The Portobello Road (Masterplots II: Short Story Series, Revised Edition)
At a glance:
- Author: Muriel Sarah Camberg
- First Published: 1958
- Type of Plot: Ghost story
- Time of Work: 1930-1950
- Setting: London, rural Great Britain, and the British colonies in Africa
- Principal Characters: Needle, Kathleen, John (Skinny), George
- Genres: Short fiction, Ghost story
- Subjects: Values, Love or romance, Interracial relationships, Religion, Catholics or Catholic Church, Life and death
The Story
This episodic story begins with an account of how Needle got her unusual nickname: by reaching into a haystack on which she and her friends, George, Kathleen, and John, were playing and accidentally impaling the fleshy part of her thumb with a needle that lay hidden in the hay. After some minor first aid, George marks the occasion by taking a photograph, which serves throughout the story as a memento of the youthful friendship that these people shared—a friendship that survives, although in modified form, through a lengthy period of change as they mature.
As...
[The entire page is 1631 words long]
