THE proceeds from yet another collection of short stories and poems by Muriel Berry will by devoted to the Medical Oncology Fund at the Christie Hospital in Manchester.

Her previous five anthologies have raised many thousands of pounds for the cause.

Muriel's new book is very much the same mixture as before with a mixture of fact and fiction laced invariably with more than a dash of humour or alternatively, poignancy.

In Memoir: A Winter Childhood, Muriel recalls the cold winter's evening her family moved to a farm in 1940. Anyone who was a child during the war years is bound to share her memories of condensed milk and trudging through the cold night to the outside loo.

The imaginative descriptions also fill Take It With a Pinch of Salt, where Berry remembers a woman - the seventh child of a seventh child - who claimed to have psychic powers.

Alongside the recollections are witty fictional anecdotes and wry poems about human nature and life.

It all adds up to a treasure trove of original material that one can dip into anywhere, anytime and enjoy.Lifeline by Muriel Berry is published by the Woolden Press, Birch Tree Farm, Cadishead Moss, Cadishead, Manchester M44 5JU in softback at £5 including postage.