Recently a friend sent me a short video of her baby grandson. I was struck all over again by how many fleeting expressions a small human being can rehearse in a few moments – in 30 seconds of moving image there were displays of intense pleasure, humour, astonishment, disgust, fear, anxiety, and again pleasure. The… Continue reading Faces in photographs
I’m fond of the homely rituals that come with midwinter, Christmas and New Year. I especially love decorating the house, putting up and taking down the tree and rediscovering cinnamon angels and glass baubles with their tender, freighted memories of other Christmases shared with other people in other places. It’s a time of so many… Continue reading Breading in the New Year
In the summer of 1952 my mother’s second son, Michael, died after contracting a gastro-intestinal infection. He was thirteen months old. All her life my mother carried that grief, virtually unable to speak it except to me. I am posting this poem for Baby Loss Awareness Week (9-15 October), in memory of Michael and in… Continue reading ‘My mother with sweet peas’ – a poem for Baby Loss Awareness Week 2018
Synchronicity can be powerful. At the moment I’m unpacking after four moves in three years, and simultaneously I'm preparing to release my memoir The Missing List into the world on September 18th, with Linen Press. The Missing List, which has taken me years to write, tells the story of how I packed away my childhood and… Continue reading The art of unpacking
Having moved from Sussex to Suffolk just before Easter, we’re settling well and it’s fascinating to observe what comes up and out in the new garden. The Beast from the East has delayed spring up there (we’re at least three weeks behind the south-east) so we’ve had the gift of two springs this year! Recently… Continue reading Embracing spring
I'm delighted to share the news that my memoir The Missing List will be published by Linen Press. Lynn Michell, founder and publisher at Linen Press, has announced our collaboration here. I started writing this memoir almost fifteen years ago, in small patches, having no clear idea what it might become. I wrote the patches… Continue reading ‘The Missing List’ to be published by Linen Press
Last night I spent three strange hours in front of my MacBook. Normally, time with my MacBook is at worst obligatory (bill paying, filing tax returns, marking papers – none of which is particularly strange) and at best treasured (writing, reading, listening to music). So – yesterday evening I co-delivered my first live online teaching… Continue reading Virtual class
Many thanks to Louise Kenward for interviewing me for a piece published today on the BMJ Medical Humanities Blog in which we talk about the new extended version of Breastless (published at Life Writing Projects) and about creativity when facing surgery. Louise Kenward is a visual artist based in East Sussex. She was awarded an MA with… Continue reading Interview for BMJ Medical Humanities Blog
It's past mid-September. Summer is a mirage behind us. Back there – over my shoulder – are silvery skies, long walks by the sea and light evenings with family and friends. Autumn brings harvests, and fresh starts. Earlier this year I wrote two reflective essays about breast cancer in my family and about becoming breastless,… Continue reading ‘Life Writing Projects’, harvests and dreams
Today, one year on from the EU membership referendum, I'm posting an edited version of a piece I wrote for Agenda, at the invitation of Patricia McCarthy, back in June 2016, which now seems like a hundred years ago. That issue of Agenda - 'The Power of Poetry' (Vol 50, nos 3-4) is bursting with… Continue reading Something about the importance of poetry
