Jeff Ellis

Wha'eva as the kids say... Nigel evokes the period beautifully. I enjoyed it greatly.

I agree with what has been said by all of you. This is beautifully crafted and says something very meaningful to me too. SPOILER ALERT I dont intend to have a headstone... they tie the living to the dead, but they do encapsulate loss. I think of two in particular. The first was when we were exploring graveyards in my father's village... genealogy you know. I was excited because I had found the headstone for the doctor who saved my life at age two. But, I had no-one to tell except a lady who was washing a nice, fairly modern headstone.... We chatted and I noticed the inscription, to a ten year old boy some ten years earlier. For ten years she had been working her way through her loss. What can you say? The other is in a local cemetery, to a son who died age 19 in 1916... In memory of, duty done. The wording implies no body, that was presumably lost in the mud of Flanders. The second inscription on the stone is to "His mother..." her date of death is 19 years earlier than his. The thought of that father/husband. So that's my take on things, and why I don't want a headstone... but that's not my choice anyway. It's the living who decide that sort of thing, the dead have already done their bit.

Chris has me hooked. Two chapters in now... I haven't a clue where he is taking us but I am keen to see how the journey works out for our young hero. I suspect he will have grown a great deal by the time it's over. Well done Chris.

Yes indeed. Delightfully nuanced, very British. Shades of the Cambridge spy ring.

Hold tight guys... the first computer I programmed was in 1959... a Stantec Zebra that could remember 24 numbers, and the memory required to do that weighed five tonnes. Ferrite ring memories came a few years later. The memory of the zebra was acoustic! Needless to say I was the youngest on the course.

I knew I was enjoying "Courage" but there was something else, as well as the story and the way it was written. It took half the story for me to identify what I was feeling... Envy ! I so wish I could write half as well as this. Well done! This is brilliantly done.

Yes, it's definitely possible! It's a beautifully told story. One of the warm and fuzziest feelings I have walked away with all year. Thank you Cole, and thank you Sebastian too.

Nigel's use of Ten is unusual and ingenious. His location for the story is exotic and convincing. A gentle and interesting story, well told and a nice change of pace. One to return to, there is enough detail to support a second reading. Well done Nigel, I thank you.

I agree with Paul. As a single short story it has an uplifting message... yes I believe it has a message as much as it has a romantic story. Sequels or novella would dilute the message, The innocence of the relationship is part of the message, so I totally agree with Paul Well done Dabeagle... you done good, Thank you for a very pleasurable few hours

This is my favorite story, by any author, straight or gay... ever. I don't say that lightly, I stopped and thought for a while but I cannot think of a story that feels more true or more worth reading. Incidentally one of my earliest memories is of a near vertical wall of rock that passed for a back garden, seen through a back-parlour window, when I was four or five... in Blaenau Ffestiniog! Tom, would have approved of the relative my parents were visiting.

A thought that bothers me, but creates problems that can be difficult to cope with is... the spoiler. Should you start the sequel with a warning that this is a sequel and that if the reader starts here then no matter how much they enjoy it, especially if they enjoy it, they will have ruined their enjoyment of the precursor. Personally, I hate the way some authors: Kellerman, Connelly, Gerritsen... need to be read in the correct sequence. If you pick up the wrong "first" one on an airport news stand you may never get full enjoyment from a half dozen other works. Even the knowledge that B is a sequel to A tells you that the main characters of A made it to the end or at least as far as a sequel. Perhaps thats why we find three inch thick paperbacks... it's just the author's way of avoiding us starting in the wrong place.

Britain stood alone between Dunkirk and Pearl Harbour. Only her colonial allies and a handful of resistance fighters stood by her. She had only her gold reserves and when those were gone she lived off credit. When MacArthur sailed into Tokyo Bay the war ended, but the credit notes came due. It took until 1997 for Britain to finally finish paying off the last of its WW2 debts.

Brilliant strategy... it's worked before in love and war... provoke them into attacking and then shoot them down. It sounds like the lifestyle charman hasn't spotted the fighter's on her tail.

It struck me as interesting that Cole says that he would only consider writing stories for children for the challenge, lacking empathy. Des on the other hand refers to the inevitable Enid Blyton... the iconic children's author of all time (What was the sinister hold that Big-ears had over Mr Plod the policeman?). The curious thing of course is that Enid Blyton was so self absorbed that her treatment of her own children left them scarred for life... in a later age Children's Services might have come knocking... so maybe Cole should have another go... If Enid is anything to go by there is no evidence that empathy is needed.

Absolutely delightful... go hug yourself and get to feel good about the world!

Well worth following to the end... It isn't often that a denoement is something that I can remember watching on TV news as a kid! A historical tour de force as well as a nice Buddhist setting, thank you Chris, I followed it with pleasure, a great read.

As I understand it both the Pom and Ozzy versions require that you develop a liking for the taste of a byproduct of another man's pleasure (in this case beer and the yeast that made it). Now, if you can make that a life affirming principle you wont go far wrong.

Go for it young man. I'm not sure how long Nooks last, but anything that extends the reach of what I have written beyond my own brief span is welcome to me.

What they said! Well I think that's what the kids say. Cole's story is one I wish I had been able to read when I was Sebastian's age. I guess life might have been different if I had. I hope lots of kids find your story Cole.

My own feeling is a slightly different take on this discussion. Some of the original criticisms were pretty negative. Personally I enjoyed it and I'm glad that I have got into the habit of only reading these pages after completing a story. If I had read those reviews first I might well have not read this story and that would have been a shame. As it was I read the story that the author wanted to write, and I'm glad of that. One with full medical detail for example I think I would have found harrowing and exploitative and wouldn't have come close to the enjoyment I got from this gentle romance. So if Hans is out there reading what we say about his work... Well done Hans! I for one think you did well.

Des, You are right, prolonging the illness to add verisimilitude is unnecessary. I am more than happy to accept that having achieved all that he had wanted from life the kid just gave up and shut down. That does strike me as entirely plausible. The human frame has a considerable ability to protect itself from suffering. Those thoughts are perfectly reasonable, and your final point that none of them detract from ones ability to enjoy the story entirely accords with my own view that it was an "enjoyable" (wrong word?) story that was competently written and beautifully thought out. I certainly would recommend it...

Des, yes I think that's exactly what I am saying. Nearly everything we write has time compressed or stretched to fit the plot. As dramatic license goes I think he stretched it a bit, but not to an extent that was unacceptable to me. I enjoyed it for the interaction between the characters and for the quandaries and their resolution. He asked some nice questions of how far a friend would go to make a wish happen and resolved them nicely without tear jerking... I dont think that another round of chemo and a month in a hospice would have added much except medical reality.

SPOILER ALERT I'm closer to Lug and Des. I'm inclined to cut him some slack. OK realistically it might only go so well in bed during a remission, but where does the author go then? Another three months or so before the natural emotional ending? No, I think he did fine on that, he needed to shorten the time line and having him die the following day made a better story even if all the palliative nursing specialists in here shout "unreal" in chorus. So, I thought it was nicely handled and as a fantasy version of a sixteen year old's idea for Make a Wish I thought he did just fine. I just hope that he wasn't working his way through some personal "I wish...". So let's be kind guys?

The blessed Stephen Fry revealed on QI last night that according to the Conan Doyle books, Dr Watson ejaculated twice as often as did Sherlock homes... what a man!

You have to marvel at Putin. Here he is attempting to persuade the Ukraine that they would prefer to associate with Russia rather than the European Union, while at the same time giving one in six of the Ukraine's population the very best of reasons for not wanting anything to do with him.