Cambridge Coincidences Collection

A few years ago, I was checking something on my computer just before bedtime when I noticed a piece of paper sticking out from under my desk. It turned out to be an old double page from a local newspaper that I had worked on about a decade before. I had laid the paper on the floor while decorating the room and somehow it had got left behind under my desk drawers. It still had a few spots of dried paint on it. I glanced at the paper before throwing it in the bin. It was a page of wedding photos, including one young woman who had married a man with the unusual surname of Sucksmith. I’d never encountered the name before, and its strangeness [and unfortunate schoolboy smuttiness] made me smile. I binned the paper and climbed into bed, looking forward to beginning the book that I had borrowed that day from the library, a paperback version of Wilkie Collins’ The Woman in White. Before opening the book, I read the back cover. Along with the synopsis, it gave the name of the editor of that version of the book. His was called Harvey Sucksmith. I have always wondered if he was a relative of the bridegroom.

In the Summer of 2005, I was book shopping in a charity shop on the King’s Road, Chelsea. A radio was playing in the shop, and a female singer was performing the old standard “I Remember You”. It got me thinking of the Australian singer Frank Ifield, and of my late grandmother, who was a fan of Ifield and would often play his record of the same song. Although I hadn’t thought of it in years, that record, complete with Ifield’s yodelling you-hoos, entered my mind and I could not get rid of it. It was still playing through my head when I left the shop and boarded a bus for Earl’s Court. It was a route that I’d never ridden on before. The bus turned down a road which I had never travelled along before, and became stuck solid in a traffic jam. Frank Ifield’s voice was still going through my mind as I glanced out of the left side window. We were opposite a narrow road. At the far end of it, facing the bus, was a pub. It was called The Ifield. When I got home that evening, I checked on the internet. It is the only pub of that name in the UK.

greetings, it was the picture that caught my eye, typically I don't establish entry's like this... my girlfriend and i got home from a new years eve party at exactly 12:34 am... an intoxicating night led to a harder than normal morning... when did we finally get out of bed? ... 12:34 pm... coincidence?... silly i guess, but strange none the less. cheers. Steve and Kelly... and the Daisy dog.

When my boyfriend and I were travelling the world in the 90s, we stayed with some distant relatives of my family in rural Western Australia. During our stay, the wife, Jill, showed us a photo album of the one time she and her husband had visited England, more than 10 years before when they were on their honeymoon. Every photo except one had a caption and Jill asked if we knew where the photo was taken. My boyfriend was looking at the photo - it was of a family feeding pigeons - and said he thought it was Trafalgar Square in London. Then he said "That looks a bit like my dad... Hold on, that's my mum, there's my sister and that's me". My boyfriend is from the far north of England and had been to London once with his family - on this occasion. The photo was a portrait of his family feeding the pigeons in Trafalgar Square. We were all freaked out and took a copy of the photo home with us. I ended my speech at our wedding nearly 10 years later by showing everyone the photo and saying that we were obviously meant to be together!