Grief throws you off. The people we have in our lives form a structure around us – we all have that friend we ring on that street on the way home, or the once a month coffee and catch up. Those conversations give us the strength to keep going. The joy of ‘I’ll get this… Read more
My first ever counsellor was big into mindfulness, and on a fateful February day handed me the ripest, juiciest, most beautiful orange you’ve ever seen in your life. I held it in my hands and she told me to think about eating it for ten minutes. That’s a long time to think about an orange.… Read more
Mum’s been living in a garage in the boot of a car, watching chick flicks on DVD for the past two years. I ask her, exasperated, when this is going to end. When she’s going to come back and let people know she’s alive, ‘there are a lot of people who miss you.’ ‘I need… Read more
I really like lists. Any of my friends reading this blog post are more than likely rolling their eyes and thinking, ‘I can’t believe she’s chosen to write an entire blog post about them’. Lists are my order in the chaos of life, they give me pace, control and satisfaction. They are essentially how I… Read more
There have been four or five times this year when I’ve paused, looked around the room and thought, ‘this is really special’. I’ve sat with fifty minority writers, a pile of admirable authors and staff at Penguin Random House discussing how to improve diversity in publishing. I’ve scribbled away in a workshop of LGBTQ+ writers… Read more
Anniversaries are hard. They build in the back of your mind in a way that makes the world feel different. More delicately balanced, as though you could touch it with a pin and it would erupt into memories: flashbacks of early-morning coffees; familiar drives; fantastic conversation. Life becomes a blur of the old and the… Read more