by H.E. Bates
'She had married late; her sons were nine and 13. She saw them realising refined ambitions, making their way as assistants in shops, as clerks in offices, even as butlers. She had saved money for them. For 15 years she had hoarded the scrubbing and washing money, keeping it in a brown bag under the mattress in the back bedroom.'
In the fourth of seven readings related to the preceding Bookshelf programme, Joss Ackland reads this moving story of a country woman whose world collapses the afternoon her husband discovers her hidden savings.
Producer JOHN KNIGHT
(Joss Ackland is in Moonshine ... at 11.15 pm)