Getting darker - The Dark Closes In

Finding shelter before the oncoming storm

There is a stillness about the air today.  Clouds hang heavy in the sky, low and dominant over the horizon.  There is scarcely a ripple on the surface of the bay and seagulls hang motionless above it, heads cocked, listening.  The silence is ominous, as are the shadows creeping towards the windows at a time of day when normally the sun blazes from the west in a final flourish before it sets.

October is a time of rising storms.  The stifling days of summer have gone, and the torpor that set in during August and September must be dispelled by thunder and lightning, and the ground cleansed by fresh rain.  Here, in Gibraltar, I think we were all gasping for rain, to clean the streets, clear away the flies, freshen the air and reinvigorate us all.  The rain came this afternoon and there is the promise of more to come.  The air feels electric, portentous, the horizon frowning in a purple haze.  There is a sense of ending, of doom and of impending darkness.

The stories are written; a set of tales to make the most of those long evenings when the dark is creeping and the storm is breaking just outside the windows.

"The Dark Closes In" is now available for download from Amazon.  Read in the silence of your favourite place, in the light of candles, in the gloom of a winter's evening, or read out loud to friends over a glass of ale and some honeyed apples.  Above all, enjoy.