We have lost . . .

Many good things have come into our lives over the last fifty years or so, but now and then I come across something which I really, really miss. Do you remember the postcards we used to send one another when we went away on holiday? You read them – sometimes with difficulty because they were scribbled in haste or delayed because the sender had forgotten the relevant postcode – and then you put them on the mantelpiece to look at, and to remind you of the sender. And each time you see them, you smile.    

Nowadays we’re bombarded with pictures taken on a smartphone which are very rarely printed off and put on the mantelpiece. One friend said her family had sent her six photos of a summer holiday before they’d even boarded the ferry to France! Another friend emailed me from Wales to detail the enormous amount of trouble she’d taken to find and purchase a card, only to have more trouble locating a stamp and then an actual post box! I can tell you that particular postcard has pride of place on my mantelpiece.

Do you think we should make an effort to reverse the trend and start sending postcards once more? Despite the cost of the stamp, and the extra effort involved? I vote yes with a memo to self, ‘So-and-so would love to receive a card to keep and remind them of you.’ But where, oh where do we buy our postcards nowadays?

                                                      A small problem . . .

 You may have noticed that the last four Abbot Agency books came out in the usual way in hardback and ebook – only for the ebook versions of three of them to disappear from the website. Last week Joffe brought out the last of this series – FALSE RELATION in the usual way, including an ebook. Recently Joffe have bought out Severn House, my publisher for over twenty years, so they are designing new covers for these three and will re-issue them soon. No dates yet, but I promise they’ll be here soon. The titles are: FALSE NAME, FALSE WITNESS and FALSE GOLD.

                                        The next short story . . .  

Is about the naming of the Outside Cat, the almost completely white war survivor, who has a problem finding a loving home. Many names have been thrown at him, in his short life, but none have fitted until . . . Well you can read about him here.

 A blessing on those who can forget their own problems long enough to listen to those of others.

Veronica Heley