This story first started buzzin’ in my brain in Sorrento, Italy, in May 2026. I saw a poster for a play titled in Italian which I translated as ‘A Long Romance’. Over these last months I have developed this notion into my own story.

It starts in Shawlands, Glasgow in 1937 at Tantallon Road, a place I remember from the 1950s and 1960s where my Uncle Dan and his family lived in genteel poverty in a spacious red-sandstone flat. He was a draughstman who became a Manager at Weirs of Cathcart. He had a celft palate and was hard to understand.

The tale begins. Two teenagers are separated when the Traynors immigrate to New Zealand. The Traynors are in Auckland and the Fettes are in Glasgow. A six or seven week voyage separates them.

Our young lovers are almost fourteen. I ask you to think of those long ago times when sex was suppressed and pregnancy out of wedlock was feared. However, to imagine that young people were celibate is to live in a fantasy land.

On parting, they pledge undying love and promise to get together again when they are old enough to defy their parents.

Then comes the turmoil of WW2. Despite these difficulties, the memories of both youngsters will not let go.

So, read on, please, to discover what happens in their lives.

As with other recent stories I have self-edited using “Read Aloud” in WORD. If you spot a typo etc, please make your best guess as to what the story intends and read on. As in recent stories I have used Perplexity AI to check facts and to try to give the story contemprary realism.

Thank you for reading me.