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 …
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 …
It’s publication day – The Strange and Curious Guide to Trauma has been released. The Strange and Curious Guide to Trauma is a science book for children aged 8 to 12 or older, and their significant adults. It explains how our bodies keep us safe and alive and how our early experiences shape the ways …
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 …
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 …
I wasn’t sure how well I was going to cope with Snowflake/Tornado, Stewart Lee’s current stand-up show. It’s not that I don’t love his work (I really do), but I just didn’t know how much capacity I had left to be toyed with. When you buy a ticket to a Stewart Lee show, you know …
Stewart Lee’s Snowflake/Tornado was unexpectedly comforting Read More »
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 …
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 …
The Unofficial Guide to Therapeutic Parenting, the Teen Years – OUT NOW Read More »
Isma Almas’ 2019 Edinburgh show is biographical comedy at its best. Her story of what led her and her female partner to adopt a little boy of a different heritage to their own is captivating, generous and at times so shocking I couldn’t prevent myself from gasping and laughing at the same time, in a …
Review: Isma Almas, About a Buoy – Adventures in Adoption Read More »
Every now and then a book comes along that makes me want to grab a loud hailer and wear a sandwich board displaying it’s cover with “READ THIS NOW, PLEASE” printed across the front. I would stand outside our denuded public service ‘hubs’ and chant non-aggressively and if I had the cash, give out free …
Child to Parent Violence and Abuse by Helen Bonnick – review Read More »
