Steve's Books

When Mercedes has to leave her beloved Napoli to stay with her English cousin she is less than happy about it. First of all there is the weather... “ I am not looking forward to staying in England, it is always raining. At home in Napoli the sun is still shining and I wish I was there. But Papa, dear Papa, has decided I must come to this miserable little island and stay with my English cousin for six weeks” … and then there are the English... “ I wonder what my cousin Lydia will be like, I expect she will be boring, English girls are not allowed to have fun. They probably don"t even know how. ” Enter Lydia's fiance, Henry, and his friend James: “ Henry is tall, dark and handsome in an English sort of way and, surprisingly, he has a spark of life about him but I notice that he is not alone: there is another young man slightly behind him. He is as blonde as Henry is dark. He seems nervous. ” Mix all four together at a summer ball in a country hous...

Communication between the generations has always had its problems: “ Darren shows me the screen of his mobile phone and after squinting at it for some time, both with my glasses on and then off, I make out the following: C U LTR @ JX “ Cultrajux?” I venture. “ No Nan, it says `see you later at Jack`s`” “ It does?” I say, in genuine astonishment. He then goes on to explain all about text messaging and how leaving out the vowels makes it quicker. I don`t have the heart to tell him that speedwriting has been around for decades.” And as for mobile phones when you get to a certain age when your eyes aren't so sharp and your fingers less nimble than they used to be: “ I finally get the phone to a position where I can `dial` the number but the buttons are so small that it takes me an eternity to press each one. I daren`t make a mistake, each time you press a number it comes up on the screen and I`ve no idea how you rub them out if you go wrong. At ...