The Toast Maker – Episode 23: His Father's Bench artwork
Sleepbound Nights

The Toast Maker – Episode 23: His Father's Bench

·3h 60m

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The Toast Maker — Episode 23
By Eliza Hartley

Tonight's reading is free — and part one of every series stays free, always. Over 500 more, and every new one first, are on Sleepbound Premium.
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Our other two shows, if tonight's isn't quite what you were after:
→ Sleepbound — classic literature read slowly enough to fall asleep to: Apple Podcasts
→ Sleepbound Soundscapes — ambient sleep music, no narration: Apple Podcasts

Tonight, the village WhatsApp has been awake since before breakfast — the Christmas lights competition is two days out, Mrs Henderson is chairing, and a seven-foot inflatable Santa is under formal dispute. Tom ties his boots and slips out the back before any of it can find him. He's heading to his father's bench in the Back Lane workshop with a cherry off-cut, a 1979 mitre box, and the wedding invitation he promised to frame before Christmas Day. We left them at the end of the longest night — Iris's words in the dark, and Tom's answer. This episode sits in the morning after: quiet, practical, and full.

Thanks for keeping this open for all of us. Sweet dreams.

— Ian & Alex

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