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

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