I’m a terrible one for prematurely tidying  away things.  Sadly ‘tidying away’ can often mean throwing out.  There have been times when I’ve been practically head-first in the recycle bin retrieving something I just realised was actually important.   The worst one by far was my ill-judged decision to wipe out the entire written record of…

I have a stone sitting on my kitchen window-sill with my name on it.  Most days I don’t even to stop to recognise it, and I suppose most days I forget that it tells me who I am – I am more than ‘mummy’, I am more than a weary housewife or a guilt-ridden family…

I first realised the capacity for heroism in children when I was nine years old.  After years of terrorist threats to his and his family’s life, my dad was forced to take us all away from our home to a safe and secret place.  All of a sudden what was known and certain crumbled, and…

I can’t believe that after all my spouting about new pencil cases back in September, it’s taken the new year to bring me back here.  I wonder how many people have dreams of writing as I do and then are too uncertain to begin.  It’s all about putting something, anything down, but if you’ve got…

It’s that time of year – school’s back, leaves are falling, wasps are frantic and the sun has grudgingly decided it’s time to come out.  Going to get my wee boy’s first pair of shoes yesterday gave me that September feeling, and just like I used to get a new pencil-case every year for school,…