Beginnings No. 6 Johann Brindle-Thomas 25th May

Johann Brindle-Thomas spat - right into the face of the astonished waiter and let out a stream of expletives, so rude, violent and imaginative that even he recoiled at hearing them. It was as if he had become Captain Haddock, Tintin's adventurous friend, but taken over by spirits and not the nice ones!

Johann was a mild person, whom everyone liked immediately, sometimes even before he had said a word, yet here he was at Bar Boulud with le toute Knightsbridge watching ripping into a charming waiter, because he had been served fish with no fish knives - and he hated fish, being carnivorous from birth.

Emily sat beside him, quivering with stress as it was as if the person she knew, loved, shared a bed with and a love of the Greek classics was now Jason from Friday 13th. Suddenly she shuddered as  a memory swam back into view of this Autumn when they had camped by the very spot on Camp Crystal lake where the film had been shot and Johann, hmmm his name begins with a J she thought, whilst still being the mild and lovely person that he was, had on several occasions said some slightly off colour things, as she ate fish from the lake and he ate very undercooked hamburgers.

Her thoughts were were suddenly interrupted, by screams and a huge crashing sound as ...................

Over to you!

Beginnings No.5 Birgit Gohwalla 14th May

Birgit Gohwalla sighed. It was a sigh that would have made the most brutal dictator shed tears, copiously! A sigh that carried the anguish of generations of the oppressed and persecuted.
Erdem Kindersteg blurted out now for the third time - but I tried, you know I really tried. But Birgit was not impressed and let out another sigh that made the chandeliers tinkle and diners briefly stop talking and look for a second at the tall, lithe, gorgeous blond by the bar and her short fat, well dressed companion.

Erdem had felt this would be the day his relationship with Birgit would finally become stable - he had got a table at El Bulli, jumping a four year queue and being summoned at short notice to be there on a Saturday night, so with a quick flash of his netjets card and a limo ride they were there, on the threshold - perfection!

No, oh No!! - Disaster!!. When they arrived the table they were going to be taken to was not THE table, the power table which everyone in their world knew you had to be if you were SOMEONE. They were to be placed two table away in the wilderness. Birgit was the sort of girl who could never, never live this down and let out yet another sigh that caused the whole restaurant to go silent and see Erdems shoulders slump as his world collapsed around him.

But Erdem realised his life hung on a pivot, and remembering that he had not become who he was with out breaking a few eggs, pulled himself up to his full 5ft 4 inches and took the head waiter aside and whispered something in his ear. Rafael's eyes flickered and his mouth twitched ........

Over to you ..............

Beginnings No. 4 Aziza Meredew-Conte May 9th

Aziza Meredew-Conte strolled to the rear observation deck of the yacht looking over a packed harbour - today it was St Tropez, tomorrow it might be Monaco and in a month St Barts! Her shoulders slumped and a quiet scream, heard only by the passing gulls and the odd gigolo, swimming by, desperate to be seen, leapt from her lips.

Life was soooo boring! She had bought 8 pairs of Louboutins this morning all the same model but in different colours, then spoiled herself with a massive ring from Graff and as she sat in the back of the Rolls Phaeton, whisked back to the yacht she briefly enjoyed its 100 carats glistening on her finger, before sighing and wondering what to do next and popped it back in the bag soon to be forgotten.

Charles Egremont Finiston Drew, her hedge find lover and provider of all these goodies was never there, as he jetted in his Boeing 777-300ER VIP jet from continent to continent. Even when she travelled with him it was so huge and filled with so many hangers on and deal hopefuls she might see him for 10 minutes in the whole day.

Her eyes strayed down to the water where she had heard some splashing and fell into the the most beautiful, penetrating blue eyes, nearly covered by a mop of twinkly wet hair and a set of white teeth, that made her heart go thump! One second she was on deck, the next plummeting into the sea from the fourth deck, she too late reminded herself, as she hurtled downwards!

She heard of a scream of "watch out for .......................!!!!!!!!!!

And now over to you!

Beginnings No.3 Alessandro de Montalban May 6th

Alessandro de Montalban was a heck of a good looking guy. When he walked into a room, little girls, girls, young women, middle aged women and even grand mothers, stopped whatever they were doing or saying and just stared - their eyes on stalks!

Dressed immaculately from head to toe in Savile Row or Hermes suits, Lobb shoes, a Patek Phillipe watch and Dupont sunglasses he walked into Mark's Club this evening bearing a dark frown, that belied the admiring glances bearing down on him from all sides and not seeing them or the grimaces on the various accompanying males, whose spouses, wives or daughters had now been distracted away from.

Damn, damn, damn he thought, she's not here, no texts with apologies received, no voice-mails with tales of delayed flights, or traffic jams holding up the Bentley Continental!

What was he to do? She always, yes always kept him up to date, minute by minute and was never ever late! This time when for once he needed her, and not her him, he was left high and dry.

Suddenly there was a rush of footsteps behind him and Giorgio the head waiter, ran gasping for breath, into the room grabbed Alessandro by the arm, an unbelievable incursion into his personal space and said ...........................

Over to you!!

Beginnings No.2 Monika Chau May3rd

Monika Chau had a big decision to make, one that would affect her whole life from the second she acted on it! Was it going to be a toast and marmalade breakfast or Cornflakes? Simple and innocuous enough you would think! Yet one involved in bending down, the other in stretching up.

She chose the latter and standing on tip toes, because Monika was petite and the shelf was high, her concentration now focused solely on getting the pack of cereal in her grasp, whilst her feet, moved un-monitored on the kitchen floor where .........................

Over to you to bring this to an exciting and revealing conclusion!!

Beginnings No.1 Trujillo Johnston May 2nd

Trujillo Johnston walked down the centre of the street as if through a green tunnel, light reflecting off the damp road. He moved silently though the Connecticut night, noting the perfection of the tree lined street, with trimmed green, oh so green lawns and white fences and the beauty of each and every house.

His feet made no noise, hold it....... there was no noise at all, also no cars in the street, or even parked, but there were street lights and some houses were lit from within and hold it.... again he was in his pyjamas and slippers, and now for the 1st time he noticed he was cold.

I must be dreaming he said to himself, first mentally than out loud - and he heard himself the second time! but unreality swarmed around him. he pinched himself - and it hurt, but then he thought maybe I am dreaming that I pinched myself.

Lets go back home - quickly, (do I really live in Farmington?)  he thought, but his feet kept going forwards and he realised he did not know how to get there, though everything was so familiar.

Suddenly there was an ear-splitting crash and ............

NOW DEAR READERS OVER 2 U!!

As you see, I am no Ernest Hemingway and many of my beginnings could have been written by C.Liche himself, but if just one of them inspires someone to write something marvellous that other people enjoy, I will be an extremely happy man.

So if you like this or any subsequent beginning, as I aim to put up one beginning everyday from now on and you want to finish it as a short story, a novel, a video, film or a play, all I ask is that you tell me that you are going to give it a go, keep me posted as you progress through the comments facility and credit me in the end with "from an idea by Stefan Lubomirski de Vaux"

If you plan on making a play or film, then maybe I can be executive co-producer, as I have successfully done with StageFright the play.