The Birthday Present

By Sarah-Jane Steadman

Collection of quirky shorts, inspired by family, friends and life in general.

Excellent accompaniment to a coffee break

• Language: English
• Publisher: Q G S Publishing
• Release date: Oct 1, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386248347

Sarah-Jane Steadman

Sarah-Jane's father said she was born with an enquiring nature; her mother said she was born just plain nosey. Her three sisters each bought a lock for their bedroom door. Sarah-Jane's first word was "book" and she never looked back. By the age of five she had two ambitions - the first to be a writer and the second to marry the boy next door. She has achieved both. Sarah-Jane still lives in Burslem, with her husband, artist, Ernesto Steadman, their two children, and pets, Ceefer, Deefer and Arfur Rabbit. She writes short stories and quirky poetry. Saah-Jane blogs as "That Burslem Girl" Website: https://thatburslemgirl.wixsite.com/website

Book preview

DEDICATION

For my amazing family.

I could not have written this without you.

A special mention for my supportive sisters,

Lyana, Poppy and Vanilla.

May you continue to inspire me.

INTRODUCTION

The seed of an idea for all these shorts came from real life. Not necessarily my own.

The Birthday Present and Belinda are based on conversations we had with locals we met in a pub, one wet weekend, in Wales.

Most of the others were inspired by members of my family.

I think 'Deefer' is self explanatory!

BELINDA

Jack and I had been best buddies since the first day at Grammar School. My name was Parry and his name was Perry so we were next to each other on the register and shared the desk directly in front of the form master, Mr Chatwin.

I'm Alexander, by the way, but for some unknown reason everyone calls me Zac. We became known as the 'Swot Twins'. I don't recall us ever really doing much swotting, but we were always at the top in most subjects. Jack was good at maths and the more serious subjects and I was always top in English and languages, I also liked