(artwork by Ted Giffin) 

A fragment from within my new book, ‘Notoriously Naked Flames’. This piece is taken from near the beginning of the tale. The picture above, by artist Ted Giffin (www.tedgiffin.com) captures perfectly the look of my heroine as I perceived her. 

EARLY SUMMER 1952 – SUSSEX, ENGLAND

She examines her defenceless giant searchingly as he bathes. He, the one who is a portrayal of rare full-fledged innocence, and wonders if the macrocosm inside his head replicates the one outside of hers. She hopes against hope that locked within exists a rainbow’s multi-coloured arc, or is all this lost upon the extraordinary self, empty of speech, hearing and sight, unaware that gesture is the only language he bestows. Touch and smell his native inside-out lone connection.

She communicates as best she can. Upon his awakening, she is always there. Her ‘hello of sorts’…