how did alan react to his mother advice in his mind
Answers
The future Minister for Justice had a mercifully brief brush with crime as a child. Alan Shatter's mother Elaine had a passionate love of flowers but, alas, no actual garden per se to grow any in. Their next door neighbour in Oaklands Crescent in Rathgar, Desmond Kerr, something of a gardener, had a fancy array of tulips and daffodils growing in a small garden at the back of the Shatters' house, however.
So, six-year-old Alan hatched a plan. One spring afternoon, he slipped nimbly into Desmond's garden. Significantly, he also had a pair of scissors in his hands. Five minutes later, the future Minister for Justice "presented Mum with a beautiful bouquet of freshly cut yellow and red flowers that Interflora would have been proud to deliver", Alan recalls all these years later.
Upon being quizzed by his mother as to where he got these beautiful fresh flowers, he told her it was a secret. The secret, it transpired, was out 20 minutes later when Desmond arrived at the door of the Shatter house - having twigged that "all of his tulips and daffodils had done an unexpected runner".