January 2025 From the author’s desk…
THE OLD AND ONLY WAY OF QUALIFYING
Ian’s learning curve in Mulholland’s office was steep and exhausting. As the only junior in the Investment Department he was at the beck and call of all six of the valuers and negotiators, and sometimes the three senior partners. He was soon exposed to every form of commercial property investment.
Each night he would return to his small dingy room – often too tired to eat – for endless study and little sleep. He got up at six, arriving at the office with the cleaners every morning in order not to fall behind with the written papers, which had to be posted back to the College of Estate Management each week.
Jeremy Thring had been very good about Ian leaving early, and many were intrigued by the large Bentley which waited for him in Berkeley Square every Friday afternoon. He enjoyed the journey to Bath and after a few trips the chauffeur knew well enough to leave him alone, as sitting in the back, he went through the past week’s marked study papers.
He loved the weekend’s of delicious food, clean sheets and competitive games of Scrabble; the luxury of Widcombe House was such a contrast to the maid’s room in London. Right from the first weekend, Marcus Rose had insisted that he bring the work marked by the college with him, so that they could go through it after dinner. It was more unwanted pressure but, keen to impress, these sessions kept him from falling behind in the relentless treadmill of study and work. By the last Friday before Christmas 1960 Ian could relax; Contract and Tort, Valuations, Law of Property, all had earned him an ‘A’ mark, with only a ‘B’ in Building Construction. Marcus was pleased.
Sunday night, back in the maid’s room, the next week’s washing and ironing brought him back to earth. He had splashed out on a new-fangled ‘drip dry’ shirt, bought from Marks & Spencer at great expense. Its wrapper proudly boasted, ‘needs no ironing, just wash and wear, your body heat does the rest: after only five minutes, not a wrinkle in sight’. His creases lasted right through the day. At the drawing board, jacketless one morning, Mulholland made a comment about juniors coming to work in shirts they had slept in. Ian went back to ironing.
Another extract from chapter forty six of – ‘Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
December 2024 From the author’s desk…
STAFF WELFARE IN 1959…
John Mulholland had his Financial Times spread across the desk. His morning ritual always started with a check on his shares’ closing prices on the previous day.
Slowly, he looked up from his beloved ‘pink un’ and over his half glasses, as if appraising Ian before speaking.
“So, you are the bugger Jeremy had decided should join us. You can sit there,” he pointed to the smallest desk in the room that was next to the door, “but you’ll need a decent suit, some proper shoes to replace those brothel creepers, a tie or two and some white shirts. We can’t have you representing the department looking like a bookmaker’s runner.” Ian remembered his headmaster’s comment about his old fur coat and must have reddened because Mulholland went on.
“Don’t worry about the cost, I will lend it to you against your first commission.” He pushed his chair back from the desk and stood up. “Now follow me.” And off they marched to the wonderful world of the Burlington Arcade.
An extract from chapter forty six of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
November 2024 From the author’s desk…
THE JOY OF TRAIN TRAVEL AND PORT TALBOT AT NIGHT 60 YEARS AGO…
It seemed a dream. Yesterday was just another day in the filing room, and now, he was sitting on the night Pullman to Swansea, with all his living expenses paid for four weeks.
He had never seen, or been on a train like it. You could actually have a meal while travelling. After a ‘Good evening, sir’ the uniformed conductor had picked up Ian’s small case and shown him to seat Ten F at a table with a little brass lamp topped by a pink lampshade. Laid for five courses, the silver plated cutlery jingled as the train picked up speed leaving Paddington.
Ian was the only passenger to get off the train at Port Talbot. The rain was tipping down as he walked along the deserted and bleak platform and stared at the flames reaching up to the heavens from a series of towers about five hundred yards away. Guarded by Cerebos he mused, as he headed down the exit tunnel, under a sign welcoming him to ‘THE HOME OF THE STEEL COMPANY OF WALES’; the smell of the sulphur was augmented by the stink of urine. Skirting around the closed booking hall, he found himself in a cul-de-sac flanked by goods yards; not a soul in sight.
