by Ashley Roden | Aug 11, 2008 | Stories
Whilst browsing the other day, my butterfly mind wandered to the History of that beautiful city of Winchester where I once lived, I remember the old bridge over a minor road on the outskirts of the town which was known locally as “Spitfire Bridge”. Apparently on one...
by Ashley Roden | Aug 1, 2008 | Stories
My host smiled as she handed me the bottle, ”Treat it with respect, use it as a medicine, not just for pleasure”, her words spoken in the strong earnest manner of the French farming community of the Calvados region of France. It transpired that this was one of the few...
by Ashley Roden | Jul 31, 2008 | Stories
Standing on the beach on the French coast at Dunkirk, dirty, hungry and totally exhausted, being alternately machine gunned by German aeroplanes and shelled by German Artillery, in that part of the war in 1940 when all seemed lost, I was completely unaware that I...
by Ashley Roden | Jul 30, 2008 | Stories
All day the sounds of gunfire, exploding shells, screaming planes, chattering machine guns, exploding bombs – all causing death and destruction. Long lines of soldiers leaving the flimsy safety of the sand dunes, the lucky ones boarding boats, and being rowed...
by Ashley Roden | Jul 30, 2008 | Stories
For more than seventy years, I have kept secret my faith in that beautiful tree, and in all that time it has never failed me. In times of great stress, and sometimes great danger, I simply climb up into its branches, letting my mind absorb its magic, and I know I am...
