The Ironist

Chapter 1 India This is the story of my sister Lakshmi. She is two minutes older than I am.  The story starts on a chilly morning in early January, and we were high up on the ramparts of the great Merangarh Fort. I will never forget the day. That was the day Lakshmi...

  Finding Her Voice   Lou-Ellen Lewis was a quiet girl given to reading. She was not shy, but her reflective disposition discouraged her from revealing her inmost thoughts openly in class. Unlike so many of the other girls, enthusiastic and vital as they tended...

So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly into the past. --F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby I have often wondered why it is that some slight and unremarkable memories remain strongly embedded in our waking consciousness while others...

Yes, I do like to vomit upon the carpet under the piano.  Of course it is much harder to clean there than it is to clean vomit off the linoleum in the kitchen.  Why else would I do there – if not to make them get on their hands and knees?  It is obvious that the...

(A Children’s Story for Grown-Ups) Editor’s note:  The Pendulum has already swung back to defend Enid Blyton's Noddy books from charges of racism and of excessive insensitivity to such human afflictions as having large ears.  See the Independent...