hill to pick over the beacon site. I hoped to find some fired nails for the boys. On the hill the grass was wet from the night rain. At the top I found a neat circle of burnt ground. I couldn’t find a single nail, someone […]

by Alex Hickman

Jubilee

Monday 4 June Fred and I hid our bikes behind the grain dryer and walked the rest of the way up the hill. On the slope the grass was tall and wet and I carried Fred on my shoulders to keep his trousers dry. It was a little before ten in the morning; the vale […]