Self-isolate! It seems to be all the radio and news reports scream out at us right now. And alright, I’ll do that. I’ll stay at home to give the stretched hospital staff the best chance possible to contain this. To survive. But I will call it something else. Because isolation makes me think of people […]
Dear Ones, You will ask me stories about what it was like during the time of the virus, just as I asked my own grandparents about the war. I will tell you how at first I didn’t take it too seriously; none of us did. We listened, baffled, to the stories filtering in from China. […]
I am really delighted to welcome on to my blog Poet & Disability Arts Advocate Ann Young. I heard her read one of her poems at the Dead (Women) Poet’s Society in Norwich. A couple of working poets shared with the audience two forgotten female poets from the past, then during the second half of […]
The other day, a friend asked me if I’d had my ‘moment’ yet; that is, of truly feeling the weight and enormity of what we collectively are living through with the global pandemic. I think there have been plenty of ‘moments’ for me of ever-shifting tectonic plates of fear, empathy, bafflement, frustration, regret for what […]
Since meeting my husband in 2004, I have lived in: Brighton, Cambridge, rural Suffolk, Godmanchester, Bangalore (India), Twickenham, St Margarets, Nairobi (Kenya), a different home in Nairobi, backpacked around India for 6 months with the family, rural Norfolk, Norwich, a motorhome, rural Norfolk again and now, back to Norwich. Just writing all that makes me […]
Entering this new decade, I’ve been wondering who are the people out there for whom I have deep respect for each and every new offering they put out there. This list is, of course, by no means exhaustive. But let’s say they’re my top 6: four amazing women and two amazing men who influenced me […]
As the end of 2019 is fast approaching, I thought I’d write a list of my top ten books of this year. If you like the sound of any of them, you’ve still time to pop down to your local bookshop before Christmas. The following books are not in any particular order of preference, they […]
You know when you read something and your breath catches because of the depth and breadth of the truth it speaks to you? The following words, written by Courtney E. Martin and illustrated by Wendy MacNaughton rendered such a response in me. If you have ever felt the call to creative work, in whatever form, […]
My mother recently celebrated her 75th Birthday and, as one of the gifts I gave her, I decided to write a poem for her. The theme of this year’s National Poetry Day was TRUTH, so I used that single word as a starting point for what became my poem that I read to her at […]
I am nocturnally challenged. Many years ago, upon sharing this information with someone I met, he looked me in the eye and said ‘Get your beloved to read to you.’ I wasn’t sure what my beloved would think of that, but I asked him, and he did. He read Mark Twain to me in the […]