Author: Tessa Calvert

March, 1957, St Albans, Hertfordshire It was an imposing building with a posh past. The ceilings were very high and there was a grand and sweeping staircase I loved walking down, pretending to be a princess. The mansion had a mysterious number of rooms and my mother and I occupied the far end of one… Continue reading Neither Here nor There →

Paris, 1968 The girl stood on a bridge over the Seine, her heart broken by her first love, an art student from Brittany who'd dumped her for a more experienced American au-pair. There was no wish to throw herself into the water, like so many did every year - she was too numb for that.… Continue reading The Scarf →

Lichfield, Staffordshire. November, 2022 I dressed in sober clothes, as if for a funeral, which in a way it was, then made my way to the cathedral - to find it alight with candles and full of people, all there for an extraordinary event: the Reception of a Relic of St Chad, a fragment of… Continue reading The Relic →

Lichfield, Staffordshire. Spring, 2022 A walk around Stowe pool, a beauty spot with residential ducks, visiting geese and a profusion of plants growing near the water. I paused on the path, my attention caught by some wildflowers. Which were actually weeds: dead nettles, so-called because they do not sting, with heart-shaped, saw-toothed leaves and little… Continue reading The Importance of Pink →

Loreto College, St Albans, Hertfordshire, England - once a private convent school, now a comprehensive - celebrates its centenary this year. 'Old girls' were invited to send in stories of their experience. I was a pupil there from the age of 11 to 18; this is a memoir from around 1958. We were in the… Continue reading The Biology Lesson →

January, 2022. A bistro in Lichfield, England The friend I'd met for lunch stopped mid-sandwich and frowned across the table. 'Why are you making that face?' The answer was what lay beneath my slice of quiche, which had tasted fine at first then took on a rather strange texture. Which turned out to be a… Continue reading Paper →

Wetherby, Yorkshire, 2002 On the threshold of The Treasure Chest, I hesitated; a jewellery shop's not one to be entered lightly. a bell signalled our arrival and a man in black, who looked like an undertaker, came out of the back and studied us for a moment. Hardly love's young dream, we weren't golden wedding… Continue reading The Eternity Ring →

Wigan, May, 2021 I was wandering around the town centre when the pavement suddenly seemed much harder, which wasn't surprising, because my right shoe had collapsed, only the inner sole holding it together - and the left one wouldn't last long. They were a very old, much-mended pair of wedges, kept because so comfortable. I… Continue reading The Shoe →

Dinner on the Nile, 2010 The ship was cruising slowly past the banks of the ancient river. The other diners at our table were joking about the limited wine list - Pharoah red or white - when my partner's face changed shape, he made a strange guttural sound and clutched his napkin to his mouth… Continue reading Teeth →

It's hardly an obsession. She's only one of several dead women of destiny in my library - the face of five paperbacks, the biographies, and a hardcover about the Windsor style. I have a small collection of articles about her too, because whenever her name or image appears in print or on-screen, it gets my… Continue reading Wallis – a memento →