Fireworks and Bonfires, and a new start

Less Than Angels by Barbara Pym published 1955 [excerpt] As they got out of the bus and walked along the road, they heard a number of explosions, some in the distance, others startlingly near, and once the night sky was illuminated by a rocket which broke in a shower of green and golden stars. There was a smell of gunpowder in the cool frosty air. ‘Why, it’s Guy Fawkes night,’ said Miss Clovis, ‘what fun!’ …They ventured further into the garden, then stopped in the middle of the lawn to gasp at the sight that met their eyes. A large bonfire of sticks and garden rubbish was blazing beyond the vegetable patch. Two figures, a tall man and a small woman, were poking at it vigorously with long sticks, pausing from time to time to throw on to it bundles of paper which they were taking from a tin trunk which stood on the ground nearby. ‘Alaric, what are you doing?’ Miss Lydgate’s voice had now risen to a screech. ‘Why, hullo, Gertrude,’ he said, ‘we’re having a bonfire.’ ‘Yes,’ said…

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