"Hark! Hark! the dogs do bark / The beggars are coming to town" by Julia Jones
At the time of the incident the rather smart extractor fan on the r.h. side had not been installed. There was only the rusty chimney. Enough to place it instantly beyond the pale? Our son, Bertie, is very slowly converting a white LWB (long wheel base) Ford Transit van into a mobile home so that he can go travelling. He plans to go first to the Scottish highlands and islands and then explore further afield. It’s a very slow process because he has to earn the money for each new modification, and live meanwhile. We'd like to help but his challenge is to do it himself -- and anyway neither of us is mechanically skilled. The most helpful people are two of his former school friends. Bertie has always always got on well with these two lads, though he was shocked at the abuse and racial prejudice they encountered when they were all at school together. That's because they're Travellers. At school (in Essex) they were usually described as pikeys. You could think this was ...