Days That Change
Have you lost your mind? Where’s your sense of humour? My mind goes everywhere it can, it loves to travel. My sense of humour is not on...
I have been looked after
Politely turning down offers is not an option. I can’t look after the kids, I can’t do anything. My chest is rattling and my skin oozing...
Snake Venom
I bought some cream for my face. It was on offer and I’m nearly forty. Snake Venom, it said, will instantly freeze your wrinkles. I...
Good Boys/ Bad Boys
It’s Heathcliff’s fault, and River Phoenix and Pete Doherty didn’t help much. It becomes a habit. Of course, no one is good or bad, there...
Swan Republic
Mummy, I would like a humming-bird and also, I would like a swan. Well, there are no humming birds in Scotland, and I think all the swans...
Forest of Birse
Paddling in the cold peaty water, the river stole his left jelly shoe and my right flip-flop. He uses the slimy wooden weir as a slide....
G for Good
I like it when people have harmless rituals against their fears. She walks past the piano, and plays a G for good. She will salute a...
Bleach and eyeliner
It took me a long time to find a way to look. Bleach and eyeliner, velvet and leather, black and silver. Boots and lipstick, a diamond in...
Throwing Cheese at the Space Birds
Mummy, imagine if there was a tree as big as twenty-eight million thousand school buses, and it went up as high as the moon? Would you...
City Walking
I have only a finite number of steps for city walking. Glamour, squalor, edification and dereliction crowd me like the filthy pigeons. It...