Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Wessex Tales: "A Short Walk in France" (Story 30)
    Wessex Tales: "A Short Walk in France" (Story 30)
    Wessex Tales: "A Short Walk in France" (Story 30)
    Ebook35 pages27 minutes

    Wessex Tales: "A Short Walk in France" (Story 30)

    By Robert Fripp

    ()

    Read preview

    About this ebook

    Friday September 15th, 1916. Just before dawn a young soldier from Okeford goes over the top, advancing into enemy machine gun fire. It's the first day of the second battle of the Somme.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRobert Fripp
    Release dateMar 21, 2013
    ISBN9780991857562
    Wessex Tales: "A Short Walk in France" (Story 30)
    Author

    Robert Fripp

    Nature, wildlife and public affairs television, earth sciences, gothic vaults and liturgy: Robert Fripp’s fiction and non-fiction share many slices of life. § Here, Fripp introduces his 38 “Wessex Tales” stories. Thomas Hardy used that title over a century ago. Fripp moves it forward with a new collection of “Wessex Tales” covering “Eight thousand years in the life of an English village.” § First come Stone Age hunters. Then villagers discover a new “stone,” bronze. Locals build Stonehenge. A Roman mosaic depicts Jesus. We advance: from Viking raiders to potions for maidens, a medieval wedding, civil war, smugglers, and the second battle of the Somme. § Smashwords releases several stories, here. Read them—free, for a time—choosing a format for your Kindle, Nook, iPad, Mac, PC, iPhone (via Stanza), Sony, Kobo and Androids. All 38 “Wessex Tales” stories will come alive in paperback within two years.

    Read more from Robert Fripp

    Related to Wessex Tales

    Related ebooks

    Historical Fiction For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Letters

      Feb 16, 2023

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Feb 16, 2023

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Aug 25, 2021

      Readers’ Letters
      4 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Sep 21, 2022

      Readers’ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Reader's Letter

      May 31, 2023

      SIR: I was astonished to read (Spring issue) that Hunter Davies believes he may be the only person left in the UK who has milk delivered in glass bottles every morning. Oop ’ere in t’north, we have milk delivered in this way. We also have Ringtons Te

      6 min read

    • Article

      Readersʼ Letters

      Jul 27, 2022

      Readersʼ Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Finding Facts In Fiction

      Mar 12, 2021

      Finding Facts In Fiction
      10 min read

    • Article

      Letters To The Editor

      Apr 18, 2024

      Letters To The Editor
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Best Books Of The Year

      Dec 13, 2023

      The Best Books Of The Year
      8 min read

    • Article

      Troubled Waters

      Nov 9, 2023

      THIS MIGHT be the Christmas issue but I’m feeling anything but festive. Instead, I am in mourning for the end of the fishing season and the knowledge that it will be six long months before I’m back on the bank. That said, one summer memory brings a s

      6 min read

    • Article

      Time Traveller

      May 26, 2022

      Time Traveller
      4 min read

    • Article

      Readers’ Letters

      Dec 13, 2023

      SIR: I found Dunphy's cartoon about incompatible typefaces (November issue) most amusing, not least because it reminded me of a verse I wrote during a few moments of boredom in a meeting at which typefaces suitable for exhibition posters were being d

      3 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Jun 20, 2019

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Dec 15, 2022

      Letters
      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Sep 28, 2022

      I read with interest your article (News, 24 August) about the increasing numbers of Scottish rivers moving to a catch-and-release policy. While this is to be applauded, it is not the answer. I have been fortunate to have fished the Royal Dee for 15 y

      4 min read

    • Article

      From Surtees, To Spectres

      Dec 7, 2023

      From Surtees, To Spectres
      6 min read

    • Article

      The Old Un’s Notes

      Jul 27, 2022

      The Old Un’s Notes
      4 min read

    • Article

      Tales Of Life, Light And Laughter

      Nov 10, 2022

      With the advent of the Christ Child’s birth upon us, it hardly seems appropriate to be recommending these memoirs so wholeheartedly. Great swathes are really quite naughty: we have a frank account of sex in a Parisian porn shop as well as details of

      3 min read

    • Article

      Give Voice To A Golden Age

      Mar 3, 2021

      Imagine a grand English manor house in the halcyon sporting days of the 1900s on a misty autumn morning — the bright scarlet coats of hunt staff jarring to sleepy eyes beneath heavy clouds. Impatient horses are being saddled, and hounds are scurrying

