Stories for when you're not where you thought you'd be

Day Three: Friday 12 th  September There’s a ‘two-by-the-bed’ rule in Intensive Care and, when they come to insert the chest drain into my son’s side, my daughter and I are the ones. ‘They’: a crowd of ten or so medics in various shades of scrubs depending on their role. ‘You can stay,’ they nod reassuringly, ‘No need to go.’ To be honest, I’m not entirely sure I want to see this, but by now there are so many of them between us and the exit, it feels rude to move. Anyway, it

The Flowers of Bay C by E.M. Carter This is a beautifully flowing novel about a motley group of six women, unlikely comrades, stuck on a hospital ward together, each aware of ways life might have been different. Among them is elderly Barbara who has one final wish: to see the sea again before she dies. Of course, that’s impossible. She has no one, and spends her days confined to a hospital bed. Told through the eyes of Penny - a disabled single mum haunted by an unhappy past

Edinburgh June 2012 It felt like some kind of magic. The very sight delighted us. It was 2012 and we had taken the sleeper train to the Scottish Highlands, waking to rhythmic rumblings and views of mountain-edged lochs scuffed with low-hanging clouds. Now we were stopping in Edinburgh on the way home for a couple of nights. Between wandering the city’s lanes and soaking up history, we had slipped into the Camera Obscura next to the castle for the afternoon. At the top, the to

goodness When the bombshell drops (the debris of normality ricocheting in all directions) there, in the quiet clearing space is made for the goodness of others.   The face of God in a tub of chilli, or homemade pizza, the batch of brownies, a posy of sweet blossoms and a paper-chain of prayers, gifts, offers of help, meals, visits, kindness. Hope.   I never knew the scope of this before.

Day four - Saturday 13 th  September 2025 Two paper cups sat on the green wooden coffee table. One held tea, the other was filled halfway with slightly gloopy porridge. I stared at my breakfast. It wasn’t what I’d had in mind, but let’s face it, none of this was. I’d woken early in the sparsity of my allocated parent room, got up and cleared my things into our family locker before popping across the corridor to check on our sixteen-year-old son in the Paediatric Intensive Car

It wasn’t her fault. How could she have known? I sat in the cool September sunlight, listening to the crunch of gravel beneath slow...

On the cusp of a sandspit, where land peters out like an unfinished sentence, we stopped for three days. Three days of sharply clear...

(Five days in San Francisco) We sat in the morning mists of the Golden Gate Park gazing at smudged outlines of statues and buildings: the...

It happened when my daughter was three, maybe four.  A friend had organised tickets for an ‘Angelina Ballerina’ meet-the-author session. ...

Extraordinary. Extraordinary how quickly it happens. The guilt. How it catches us out. Creeps up on us sideways and jabs us in the ribs,...

(or what my dying alliums taught me about doing too much) Our alliums are struggling this year, floundering a little. I remember the...

Venice Beach, California We left our packed suitcases just inside the door of our holiday home and drove a few blocks over, beyond the...

I write at the speed of knots. But this is how I read: infuriatingly… Sl... Slo... Slow... Slowly   taking my time to savour every word....

I began this before Christmas. Things were different there then. For ages, I’d been meaning to start some map-making again. For me it’s a...

‘I would NEVER do that!’ I was milling around at a winter’s birthday party. The fire was roaring in my friend’s cosy lounge and there...

It all started here. A small square kitchen, patterned wallpaper that I’m pretty sure had something to do with chickens, and a flap-fold...

On the day of my father’s funeral, I walked the dog in the morning moonlight - a weak leftover circle of white that glimmered beyond the...

It was a simple comment, overheard as friends chatted while I quietly tidied up some music things at church. One had walked the Camino a...

Sometimes it feels like you’re speeding straight into a rock face, full steam ahead. Oh wait, in this case, it’s because we actually...

Some years back, when I was at an all-time low in my career (feeling like I was slowly disappearing in a job I had once loved but which...