Doctor Charles Smith is a scientist and dreamer.  He has a revolutionary idea for how the human race can develop itself and the planet. With the fruits of his work about to be revealed, Smith receives a visit from his commerci...

Alphonse and Emina have become lovers. His desire to please her makes him drop his guard and appear in public places. As a double act they go to local villages, beginning to make money and plans for the future: until the past catches up with th...

By chance, young dancer Emina meets equally youthful, trumpet-playing soldier Alphonse in a barn in the mountains of war-torn Southern Spain. They are both innocent and experienced in entirely different ways. Initially wary, they tell each othe...

After the dramatic series of arrivals and events at the Knap on marriage engagement night in Part 1, the triangle of relationships between Sally Hall, her ex sister-in-law Helena, and Farmer Charles Darton becomes tangled still further by marri...

On a dark night, Farmer Charles Darton and his friend Japheth Johns are riding on their way  to The Knap to meet Sally Hall,  Charles' bride-to-be. Losing their way is the prelude to a series of unexpected arrivals and events that pot...

Having ended Part 1 with his business plan "in the air", Jimmy 'Skiver' McIver at last gets the backing and support of his old school friend and businessman Roger Soul and Denise, Roger's glamorous PA. They launch the dry cleaning business with...

Jimmy ‘Skiver’ McIver is back! Last heard from in “Ashes to Ashford”* sunning himself on a Caribbean beach, “Crudely, Badly, Cheaply” takes us back 15 years to less lucky times for our feckless Cockney wheeler-dealer. In Part 1 of ...

On a dark, stormy Victorian night atop a Wessex hill, Shepherd and Mrs Fennel are holding a christening party at their cottage for a second-born child. Proceedings are interrupted by the consecutive arrival of three strangers to shelter from th...

There 's nothing like a good biblical story...and this is NOTHING like a good biblical story!Mary Poppins jokes aside, this is a short story relating how Pharoah Contraraoh fared whilst trying to Make Egypt Great Again (MEGA). It contai...

Talking humanity creeps into the chance encounter at the Women's Institute between uptight Lydia and the educated but impoverished itinerant Colin. Then external reality arrives: the WI guest speaker cannot make it. Shakespeare's words provide ...

Taking shelter from the rain in a village hall somewhere in England, an educated, homeless man is confronted by Lydia, a "formidable" member of the local Women's Institute. Under threat of expulsion, he engages with the lady as she tries to org...

In this final part of the series, called "His Wonderful End", our waitering hero Mr Christopher returns - and he is a worried man. He has successfully sold the stories discovered in Somebody's luggage to a publisher. Now he waits in fear lest t...

In the second and final part of "The Tale of the Obliging Mr Blorage" (discovered in His Hatbox), Dick Blorage is still not on board with the revelatory properties of Lady Verita's magical Chair of Truth. There is a harsh lesson to be learned f...

"The Tale of the Obliging Mr Blorage" is the amusing contribution of female Victorian writer Julia Cecilia Stretton to Dickens' "Somebody's Luggage" short story compendium.In two parts, Part 1 (discovered in His Portmanteau) introduces ...

"The Story of the Fine Artist" (discovered in His Brown Paper Parcel) Thomas is not just an artist, but a Fine Artist in Victorian London. He is a riddler. He is highly strung. He has a friend who is quickly lost. He acquires a gir...

This is the third of our short-story adaptations from Charles Dickens' "The Pickwick Papers" and his first Yuletide supernatural tale.  It tells of Gabriel Grub, a morose, lonely and drunken gravedigger who hates people, particularly durin...

Having seen off the first ghost, Scrooge's education in the current lives of others during the festive season  proceeds to the houses of the Cratchit family and his nephew, courtesy of a jolly Ghost of Christmas Present.  With...

Charles Dickens' classic Yuletide tale is presented in a two-part adaptation that gives you more of the story, focusing particularly on the corrosive effects of early Victorian capitalism.In Part 1, we see Scrooge in all his business an...

"The Story of the Iceberg Shipwreck" (discovered in His Dressing Case) is an exciting and ironic tale of disaster and derring-do on the high seas. Its narrator Monkhouse tells of the sinking of the good ship Golden Dream around Cape Horn after ...

Discovered by head waiter Mr Christopher in His Boots, “The Story of Mr The Englishman Abroad” tells of Langley, a buttoned-up, hypercritical Englishman living alone in a French town. Estranged from his daughter in England, he takes a journey o...

Mister Christopher is a Victorian waiter who has many OPINIONS - on what is (and is not) a waiter, good and bad waitering, customers and their foibles, coffee houses, and much more. In this first part of the Somebody's Luggage series, he acquir...

A bonus story from the life and times of Geoffrey Banks - British teacher, writer, broadcaster, and soap opera actor. Geoffrey goes up to Cambridge University in 1940 - just as World War 2 starts.  Working  as a navigator in a Swordfi...

In the French town of Sens, the mystery of Emma Lirriper’s dying benefactor is revealed as, on his deathbed, he opens his eyes. The dastardly Mr Edson is given Christian care by our heroine, and the chance to meet before he dies the unknowing s...

Mrs Emma Lirriper again encounters her arch lodging house rival Miss Wozenham - but in very different circumstances and with a surprisingly new outcome. After an intriguing  visit from the French Consul, Emma learns of an unknown dying man...

Our favourite Victorian London landlady returns for another series of events and escapades, centred around a legacy that has been left to Emma Lirriper by an unknown person. But before the mystery of this legacy begins, we hear about and witnes...