Author: sjohns

  • Dry wit

    Dry wit

    One evening years ago, I was a passenger on the open top deck of a bateau mouche in Paris. The boat went under a bridge, and someone above us…

  • Other people, other lives

    Autrui. French word. I rather like it. How would you translate it into English? Other people, perhaps, or simply others. It’s one for writing more than speech…

  • Edward Thomas’s ‘Owl’: missing a feather?

    Edward Thomas’s ‘Owl’: missing a feather?

    One evening of heat, unseasonal heat – it was late May – I was sitting in the book room with the window wide open, and I heard a tawny owl calling from the trees…

  • Three deaths

    Sawn off, jut-jawed, tongue lolling, a fox muzzle lies on the path at the edge of the field, small enough to fit in the palm of a hand and easy to miss…