Rambles on the Edge. Wendy Maitland

can wear ear muffs,’ I told him, ‘and allow Muz the liberty of enjoying her one pleasure while you are indulging yours sitting in that chair all day.’ He looked up from his book with a baleful glare. ‘Don’t be ridiculous,’ he said.

      The one big success of this visit was the pleasure that Louise and Muz had in being together again, with relief for all of us in the London surgeon’s assurance that Louise’s condition (which a few years before would have been fatal for most children) could be cured by a relatively new surgical procedure. He would not do this himself he told us, and explained: ‘You have an outstanding surgeon, Mr Honey, right there in Salisbury where you live. I should know, I taught him myself. You can have complete confidence in Mr Honey. I will give you a letter for him, with my compliments.’

      When Fa heard about our visit with its medical and surgical implications, he hurried down from Herefordshire where he and Babs now lived since returning to England to look after her elderly parents. A bed was found for him at Ros and Gary’s tiny flat and we all squeezed in after leaving Muz and Andy to resume their mundane lives in the rickety cottage. ‘Like two hamsters in a biscuit tin,’ Ros remarked.