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8 mn read Michael Ward is 70. He lives in a cottage in Dorset. This is his story. I was born in Ireland in 1952. We were a nice middle-class family: two parents, two children, living in a pleasant cul de sac named Ardmore Drive, on the outskirts of Belfast. On the surface, everything seemed fine. As the […]
5 mn read No, I don’t actually love my wrinkles. At least, not yet. Which is why I am writing this piece, for anyone who has an ambivalent relationship with their own wrinkles. They are part of a body that is aging. Perhaps that’s why I’m not so keen – it’s evidence right before my eyes that actually, […]
7 mn read So many wild waves of emotion crash around in the wake of Sinéad O’Connor’s death. Me too. I feel a lot. I’ve loved and resonated with all she has offered from the very first album. I mean, her voice, and the way she would give herself fully to delivering those songs to us, no matter […]
4 mn read Not long ago, I was discussing my 70th birthday celebrations with a male friend and I declared that I was old as part of the conversation. I didn’t mean it in that British understating-slightly-funny-because-I’m-embarrassed way, I meant it in a quietly proud way. He didn’t get it. He thought I was being self-effacing. No, you’re […]
9 mn read A few years ago, I started writing books. I write under the name, Annie Cook. I’ve written six (soon to be seven) in a series of connected novels centred around a ‘magic’ holiday cottage in the Lake District. Discombobulated people are unwittingly drawn there to heal from life traumas. The books centre loosely around vibrational […]
8 mn read Fiona: ‘Let’s cycle from Land’s End to John O’Groats,’ I said to my partner, shortly before retiring from full-time work at age 65, ‘we need a retirement project’. ‘No way! Not a chance! You must be mad!’ came the swift reply from Owen (66). A few weeks later, we were loading our bikes on to […]
24 mn read On Sundays, when I was growing up, we ate dessert with either cream or custard served out of a jug bearing the legend No road is long with good company. I used to wonder what that phrase meant, not appreciating the truth of these words until I was well into adulthood and, even then, often […]
6 mn read For the last eight years, I’ve been doing a-just-before-bed poo-walk with Leonard, my dog. I’m in my PJs smelling of toothpaste. There is the short circuit, medium and the long. I cross my fingers for the short. It goes how it goes. I make a practice out of saying good evening to everyone I encounter. […]
7 mn read Spain has been my second home since the 1970s, so, for me, moving here in 2019 was a no brainer. I’d say it has felt far more like home to me since 1973 than Britain has. We emigrated to Nairobi when I was 10, then Spain when I was 12. I had not expected to […]
2 mn read Sometimes I just see someone in the group that I think would be interesting to ask to respond to our Q&A, and so it was with Ani Wilsher. She posted a brilliantly stylish photo of herself, and I invited her to answer our questions. If you’d like to answer them – in general, we like […]
