CRISPIN RODWELL/REX FEATURES; THE TIMES; MAGALI DELPORTE


MAEVE BINCHY


I have always loved Susie, since the very first day we met. She invited me into her home and gave me somewhere to live. I tried to make life easier for her but there was always this language problem. How could I find the words in any language to tell her what everyone knew? That her husband Rob was unfaithful to her. I knew he was there in their bed with her best friend. I begged her not to go in. Did she listen to my appeal?


No. She just patted me on the head. “Silly little cat,” she said.


▪ Maeve Binchy has sold 45 million books worldwide. Minding Frankie is published by Orion Books at £18.99.


NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE


Muttering to himself in the Cafe Sperl, an old Viennese—not a tramp but an obvious loner—flinches from human contact. Once, this cracked, dishevelled figure was a precociously gifted artist and the youngest professor at the Academy.


There, many years before, he had


interviewed a student from Linz. He gained the impression that to be accepted would alter this young man’s life radically. But the paintings were no good.


The student, despairing at his rejection, came to plead with him.


The professor was almost willing to make a special case, but had said no—and Adolf Hitler went away. ▪ Nicholas Shakespeare is a Fellow of The Royal Society of Literature. His latest novel, Inheritance, is published by Harvill Secker at £12.99.


* Entry is open to residents of the UK, Channel Islands, Isle of Man and Republic of Ireland aged 18 or over. It is not open to employees of The Reader’s Digest Association Ltd or any other persons associated with the competition. The editor’s decision is final.


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