Excerpts from 'Orange Sound'...

...She gazed out onto the snow-covered hills



...Nok Hume walked over to the patio doors in Elsie Crawford’s cottage and pushed her face against the cold glass. She gazed out onto the snow-covered hills behind the cottage. In the rapidly failing light of late afternoon, the view resembled that of the landscape of an alien planet whose desolate surface was sparingly warmed by a dim and distant sun. Up until a few days ago, she had never encountered snow first hand, though she had long wanted to do so. And now it enveloped and even seemed to define the world in which she found herself. Everything was all so very strange.

...Silhouetted like mythical creatures in a Balinese shadow play



...Guided only by the moonlight that flooded into the bedroom, he struggled to quickly pull on the clothing that lay folded over the chair by the side of his bed. His bedside lamp remained deliberately switched off. Then he heard the sound again. It resembled a muffled metallic clank. Something was happening to the bell on Wet Rain Hill. The first time he had heard the sound, he had dismissed it as a figment of his imagination. But now he was sure it wasn’t. Once he was sufficiently dressed, he drew back the curtains on his dormer bedroom, and looked out into the night towards Bell Hollow. Silhouetted like mythical creatures in a Balinese shadow play, he saw them moving on Wet Rain Hill; they were carrying the church bell.

...where at some point decided by man, England meets Scotland



Lying on Menzies’s Hill, approximately two miles south of the village, is a deserted and derelict dry stone shepherd’s hut, referred to accordingly as Menzie’s Hut. The eponymous Menzie was a local shepherd who, slightly more than a century ago, tended his sheep on the surrounding hills. Menzie apparently went mad and abandoned his home and possessions, including the sheep in his charge, and fled the area never to be seen again. And such was the impact on the local imagination of the shepherd’s abrupt and mysterious departure that the old name of the hill, Scaly Peak, was forgotten and the hill renamed after him. From the top of Menzie’s Hill, looking northwards, the village of Wet Rain Hill stands out against the backdrop of the Cheviot Hills where at some point decided by man England meets Scotland.

...even Mr Somchai Tantaratana was allowing himself the luxury of something approaching a smile



On this evening, however, even Mr Somchai Tantaratana was allowing himself the luxury of something approaching a smile. His seat was facing the stage where the Filipino group was about to perform. Like many of the other Thais in the pub, Somchai Tantaratana was rather fascinated by the attractive female Filipino singer. Partly, this was because in many respects she looked quite similar to a Thai lady. It was only when she spoke English with a characteristic Filipino accent, Hispanic-sounding and quite distinct from the singsong tonal Thai rendition of the language, that any doubt could be removed.