Notts had telephoned him earlier that day.
“Sorry I can’t meet you, we are signing the deal off with dinner afterwards. You’re booked into the Berni Inn, best place in town and only two minutes from the station.
He turned into a road of mean Victorian terraced houses with pale lights showing in some of the upper rooms. Further along on his right, illuminated red letters three feet high announcing ‘ERNI INN’ had been fixed to iron bars spanning the first floor of three adjoining houses.
An extract from chapter forty five of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
October 2024 From the author’s desk…
TRUTH IN THE BISCUIT TIN…
“Peek Frean, makers of famous biscuits” said the faded red label on the lid. The tin had rusted in the corners where the label had been worn away by use. Gently he prised the lid off. It was crammed with papers; they were receipts.
He picked out the first, and unfolded it. It was a hire purchase agreement for a bicycle costing nineteen pounds one shilling and ten pence; four pounds as a deposit with weekly repayments at three shillings and four pence. It was dated March 1956. His beloved Raleigh, his mother’s fourteenth birthday present – it had never occurred to him that it had taken her nearly two years to pay for it.
He delved deeper and out came more HP agreements and payment cards going back years. The few sticks of furniture for the cottage at Rowas Grange Estate at half a crown a week for two years. Then a rent book for the house in Mafeking Street at nine pounds and a penny every month. More furniture, on and on it went, everything ‘on tick’. Year after year, the never-never was the only way his mother had survived on her meagre wages.
By now the box was only half full. Next came bundles of receipts for odd payments to Beaconsfield and Pitt College. He had always assumed that his scholarship had covered everything. Dozens of them for odd sums, always in guineas, starting in September 1947, and ending nine years later, that Christmas when he arrived home and discovered her barely alive.
He emptied the last inch and a half of the box and was horrified to discover that every single one of the thirty or so slips were judgements of debt, usually for a few pounds issued by the Bath County Court going back years. In every case his mother had been ordered to pay back a few shillings every week.
Carefully, he sorted them into datal order, each year a separate pile on his bed. The plaintiff’s name for the numerous rent arrears was Lundy, and in most other cases the orders were signed by Colonel John Bradshaw (Registrar).
It was then that he noticed the folded sheet of newspaper almost stuck to the bottom of the tin. He took it out and carefully unfolded the faded front page of the Bath 1942 Chronicle for Wednesday 29th April.
An extract from chapter forty four of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
September 2024 From the author’s desk…
THE CURSE OF CANCER…
He stared at the crucifix on the wall; it reminded him to take Uncle Sebastian’s Magen David out of his pocket and place it around his neck. He had resumed wearing it when visiting the hospital, as he knew it pleased his mother. Below the crucifix was his mother’s name chalked on the small blackboard showing the ward’s bed positions. Over the last three years she had moved up to occupy pole position.
Sister O’Brien came into the ward office and, unusually, closed the door behind her. He wondered why, as she sat down with the habitual smoothing of her uniform.
“I wanted to see you, Ian, because I’m afraid your mother had a turn for the worse this morning. She’s quite poorly, and you don’t have to leave when you hear the bell at the end of visiting. You can stay as long as you like.”
He nodded slowly.
“Isn’t there any other family at all? Even back in Poland that we could try and contact?”
He shook his head.
“No.” He finally spoke. “There’s only me left.”
The floral curtains were drawn, completely screening his mother’s bed from the others in the ward. He knew that this wasn’t a good sign, but occasionally it had happened before over the last three years, after the numerous operations and setbacks. He was sure Sister would have said something if it was really bad.
They went through the curtains, and he bent down to kiss his mother. The Magen David around his neck brushed her cheek. Her gaunt pinched face was flushed, and she was breathing in short shallow gasps.
Sister took the chair from the head of the bed and placed it behind him before slipping back into the ward. He sat down and clasped his mother’s hand, its back bruised by the continuous punctures from intravenous drips.
Visiting was soon over. The supper trolley came and went. He sat there.
Sister O’Brien gently shook him. He had fallen asleep in the darkened ward.