      5 min read

    • Article

      1940s Notebook

      May 4, 2022

      UNSURPRISINGLY, the pages of COUNTRY LIFE were overshadowed by war and austerity during this decade. Although there was less reporting of actual warfare than during the First World War, much space was devoted to the Home Front and encouraging debate

      4 min read

    • Article

      Two Bucks Before Breakfast

      Aug 2, 2023

      Two Bucks Before Breakfast
      5 min read

    • Article

      The Modest Man

      Oct 17, 2019

      The Modest Man
      5 min read

    • Article

      A Warning To The Fortean

      Jul 14, 2022

      A Warning To The Fortean
      9 min read

    • Article

      Around The World In 100 Plants

      Oct 26, 2022

      Simon Barnes (Simon & Schuster, £30) WE have become used, in recent years, to the convention of 100 short essays as a means of raising the reader’s eyebrows and setting away a never-ending series of big ideas from the starting point of an everyday o

      5 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Nov 14, 2019

      I usually enjoy reading contributions from Mike Yardley. He is informative and knowledgable on most shooting matters. He is also a gifted and eloquent defender of shooting on the radio and television. However, I feel I must take issue with him over h

      6 min read

    • Article

      Letters

      Aug 13, 2020

      Write to: The Editor, The Field, Pinehurst II, Pinehurst Road, Farnborough Business Park, Farnborough, Hampshire GU14 7BF. Email: field.secretary@futurenet.com LETTERS MAY BE EDITED FOR CLARITY OR SPACE Dr Hannah Clark’s article was excellent [Huntin

      7 min read

    • Article

      Gem

      Apr 27, 2020

      Gem
      7 min read

    • Article

      A Round-up Of The Latest BOOKS

      Nov 12, 2021

      BY NICHOLAS MONSARATT OK, nothing to do with sailing but an awful lot to do with the sea. This is a book that focuses on the vicious Battle of the Atlantic during WWII when the British Navy desperately tried to keep the supply line between the US and

      7 min read

    Related categories

    Reviews for Wessex Tales

    0 ratings

    0 ratings0 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

      Book preview

      Wessex Tales - Robert Fripp

      This is one among 38 stories in the collection

      ~ WESSEX TALES ~

      Eight thousand years in the life of an English village

      ‘ A Short Walk in France ’

      (Story 29 of 38)

      Robert Fripp

      Copyright Robert Fripp 2013

      Smashwords Edition

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      Thank you for downloading this e-story. It will be free to readers until June 2013. However, it remains the copyrighted property of the author, Robert Fripp, who reserves all rights. This e-story may not be reproduced, copied or distributed for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoy it, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from Smashwords.com, where they will find more of my stories.

      ISBN: 978-0-9918575-6-2

      To help you locate my e-stories

      use one or more of these Search Terms:

      Best option > Smashwords:Fripp

      Second best > Wessex_Tales:Fripp

      Third > Smashwords:Wessex_Tales

      Thank you for supporting me.

      Cover

      First World War ‘Official Photographs’ (51) D.1154

      Photo: John Warwick Brooks and Ernest Brooks,

      National Library of Scotland

      Permanent URL: http://digital.nls.uk/74548222

      Creative Commons License CC BY-NC-SA

      Cover design by The Design Unit,

      www.thedesignunit.com

      Table of Contents

      A Short Walk in France

      Chapter 2

      Chapter 3

      Endnotes

      The Author’s Note

      Books by Robert Fripp

      Reach me Online

      A List of my Stories

      ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

      ~ WESSEX TALES ~

      ‘ A Short Walk in France ’

      "There died a myriad

      And of the best, among them…

      For an old bitch gone in the teeth,

      
For a botched civilization…"

      Ezra Pound

      "These fought in any case"

      It was early September, 1916, when Jack Okeford and his regiment scraped off the mud of trenches near Arras and marched south, smiling in their hearts for the glorious summer afforded by French countryside. For one brief interlude this might have been a time of tranquil peace; they saw little of war on the open road. It was, as one old combatant described it, seventy-three years later: A heaven of green fields, with friendly people living in peaceful villages under quiet skies. For a week and a bit they marched, knowing but the calm of vagabonds caught up between blue sky above, bright-costumed peasants in green fields below, a glass of wine or two, the comradeship of others each with other loves, the same fears—and peace. But always, from the south,

      Enjoying the preview?
      Page 1 of 1