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No Matter What is 10 years old

Ten years ago, No Matter What was published. It is a fictionalised memoir of my formative years as an adoptive parent. The memoir slash campaign for change was an amateur project, made from sparse resources – a kitchen table, a laptop, some frazzled time. It was powered by a consuming need to change hearts and …

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Me and a small c

In May I received the news that I had breast cancer – thankfully small and probably contained. The word ‘probably’, has shifted in meaning with every test and consultation. When the odds overwhelmingly suggest you won’t have cancer, but the tests show that you do, ‘probably’ is no longer a comfort and you lose your …

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Influence, favour and flattery

My first proper job was buying bits for aircraft. They were small but important bits, that are necessary for getting private jets and other air vehicles off the ground. These small, important bits were sourced from a number of suppliers in a competitive market. Although I was a new graduate and a nobody, I was …

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All you need is a spare room

Last year a local authority was forced to issue an apology after it launched a recruitment campaign for foster carers, using the slogan “all you need is a spare room”. You can see what their intention was, but it was rather tone deaf. That same slogan popped up on my Facebook feed this week. “All …

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Christmas Lessons Learnt

You vow that you will never put yourself through a Christmas like that ever again. It was meant to be enjoyable, you put a shit load of effort into making it enjoyable and it was something of an endurance event and people cried. The problem is that as next Christmas looms, you’ll vaguely remember this …

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The Unofficial Guide to Therapeutic Parenting, the Teen Years – OUT NOW

Finally. It’s out. The Unofficial Guide to Therapeutic Parenting, the Teen Years has been published. You can buy it here or here and other places too. Isn’t it a handsome thing? I love the cover (it’s a metaphor you know). The book is an honest, real life look at therapeutic parenting during the adolescent years …

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