“The next bed is empty. Why don’t you stretch out on it? I’ll draw the curtain back between the two beds so that you can still see your mum.”
She helped him unlace his shoes and climb onto the adjoining bed. He lay on his side exhausted.
“Goodnight Mum,” he whispered.
An extract from chapter forty two of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
August 2024 From the author’s desk…
THE FIRST JOB INTERVIEW…
Only after he had left the train and was standing at the bus stop outside Victoria Station did Ian begin to fret. Even though the school secretary had written out the directions for his trip to London, and he had read and re-read these until he knew them by heart, he was nervous that this wasn’t a number seventy three, as he was swept on board the bus by other waiting passengers. He sat down on the bench adjacent to the open platform as the conductress, standing in front of him, with her bosom in his face, pulled the overhead bell cord and the bus moved off.
“Where to, luv?”
“Park Lane, and can you tell me when to get off please?”
“That’ll be a tanner. Whereabouts are you wanting?” She spun the handle of the aluminium ticket machine hung from around her neck, and it spat out the thin paper ticket which she handed to him.
“Berkeley Square.”
Nervously Ian twisted the ticket between his sweating fingers. What was he doing amongst this crowd of jostling strangers? Less than a month ago, he was among boys he knew, learning and preparing to go up to university. Now he was on his way to see a complete stranger to get a job in property surveying, whatever that might be. Why the mad rush to earn a living?
“Park Lane, for Berkeley Square!” he heard the sing-song voice of the conductress and the bell before the bus slowed down.
He stepped down on the pavement and crossed over Park Lane and headed down Mount Street. He was fascinated by the specialist shops, with their nineteenth-century South American bank notes or rows of un-plucked pheasants, until he came to Berkeley Square, and saw number twenty-three.
The gold lettering of ‘Woods & Parker, Established 1763’ stood proudly above the building’s stone entrance. Ian’s heart was pounding as he climbed the impressive semi-circular flight of steps that led up to a glass revolving door set between a pair of bow windows with odd panes of bottle glass that gave the effect of age.
He pushed at the door. Nothing happened, so he exerted more pressure, but it still didn’t move. A large red-cheeked man standing inside looked at him for a moment then stepped forward and mouthed something. Ian didn’t understand and was on the point of giving up when the man stepped forward and gave the doors a shove.
“The other way, stupid boy!” The doors revolved rapidly and Ian, facing the wrong way, was swept inwards and landed in a heap at the man’s feet.
“Silly bugger.” The man laughed and strolled away into the depths of the building.
“That was a dramatic entry, young sir,” a different voice commented. “I see you’ve met the senior partner’s son. Don’t mind Master Paul, hasn’t been quite right since he was shot out of a tank on D Day.”
Embarrassed, Ian picked himself off the floor and looked up at the large, heavily whiskered Commissionaire in the immaculate black uniform with brass epaulettes and three golden stripes on each sleeve.
“And who might you be?” the voice added.
“Morris, sir.” He wondered why the middle aged man, who had walked away into the building, should be referred to as ‘Master’.
“Not sir, Mr Morris, but Sergeant, Sergeant Baldwin.” He looked down at an open diary on the pedestal desk in front of him
“Ah yeas. You’ve got an interview with Brigadier Sale. I believe he’s running about half an hour late but you can wait in the small client waiting room. Follow me.”
An extract from chapter forty one of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
July 2024 From the author’s desk…
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF UNIVERSITY SIXTY YEARS AGO…
Ian gently laid his beloved Raleigh bicycle, gear side up, on the gravel to the left of the front doors of Widcombe House, and pulled off the two bicycle clips securing the bottom of his trousers. He wrapped his hand around the patina of the bell pull and pulled it downwards.
In his study Marcus Rose recalled the critical telephone conversation with Howard Edginton earlier that morning.
“Are you sure?”
“Positive, I’m afraid, the hospital almoner called me last night, no further operations are feasible; the original cancer of the stomach has spread everywhere.”
“How long?”
“The surgeon says certainly not more than twelve months, probably less, she has been weakened by so much surgery.”
