These are pieces written by Carol for Carol Carman’s Writing Club
which is around 3.20pm every other Monday on The Louise Hulland Show
on BBC Local Radio across the Eastern Region.
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire, Norfolk or Suffolk on your radios, or listen on BBC Sounds.
-
Short Fiction: Best Before
One day, if I don’t get to you first, you’ll be as old as me, and you’ll have a kitchen drawer where you’ll keep biros which only work half the time, odd bits of paper for shopping lists, battered boxes of plasters, paracetamols and indigestion tablets, a thermometer, some tweezers,…
-
Poem: A Father Refuses His Daughter’s Choice of Husband
King Edward was the King of Spuds And Charlotte was his queen. Their daughter, Princess, was The prettiest spud you’ve ever seen. Her father summoned suitors From all across the land To try to impress Princess And maybe win her hand. The suitors all were gathered at A suitor-choosing ball;
-
Poem: She Cleans The Tower Ballroom
She cleans the Tower ballroom Through the darkness of the night, And when her shift is over She lets her mind take flight. She swaps her battered trainers For strappy sequinned shoes And glides onto the dance floor To blow away her blues. She takes up her position, Elegant in…
-
Memoir: Living Under a Romany Blessing
‘Ye’re not scared of buying from a Romany are ye?’ said the old woman at the door one November night. ‘Of course not,’ I said. My granny was born to travelling horse-dealers so no, I wasn’t scared. ‘Blessings be upon ye,’ she said. She was seventy-five if she was a…
-
Memoir: Parcelwatching
I was watching my phone to get some clue as to when my parcel would arrive. It was to come from Peterborough to just outside Cambridge, a distance of some 36 miles. It arrived, 277 miles later. That’s over seven and a half times the distance it should have gone.…
-
Short Fiction: The Same Every Time
I turned my car towards the hotel with some trepidation, to be honest, even though I knew exactly what was going to happen. I didn’t want to go there at all, and if I thought I could have got away with it I’d have gone straight past and ignored her,…
-
Short Fiction: A Letter From Jane Austen To Her Brother
My dearest Edward, How timely is your wonderful invitation to come and stay with you a while in Hampshire! I am in sore need of a prolonged rest with little to disturb me, for I am quite beset with all manner of communications which clamour for my attention, hence my…
-
Poem: A Blind Date? What Were You Thinking?
Why am I doing this? What shall I wear? Do I have time to colour my hair? What about nail varnish? Heels or flat shoes? Dress, skirt or trousers? Why can’t I choose? What shall we talk about? Where will we go? Why am I bothered? Why didn’t I say…
-
Poem: Seize the Clay
Mrs Sybil Cottery And her husband, Ray, Had a ceramics business Making things from clay. They’d bought a lottery ticket And with the cash they’d won Decided to make pottery, Quirky, weird and fun. They fired up their wheels and kilns As quickly as they could; Ambition, though, outwei
-
Poem: The Lovelorn Candle
A single lovelorn candle – Smart, petite and bright – Just needed some affection To be a ray of light. To her, love was important, It wasn’t just a game; She didn’t want to end up As somebody’s old flame. She used to date a church candle, Upright, proud, but…