Weed Killers of Three Million AD

A short story I wrote at the age of ten. Well, I say wrote, but in fact (in eerie foreshadowing of my maturer struggles with finishing projects and love of peripherals) what I actually wrote was…

the contents page

Chapter 1 – The Exam Day

— “— 2 – The Kidnapping

—“— 3 – Weedkillers

—“— 4 – Design & Making

—“— 5 – The Last Stand of Base 2?

the opening page of chapter 1

THE EXAM DAY!

Chapter 1.

Saturday is the worst day of the week and this one was really bad. It was the day of my entrance exam to King Edwards School. I was eating my breakfast and reading a comic and I needed some more milk. “Pass the milk Dad,” I said with my mouth full. He put his paper down to pass the milk and it was then that I saw the Headlines….

the back-cover blurb, on the back cover of the little notebook I had commandeered…

A boy goes to an exam and is taken 3,000,000yrs into the future. The humans want him to design a weapon to destroy plants which have evolved into Giants.

Can he do it before they make a mazzive raid on the Base?

Will his weedkiller weapons work?

FIND! OUT! BY! READING! THIS! BOOK!!!

UK - £1.50

NZ - $5.50

Notice the happy acceptance of evolution! Must have been in my unreflective phase before I went to that seminar by creationists ;-)

Notice also the dodgy punctuation inside the speech marks! How I dislike that now.

Cambridge Competitive Music Festival

Crumbled a few years ago through lack of interest, entrants, will, whatever...  :-(

But some enterprising veterans organised it afresh this year, and hundreds of people entered! A couple of my students won their piano classes, which was nice, considering the quality of the opposition, and I was hired to be the accompanist for difficult pieces (Rach cello sonata, Brahms C minor Scherzo, etc) at the prizewinners' concert last Wednesday. Which was a great honour. There were some truly delightful performances, lots of young talent, and a real sense of fun and enjoyment about the evening. Even though it went on for three and a half hours!

Several performances made my spine tingle: Shostakovich Piano Trio (1st mvt) by a group of VI formers; Bohm's virtuosic Introduction and Polonaise by a very young violinist; Swavesey Village College St Cecilia Choir in an arrangement of Danny Boy... but all 31 items were satisfying.

It is very encouraging for the state of classical/folk/stage music in the UK to see something like this. And from the front row, too!