“Have you told Ian?”
“No, not yet. Morris still believes she will make a full recovery, and his exams are still a year away.”
Marcus thought about the headstrong teenager.
“Leave it with me, Howard. If nothing else, it’s the least I can do for a very courageous woman. I will call you after our meeting this afternoon – I assume he is still coming?”
“Yes, he should be with you soon after lunch. Thank you, Marcus.”
The colonel decided the drawing room was more suitable for the forthcoming encounter and was still thinking how best to tackle the subject of Ruth’s prognosis when Ian arrived. He rose to greet him, and they both settled, facing each other in the beautiful French chairs, as Jennings left, quietly closing the door after him.
For a moment he regarded the boy in silence and then he came to a decision.
“Ian, I would like to you a very important question.”
The boy did not answer, but grudgingly nodded.
“Following your failure at Hornchurch, the matter of how you propose to earn your living is both relevant and urgent.”
“What do you mean?” There’s ages before I have to think about that. Why worry about a job until after I have graduated from university? That’s another four years away.”
“You are sixteen?”
“Sixteen and a half. I will be sitting A-Levels next year and then go on to Cambridge to read Physics.”
“And how on earth are you going to afford living in a Cambridge College, where is the money coming from?” Rose was becoming impatient with the boy’s lack of reality.
“Oh, I hope to get a scholarship, and I can always work in the holidays.”
“And then what?”
“Oh, I don’t know, I haven’t really given it any thought, but there must be plenty of good research jobs around for someone with a Cambridge physics degree.”
“And what about your mother while you study and earn nothing over the next four years?”
“No problem, the Lady Almoner has spoken to the St John’s Charitable Trust in Bath, and they will find us a small rent-free flat when she leaves hospital. There is the money from the Employment Exchange until she goes back to work, and her widow’s pension. That will be about £2 per week.”
The silence was broken as the small brass carriage clock on the mantel piece over the fireplace chimed the quarter. Marcus Rose trod carefully.
“What do you think are your chances of getting a Science Scholarship to Cambridge?”
“Pretty good, I reckon.” Ian blushed. “I’ve always managed scholarship exams before.”
“Young man, for your own good, stop daydreaming!” Rose had lost patience with the boy. “Firstly, you stand very little chance of getting into Cambridge, and secondly, there is absolutely no way you could get a scholarship. Cambridge isn’t an English public school, but perhaps the finest university in the world.”
An extract from chapter forty of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
June 2024 From the author’s desk…
From the author’s desk…
The late, great queen mother…
‘It now gives me great pleasure to declare this magnificent new classroom annexe, built for the Hope Venture by the boys of Pitt College, officially open.’
Her Royal Highness, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, picked up the pair of gold-plated scissors from the crimson cushion and cut the coloured ribbon, which Ian had fixed across the front entrance two hours earlier. She walked along the red carpet and into the building: at one end the college quartet was singing sea shanties.
Standing in a line along the side of the carpet were Mr and Mrs Edgington, Bradshaw, now head prefect, and Ian Morris. Next to Ian was a very attractive sixteen-year-old Polish refugee, who was introduced to him as Katrina. She was the resident representing the Hope Venture. Ian was aware of her watching him as they waited their turn. He had never seen her before so she must have only recently moved in, because all of the girls, even the unattractive ones, were the subject of endless dormitory fantasies by the boys of Pitt College.
The Queen Mother’s aide, the Lord Lieutenant of the County, Malcolm Austwick, first presented the Edgingtons to Her Majesty and then the two schoolboys, explaining Ian’s role as Labour Organiser. The Queen Mother paused in front of him and, as he raised his head from the bow, he noticed that the Lord Lieutenant was speaking quietly into her ear.
‘Ah yes, I remember,’ she said, nodded and turned to him.
‘My aide has reminded me that you come from this City of Bath and the quite extraordinary circumstances surrounding your birth during the bombing in 1942.’
‘Ma’am?’ Ian replied hesitantly, puzzled by the reference to his birth.
