Escape From Shangri-La: Part 3

By MICHAEL MORPURGO, Illustrator IAN ANDREW

And what's wrong with tramps, then?' I said. 'I thought you said it was a free world.'

'Free-ish, Cessie dear, only free-ish.' And she leant across me and closed the curtains. 'There, now he can look at the back of our William Morris lily pattern to his heart's content, and we don't have to look at him any more, do we?' She smiled her ever so knowing smile at me. 'Do you think I was born yesterday, Cessie Stevens? Do you think I don't know what this is all about? It's the "p" word, isn't it?Pro...cras...tin...ation.'

She was right of course. She enunciated it excruciatingly slowly, deliberately teasing the word out for greatest effect. She was expert at it. My mother wasn't a teacher for nothing.

'Violin practice, Cessie. First you said you'd do it this morning, then you were going to do it this afternoon. And now it's already this evening and you still haven't done it, have you?'

Publisher: Mammoth

Price: $14.95

Age group: 10 plus years