The Best 50p I ever did spend!

More than 43 years ago, when my children were small, I went to a village hall auction in Essex for some good cause and on a whim bought an old desk for 50p. No one else wanted it and my husband complained it would take three men to move it down the road, and where would it go in the house anyway?

Now the desk has been my silent companion for all my eight books including the latest: Tamarisk: Love and War in France which I actually began at that desk just after it arrived in my very first little study. I can picture myself sitting there in the beginning in our old weather-boarded cottage in Essex, and in those precious few hours, while children slept or were at school, Mr Mullet Owns a Cloud, my first children’s book, was begun and somehow I also somehow found time to go up to London to the Imperial War Museum to begin the research for Tamarisk.

Now the desk looks out towards the Solway Plain. We are blessed with evening light over the garden. This desk, where I am sitting now, looking out at the trees, has been my friend for all those years and in so many moves it had brought stability and comfort. In its drawers are handwritten books of poems, faded cuttings, photographs of my family and special cards from friends and writing students. So many words written by me on so many computers and still my faithful 50p desk bears witness.

A big thank you to my desk! I will try to keep you tidier! Angela Locke