Tales from Crete
A collection of contemporary short stories related to Greek myths.
My Aphrodite
A band of children emerge, seemingly from nowhere, onto a Cretan quayside as dusk falls. Why are they there? And are they all children?
One of them catches the eye of the narrator, a dealer in antiquities. What is it about this chance encounter that leads him to pursue a vision of his own down the unlit web of ancient alleyways behind the quay? And what awaits him there . . .
The Sun Dog
Two children play an intensely charged game in a remote farmhouse on the Kent marshes. Johnnie, the middle-class educated boy, left there by his pleasure-loving mother, and Laura the wild card, unconstrained in her actions. It is the 1950s.
It is from this point in time that Johnny and Laura’s lives remain intertwined, despite his wish to put Laura behind him as he develops a career in science.
What is the significance of the one-eyed totemic figure they found as children that day out on the marsh? And what influence over events does it still exert? Who were its owners and how do their stories, down from the Viking period, mirror events of the present?
From England to California to Hong Kong, to his eventual retreat to the original Kent farmhouse, Johnnie’s link with Laura, and ultimate recognition of her significance in his life, awaits him – as does the totemic figure . . .
Judithmeadows 