10 shillings for a pair of stockings, that’s all she ever wanted. Her trembling fingers fumble at the door to the past; the present drops her memory—and she is no longer haunted. Her 16-year-old hands could type and take notes in Pitman slightly slanted. With a final glance back at pale…
Skulls and other pretty things
A pretty sight, I thought, a lady with a book and a blue guitar.[1]I always intended to post this piece to coincide with Halloween 2025, but last year the darkness that snaps at my heels found me running a little slower than usual—the seasons and the year have … Continue reading I remember that I stood…
Handed Down, Driven Far: Lessons in Love, Velocity, and Defying the Limits
The arrival of the TR6 I have Dad to thank for my love of small fast cars. In 1983 he drove a signal red 1969 Triumph 6 into our driveway and I exclaimed, “Is this really ours?” The TR6 was not in good shape, but I adored her anyway. Dad spent more years and money…
In the wake of grief and glioblastoma: Just write, anything
“I’m allowing myself, at last, to wait a long time with my sorrow. To wait with it as long as it takes” – Memorial Days.[1]I have loved the work of Geraldine Brooks for a very long time – particularly her novel The People of the Book (2008, Penguin Books). I found this book in favourite…
The solitude of a small red car
“The light changed; she turned onto the highway and was free of the city. No one, she thought, can catch me now; they don’t even know which way I am going.” — Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House [1]Shirley Jackson, The Haunting of Hill House, Penguin Random House, 1959/2009, p. 16. Without a…
Freedom, fear and fury in a bell jar
Sub Heading 4 Generate custom solutions with the possibility to create synergy. Amplify outside the box thinking yet be on brand. Link 4 Sub Heading 5 Demonstrating sprints in order to innovate. Build innovation to innovate. Drive outside the box thinking and try to think outside the box. Link 5 Sub Heading 6 Leverage cloud…
Professor Von H.
“But while I pondered I had unconsciously, in my listlessness, in my desperation, been drawing a picture where I should, like my neighbour, have been writing a conclusion. I had been drawing a face, a figure. It was the face and the figure of Professor von X engaged in writing his monumental work entitled The…
A heavy secret lies
A heavy secret lies in waiting to be sentenced, 7 years, 3 months and 19 days blacked away out of sight— Inside the stone walls her writing watches[1]Hélène Cixous, (1998), Coming to Writing and Other Essays, Harvard University Press, p. 3., eyes closed and attendant. She wraps a crocheted pink shawl[2]Emily Dickinson, (1970), “Shame…
Odd shoes
Today she chose to wear odd shoes. The left white with embossed flowers, the right spangled with stars, In the mismatch of this truth there was nothing to lose. A social experiment not yet abandoned at the feet of dreams in recluse. What a life awaited in the toes of boots painted red! …
Twirl.
“That moment when I whirl with words is a space of transgression [and] I write to live”.[1]bell hooks, (1995), Remembered Rapture: The Writer at Work. H. Holt., p. 45. bell hooks 1952-2021 African-American author, feminist, educator and social activist The daily with Uncle Malcolm “An unusual combination of letters that gave me quite a spin”,…