Robert Hugill

The following week was all go, in the neatest and most unobtrusive way possible. After asking round at work, Ludo had found a firm of professional movers who came, packed Jackie’s stuff from the garage and transferred it to a rented storage unit. All whilst Damian was at school. Ludo had wandered around the house afterwards and found all sorts of other bits and pieces, which needed taking to the storage, but it had been pretty painless. Except, of course, the message to his work WhatsApp gr

According to the Oxford English dictionary: The earliest known use of the verb titivate is in the early 1700s. OED's earliest evidence for titivate is from 1705, in Wandering Spy. titivate is perhaps formed within English, by blending. Etymons: tidy adj., cultivate v., activate v.

As predicted by the weathermen, Saturday was cold, crisp and clear. In spades. Nolan and his team were braving the weather for the Football Academy and Ralph was joining them on the touch line. Given the amount of running about and sheer exercise that Nolan got out of the young girls, Ralph was pretty sure those of them on the touch line suffered the most from the weather. He stood with Trish and Bree and chatted idly as they watched the girls, drank hot juice and draped a seemingly endless

Because the author rather didn't feel like writing about it???

Ludo woke early and just couldn’t get back to sleep. It had been something of a week; as he tried to persuade sleep to return, all his anxieties about Damian (and Adam), Arthur, the case, Jackie and more whizzed round and round in his head. He was aware that Arthur was absent from the bed and eventually he started to worry about this too. There was no sound of anything like the toilet flushing, in fact no sound at all, bar the usual night-time noises of the estate. Finally, Ludo stuck out a hand

I think that the 'real' Therese is somewhere in between. I am thinking of another Ralph and Nolan story. I stopped at Christmas because it made a nice termination point for that arc of the story, and going further would mean introducing Nolan's parents and their farm. And I have also dug myself into a hole, as if Nolan and Ralph talk the twins to visit Morrie in Gozo, that means going to a place I have never visited. More challenges. So, we'll see. I have the second of Brian and Gordon's stories ready to roll, with Russ' Christmas adventures in Ireland to follow, and have started the merest sketch of Brian & Gordon's third lot of adventures.... Watch this space.

If I have the schedule correct then then Christmas Day (the last episode of this story) is two weeks on Friday!

Christmas comes late this year, as the Ralph story climaxes on Christmas day!

Monday, Ralph had four different updates about the Iverson’s launch, either from Morrie or from his PR people via Beth, each one detailing people picking up on the story. Mostly publications were interested in the new products, thank God. Ralph tried to forget about it, after all, what could they print? The answer was ‘a lot’. The local rag, just about holding onto its existence as a weekly print paper, The Parborough and Huntsford Chronicle, came out on Wednesdays but advanced copies appeared i

Well, I was a close friend of her son, so perhaps that counts too

Hansi is based on a real person. Her full name was Hannelore, but everyone knew her as Hansi. And this Hansi did introduce herself with it, but then she wasn't typical!

It had all happened far quicker than Ludo had expected, and part of him still rebelled at the idea of any sort of contact. But, but, but... Jackie wanted to see Damian. And Damian? Was furious, still, and resentful of the way his Mother had disturbed their settled life. Not that it was settled, of course, Ludo himself had disturbed it too; but the way that Jackie had absented herself for work and for what Ludo still thought of as her and Andreas’ project had left Damian feeling that she had

Plans for Saturday were put into disarray by a message from Morrie, late on Friday. Because the weather was going to be fine tomorrow, he’d decided to give the Old Lady a run. Would Ralph and the twins like to join him? There’d be no room in the car for Nolan, but he’d be busy and commented that he could come home and cook for them in peace. This was said with a grin and Ralph had a quiet panic about how easily domestic they were becoming. So, after an early lunch, the twins dressed in

There will be more from Jackie, shortly!

Ludo (and Arthur) had been trying to explain to Damian and Adam how the British legal system worked, and they hadn’t been doing very well. They didn’t really understand, themselves, but they had to try and explain that committing for trial didn’t mean that Jackie as guilty, just that there was enough evidence to make a trial worthwhile. Ludo happened to be in Frances McSweeney’s office to sign some paperwork and had mentioned his problem to her. Damian had got all anxious, seeing his Mum an

What a lovely thought.

It was the following day, in a client meeting, that Ralph’s phone went off. He’d forgotten to silence it, apologised and got it out to switch it off, thus treating his potential clients to a photograph of Nolan wearing very little. Ralph felt embarrassed, but then heard a voice in his head ‘Own it, honey’, as said by Preston the guy in that first photo shoot. That’s what he’d been telling himself, hadn’t he? “Sorry about that. In case you’re wondering the picture is my boyfriend. We did a p

“Dad, we’re going the wrong way, The Garden’s the other end of the High Street.” Ludo grinned, “Humour me.” Ludo had collected Damian from school at lunchtime. It had proved surprisingly easy to arrange some personal time with him, Ludo had simply contacted the school, and they had seemed amenable. Perhaps they didn’t really know, either, what to do with a lively and intelligent ten-year-old whose Mother had abandoned him, seemingly in a quest for more excitement and money. Instea

It was almost 'risky pictures'

“Well, that seemed to go OK. No major disasters, Edward Hirsch was most professional, and Morrie seemed happy. There wasn’t…” It was the evening of the photoshoot; Ralph was already sitting in bed whilst Nolan got himself ready for bed. The man looked at Ralph oddly. “What?” Nolan gulped, “Morrie patted my bum. Twice.” “Shit. No! When? During the shoot?” “Yeah. I’d wondered whether it was accidental, at first, but his hand lingered.” “Your naked bum?” “Yeah. Bu

“Mr Wilson, fancy seeing you here”. Ludo turned and looked to see who was speaking. He didn’t recognise the voice. There, with a hint of a smile playing on her lips, was Damian’s head teacher, Mrs Winston. She was trimly dressed in blouse and slacks, clearly not slumming it. Ludo had spent Sunday morning working and Arthur had taken the boys out to the Arboretum. They would be back late afternoon, and Ludo had decided to go for a walk to clear his head. He had already got a lot done an

That might come into it some how....

I am afraid @Summerabbacat that it will be some time before we get to Brian, Gordon, Ralph, Nolan et al's lunch at Evie and Drew's. This instalment of the series ends on Christmas Day, but they never find time to fit the meeting in. The next instalment brings Brian & Gordon's tale up to date, with Toby's birthday and the wedding etc. The fourth instalment follows Russ to Ireland for a rather eventful Christmas with his family. I have now started sketching a fifth instalment for Brian, Gordon & co! Also, regarding Christmas, it will be coming late to Parborough. Ralph's tale ends on Christmas Day, but with my current publishing schedule that won't happen until in the New Year. Worth the wait, I hope. Regarding words, most of the language is unconscious, but I am still trying to work out whether I can work my favourite localism in, 'tret' as the past participle of treated, as in 'I tret myself to a large iced bun'

The run up to attending Fitness for All’s open day was all about logistics for Ralph. He finished work early, collected the twins from school as usual then brought them back home where, as quickly as possible, they changed, and he fed them. He wasn’t sure what time they’d get home from the gym, so it was best to be safe than sorry. He was somewhat disconcerted when, after changing out of school uniforms they reappeared in their football kit. They were excited, they were going to see where N

Thanks and you even highlighted a typo too. Oops!