‘How is your mother, she was so very brave?’
‘Not very well ma’am, she is in hospital.’
‘I am sorry to hear that, I do hope she gets well soon.’
‘Thank you, ma’am.’ And then she was gone, addressing the Polish girl next to him.
An extract from chapter thirty nine of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
May 2024 From the author’s desk…
The Coronation, no not last year but the one before in 1953…
Ruth had secured two seats in the hospital lounge where Uncle Isaac used to work – she had actually won them in the hospital’s Coronation sweepstake.
Later on, led by his mother, he crossed through the crowded canteen, full of people holding glasses, cigarettes or both and all talking very loudly, even shouting. They all seemed to have red cheeks and many had a sheen of perspiration on their pallid foreheads. He was the only child present and felt trapped in the forest of white medical coats and nurses’ uniforms towering over him.
Being on the domestic staff, Ruth didn’t know anyone and so was greeted by no one as they threaded their way through the dens canopy of smoke and noise, into the staff lounge. All the sofas and armchairs had been removed, replaced by rows of canteen chairs with very little room between each. Those as the front were already occupied, so they took two at the back.
Facing them stood the television, placed on a pyramid of canteen tables stacked on top of each other. The first thing that struck Yann was how small the set was, it was tiny, much smaller than the one in the Liberman house. He wondered how he would see anything, before realising a large square magnifying lens had been fixed in front of its screen.
The room hushed as a man formally advanced from the front row and witched on the set as though it was the start of a magic show. The tiny screen lit up with a greenish light and the commentator’s reverential tones overlaid the images.
‘…and as I look at this vast throng of Her loyal subject from the four corners of this United Kingdom, her Commonwealth, and indeed, the world who have flocked to pay homage to their beautiful young Queen. The whole might of British industry is here, short stocky coalminers from deep below the South Wales valleys, alongside burly ship builders from the great yards on the Tyne, used to hammering white-hot rivets into steel plate of our mighty Navy. The tough men from Sheffield who made this steel. All standing shoulder to should with our colonial cousins, spanning a third of the globe. Australia, New Zealand, India, Pakistan…’
Why did they always mention these countries in the same order? Perhaps it was because of the test matches and the cricket.
‘Class and rank forgotten on such great State occasions…All men are equal, master, servant, professional, shopkeeper, labourer…’
What nonsense, Yann thought, to suggest that anyone ever forgot their class in England.
An extract from chapter thirty one of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles
April 2024 From the author’s desk…
Never far from the headlines, Housing – 70 years ago – just three miles from Bath…
The bus dropped them off at the main gates and Yann was lulled into complacency by the imposing entranceway and long drive up to and past the main house. Then they reached the neglected cottage. An idyll in the summer when surrounded by wild flowers and roses rambling over the doorway, it looked drab and unwelcoming in the freezing drizzle of a dull December afternoon. Ruth leant her weight against the front door to coax the warped wood across the uneven threshold and Yann followed her into the gloomy front room.
Even to the child’s inexperienced eyes in the dark interior, it was apparent that as little as possible had been spent on fitting out and furnishing the cottage. He started to wonder if there was even electricity until he saw his mother reach up to a metal box by the front door and push some coins into it. Then, a bare overhead bulb glowed yellow above a few shabby items of furniture. He rightly assumed that the brightly patterned curtains hanging at the window had been made by his mother because they were so incongruously cheery in the dingy setting. He swallowed hard and did his best to conceal the growing horror he felt, as his mother showed him around the hovel that was now their home.
They managed to manoeuvre his school suitcase up the narrow staircase and into the cupboard-sized bedroom. There was just enough space for it to stand on its end and Yann wondered how they would manage in the summertime when his whole trunk would need to be accommodated.
Then there was the lavatory, or rather the lack of one. The tin Elson chemical bucket was in a small garden shed behind the cottage. Ruth quickly explained that it had to be emptied each week, but didn’t dwell on what that meant.
An extract from chapter twenty six of – ‘ Go Swift and Far – a Tale of Bath’ The first book of The Westcott Chronicles