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.
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Poem: What’s Within
I iron creases from a shirt and think about my skin: You see it creped and wrinkled; you don’t see what’s within. You see my shoulders rounded; you see my face is red; But you’ve got no idea what’s going on inside my head… I don’t want to do the…
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Poem: The Fancy-Dress Party
We’ve just had a fancy dress party – our family and some of our friends – It was really quite funny to see the grown-ups getting dressed up and playing “pretends”. My grandmother came as a teabag, and grandfather came as a bat, And Daddy turned out as King Arthur,…
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Poem: Building A Wardrobe
My uncles came to stay with me when I got my new pad; They came to do some DIY for which I was quite glad. They put me up some pantry shelves and stood back with great pride; I watched as jars and bottles slowly slid down to one side.…
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Poem: My Home Gym
I built myself a home gym so I could exercise, Replace my fat with muscle and tone my flabby thighs. My bingo wings I’d banish, my posture would improve, My body would be sculpted – how gracefully I’d move! I’d be so fit and agile, a marathon I’d run And…
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Short Fiction: Antonia’s Thank-You Letter
Dearest Sylvie, Thank you so much for a splendid evening at your birthday party on Saturday. I can’t remember the last time I went to such a shindig. The birthday cake in the shape of Balmoral Castle was a triumph of the confectioners’ art, and it was such a shame…
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Short Fiction: Why Grandad Never Wore A Watch
The front of the matchbox had a red background, with blue and white detailing in the corners, and in the middle was a white oval showing a blue drawing of a steam ship, which, curiously, also had rigging for sails. My grandad said it was a Victorian battleship called HMS…
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Short Fiction: The Bottle
My Nana had two mysterious things in her house – a locked cupboard and a ship in a bottle. I was never allowed to know what was in the cupboard, but I was allowed to look at the ship in a bottle, as long as I didn’t touch it. I…
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Short Fiction: The Portrait
So I says to Frankie, ‘How do I look Frankie?’ and he says, ‘Bellissima, doll, Bellissima!’ which me giggle, and I’m already like a cat with two tails because Frankie’s spent a cartload of money hiring that Leonardo da Vinci to do me portrait. He’s so generous, my Frankie. Anyway,…
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Memoir: Bikes
Sometimes parents have to disappoint their children. And the younger you are when you are disappointed, the longer you have to brood about it and chew it over at family reunions. Take bikes. Dad would not let my brother and me have two-wheelers. Our terraced street which was a favourite…