Facts and Fantasies: Omnibus Collection of Short Stories

In these short stories I combined, in varied proportions, figments of my imagination and actual events set in real locations. I have tried accurately to reveal the facts underlying all the stories but my memory is not what it was. Where appropriate I have also tried to conceal the identities of the people involved. If I failed to do so and thereby upset any family members, friends, colleagues or acquaintances, may I point out I never intended to embarrass and, more often than not, the law seems to benefit lawyers rather than litigants.

Eight stories (2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 14 and 15) are largely biographical. Story number 6 is a fond recollection of my father and relates actual events that still have me shaking my head and thinking, "What are the chances?"

Behind story number 7 are real people and events. but the consequence of my crime is fictional albeit the logically expected result of a chemical reaction.

Story number 8 describes an actual incident involving real people I knew but whose actual names I have not disclosed. If by my descriptions I have unwittingly disclosed the identities of my former neighbours, I hope they will not be embarrassed or upset by my portrayal of them.

1. The lawn
A well-paid chemist quits his job. On the road to earning a living he meets frustration, laughter, joy and sorrow.

2. The Axeman cometh
A dangerous criminal is on the loose. A front door is ajar and the house a shambles. The police are called.

3. A tick in a box
An official form is carelessly completed. The bureaucratic consequences will make you laugh or go insane.

4. The journey of a canvas bag
Five passengers share a compartment on a train, unaware of the danger lurking inside a student's canvas bag.

5. The best laid schemes
Two door-to-door brush salesmen conspire to boost sales but the conscience of one gets the better of him.

6. What are the chances?
The author tells the curious affair of a petrol cap, fondly recalls his father and confirms that old habits die hard.

7. A mixed blessing
The author confesses a crime he committed long ago in Britain out of false pride and in a moment of weakness.

8. The lawnmower
A lawnmower is belching smoke and its owners have vanished. The neighbours gather to solve the mystery.

9. Deception and a deadly switch
Three teachers invest in a former colleague's business. A faulty switch leads to tragedy and a police investigation.

10. A gorilla in the cupboard
The bizarre tale of a gorilla hiding in the cupboard of a school's music department.

11. Water of life
What was the author to do when even arsenic failed to solve the problem. The answer lay in a bottle in France.

12. What the eye does not see
Two people staying at the same resort meet. They have something in common that could prove disastrous.

13. The apple cart
A Indian carpet dealer is worried. His daughter is seeing a greengrocer who employs his son. He consults a lawyer.

14. Across a crowded room
One enchanted evening, the author saw a stranger across a crowded room and has been in love with her ever since.

15. The disappearing chemistry teacher
A chemist demonstrates a chemical reaction and vanishes in a cloud of smoke before the very eyes of his students.

16. An alarming business
A policeman investigates the unexpected increase in local burglaries and the sale of his relative's burglar alarms.