by Gerald Bullett read by the Author
Gerald Bullett is a master of the technique of the short story, and in the tale he will read today this mastery is particularly evident. The plot revolves round the tenth birthday of a schoolboy, Stephen, who has set his heart on a torch for a present. He saw it in an ironmonger's shop, a torch with a ' sleek gun-metal body, thick as a broom-stick and eighteen inches long.....
From that moment he had been haunted by his splendid dream. Indeed, but for eleven hours' solid sleep every night, he had known no rest. His schoolwork suffered ; his friends found him absent-minded ; he was in love '. The poignancy of the situation as it develops is expressed with all the skill of which Gerald Bullett is capable.