The Magic Pen

By Trev Edwards

The old lady has lived on her own for as long as she can remember. She enjoys her own company, watching the fire dance and drawing with her special pen.

Her quiet solitude was broken by drastic banging, the likes of which she has never heard before. Nobody ever knocks on her door. Well, perhaps once, but never twice, and only for good reason.

The banging started again. There is a determination in this hammering on her door. Could this be the grim reaper hoping to find the old lady dressed and ready for him?

Nobody else is brave enough to touch that knocker.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Jan 4, 2022
• ISBN: 9781398438569

Trev Edwards

Trev left school in 1954, aged 15. He took an apprenticeship while working for a large manufacturing goldsmiths in the famous Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, UK. Working besides some of the finest craftsmen, Trev soon developed his skills and became a great goldsmith. 17 years ago Trev retired and took up scuba diving, at the same time he started teaching his jewellery skills at Worcester College. He started writing about animals when he returned from a military exercise in Kenya. The Magic Pen is his first story to be published.

Book preview

The Magic Pen

Trev Edwards

Austin Macauley Publishers

The Magic Pen

About the Author

Copyright Information ©

Acknowledgements

About the Author

Trev left school in 1954, aged 15. He took an apprenticeship while working for a large manufacturing goldsmiths in the famous Jewellery Quarter in Birmingham, UK. Working besides some of the finest craftsmen, Trev soon developed his skills and became a great goldsmith.

17 years ago Trev retired and took up scuba diving, at the same time he started teaching his jewellery skills at Worcester College.

He started writing about animals when he returned from a military exercise in Kenya. The Magic Pen is his first story to be published.

Copyright Information ©

Trev Edwards 2022

The right of Trev Edwards to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by the author in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.

Any person who commits any unauthorised act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.

ISBN 9781398438552 (Paperback)

ISBN 9781398438569 (ePub e-book)

www.austinmacauley.com

First Published 2022

Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd®

1 Canada Square

Canary Wharf

London

E14 5AA

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank my friend, Sandy, for the incredible illustrations she provided for my book.

The earth shook when a huge crash sent debris flying through the air, smashed up wood splinters and pieces of hot metal flattening everything in sight. There was carnage all around. Soldiers lay crying in pain, two beautiful horses dying from the blast, they were tangled up with burning ropes, leather straps and what was left of a huge cannon.

The year was 1646 and this was the fifth and final year of the English civil war, all but a few cannons had stopped firing their deadly shots. The Royalist last stand of 65 days was finally defeated in July of that year. As if there had not been enough killing over the past five years, a Mister Matthew Hunt had started accusing many women of witchcraft, anyone suspected of witchcraft had to undergo a test of being dragged and pushed through the streets screaming their innocence, some were tied to a dunking chair on the end of a thick pole erected at the side of a duck pond, then plunged into the pond, if they came up still breathing they were witches, if the woman drowned she was most probably innocent, but she had died not being a witch, not much of a gamble really.

Another test to see if you were witch was to have molten lead pored over their hands, if the skin burned they were found guilty and were killed in a variety of horrible ways.

Some women who may well have been witches discovered that by scrubbing their hands spotlessly clean, and leaving them wet just before molten lead was poured over them, this had an unusual effect of causing the molten lead to run from their hands without burning. DON'T TRY THIS AT HOME.

The last person to be executed in England for witchcraft was at Huntingdon in 1682.

One of the people suspected of witchcraft and wizardry was a war veteran, who had served his country with distinction, according to documents held in the underground secret vaults. Instead of being convicted as a wizard, he had been