The Guitarist from Malvern Hills.
Explanation:
A young man who is a musician a guitarist and a singer from London goes to stay with his sister, Maggie and her husband Geoff in Malvern Hills to escape the failure in the rock world and constant questioning from his old university friends. He decides to help her sister with her cafe with no pay as he has the accommodation. He surprisingly finds a nostalgic peace in the hills where he finds his leisure again. Not until a particular visitor comes to the Cafe, Mrs. Fraser who was his teacher in the school and never really liked each other. His old hatred comes back but his sister keeps him stating how her husband left with another young girl and her “Malvern Lodge” is going in loss.
He keeps names for all the customers who come, to make it easy for him to recognize like Donkey Face, Winston Churchill and his wife, and “The Krauts” who are a Swiss couple Tilo and Sonja and also the main characters of this story. The narrator feels like they are like any middle-aged couple except the husband was very enthusiastic about everything the hills throughout the time. However, his wife is not as enthusiastic as her husband, she is angry throughout the time in the cafe giving a cold shoulder to everyone. The narrator gets angry with Sonja’s behavior and when Tilo asks them for a good hotel to stay at, the narrator suggests Mrs. Fraser’s lodge.
The same afternoon, the narrator decides to leave the Cafe for composing his songs instead of helping his sister. As he is working in his song, singing and strumming his guitar he can sense that two people are looking at him. And it turns out to be the Swiss couple who enjoys his unfinished song and encourages him to keep going, where he sees Sonja being happy and totally different from the Cafe. He learns that the couple was musicians as well and they found love through music and enjoyed what they do. As he plays them a song, he can see how close the couple is and enjoying his music. However, he could also the tension in them, especially when Sonja talks about how they can never sing the traditional Swiss songs anymore and have to go with the change of the music and world and also the gap in the relationship between them and their son. The narrator ends up feeling guilty for suggesting Mrs. Fraser’s place. That night, he has a small argument with his sister.
The next day with a cold face with his sister he leaves to the hills again to play his music. He wishes to come across Tilo and Sonja in the hope to change their mind about the Lodge they are staying at and play some music too. He in fact finds Sonja who is in a sore taste and sees Tilo walking on his own. The tension in their marriage comes to light at this point when Sonja confides how her husband is very enthusiastic and how she never gets angry for anything and the change in her, everything building a gap between them and resulting in separation. The narrator asks her what he has to do to improve in his music and songs and Sonja says he has lots to do and he will soon get into a better spot and leaves.
