A Dream of John Ball; and, A King's Lesson

In this gently whimsical tale, a restless narrator drifts between night‑time reveries of ancient churches, medieval towns and layered English country houses, each vision rendered with vivid, almost tactile detail. The dream‑like wanderings reveal a love for history’s architecture, as the protagonist imagines Elizabethan manor walls standing beside crumbling Norman doorways, all set against the soft backdrop of Sussex woods and Wiltshire meadows.

When the dream dissolves, the narrator awakens on a quiet roadside beside a lone oak, surrounded by patchwork fields, orchards heavy with ripening apples, and a surprisingly modern white spire that seems both out of place and unmistakably English. The surrounding landscape, with its neat hedges, rose‑bushes and the scent of poppies, invites curiosity about who built this elegant tower and why it watches over such simple, timeless countryside. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn into a contemplative exploration of place, memory, and the thin line between imagination and reality.