After Markham Square

You may be reading this because you saw the ruined door of my house on television … or because you have seen my name connected with this tragedy … or because you have heard rumours and wonder if they are true.

What I know is that on Tuesday May 6th there was a stand off between the police and an armed man who shot into the gardens of neighbours in my street from his flat in Markham Square. It went on for five hours, involving police negotiators and all the emergency services, including a helicopter. I was away at the time of the first gunshot and by 6.30pm could not get closer to my street than the cordon beyond which the police had placed people for safety. In spite of these efforts, in the end the worst happened. A man died.

So many people have contacted me since, that I am overwhelmed. So this is to let you know that, after four nights as a displaced person while my house was off limits as a crime scene, I am back home. I spent the first day clearing up broken glass and the ruins of the front door. It does not feel mine again yet, but I am hopeful that it will in time.

The real blessing from my point of view is that I found the cat. He was traumatised and dehydrated but alive. Having spent two nights at a Feline Rehabilitation Suite (kind friends' spare room, with furniture to duck behind when there were heavy footsteps on the stairs) he is now putting his best paw forward and has even purred a couple of times. I expect him to bounce back entirely, eventually.

Meanwhile, I wanted to say thank you to everyone for your fellowship which has amazed, humbled and sustained me:

• friends who gave me beds and wine and a shoulder to cry on (you know who you are)
• MJ who shopped for clean clothes with me when I could barely focus
• friends who called and offered beds and so much else besides, including encouragement and practical advice
• neighbours (some of whom I barely knew, many of whom were looking out for the cat when I thought he was lost)
• the shops on the corner of Bywater Street: Paul the bakers, who gave so many of us coffee and buns and a place to sit down; Penhaligons, the purveyor of swish fragrances, who came into the street to offer us coffee and kindness
• a number of police men and women on duty at my house who were more understanding than I probably had any right to expect
• old friends, who emailed from a distance of years to check that I was okay
• colleagues who have sent me messages
• readers who have emailed me in concern
• friends of friends who offered help … the circle widens and widens

My thoughts and deepest sympathy are with the family of the dead man; and also with my neighbours who were fired at and are traumatised; and with the policemen who shot a fellow human being and have to live with that for ever, now.

Above all, I do not believe that this is a matter of good guys and bad guys. It is simply a cause of great sadness. May we comfort one another.

Jenny

Jenny Haddon is Chairman of the Romantic Novelists’ Association. [www.rna-uk.org] She experiments with all sorts of different styles and genres but she is pretty consistently optimistic. Which is another way of saying she can’t bear to give her characters an unhappy ending.

She thinks that a society that is ashamed of romance is a society in trouble. [see page two] She believes in friendship and P G Wodehouse.

JH is also the person behind author Sophie Weston.

Sophie Weston writes Tender Romance for Harlequin Mills & Boon. Her books are published in over 100 international outlets and 24 languages, the last time she counted.

Basically an optimist too, she says that however grounded and successful you think you are, falling in love guarantees pain, anxiety and serious embarrassment - and that’s what her books are about. It’s only the last few pages that make it all come right.

Sophie believes in music, moonlight and make up, lashings of it.