letters

SILENCE, PLEASE

he silence on our first night on our plot was absolute. We lay awake listening to it, waiting to hear… something, anything. After the sirens, barking dogs, revved car engines and domestic arguments between uncomfortably close neighbours, this almost palpable silence was decidedly disconcerting. Our discomfort did not last long, however, as we swiftly acclimatised. The silence, far from silent, soon became filled with the cries of nightjars, the croaks of frogs, the soft ‘hoo!’ of owls and the yelping of black-backed jackals. The absence of neighbours, although initially odd, soon became a joy. From my bed I could watch the dark night skies filled with piercingly bright stars and in my inept way