Mar 1, 2016
I played hockey for years, first at school and then – from my mid 20s until I was about 40 – for Leatherhead Ladies second team in Surrey. We were otherwise known as the “Lipstick Eleven” (which says it all) and even now if I pass a pitch on a...
Jan 26, 2016
Carers have been much in my mind at the start of 2016. I keep bumping into them, either virtually online or in the flesh, and they’ve got me thinking about my new year’s resolution. For some time now I’ve been working on a newspaper piece about early (or young)...
Dec 17, 2015
In one of my very first blogs I paid tribute to husband-and-wife actors Timothy West and Prunella Scales for having the courage to speak publicly about Prunella’s dementia, and for doing so in such a constructive manner. Though acknowledging the difficulties, Mr West...
Nov 3, 2015
There is a poignant moment in “What Flowers Remember” when old Mr Clancy asks his 13-year-old friend, “Who will I be if I don’t remember my life?” Needless to say Delia, a young narrator with a wit and wisdom beyond her years, has no answer. Who does? I certainly...
Oct 1, 2015
Watching Florian Zeller’s brutally honest play “The Father” left me unsettled. It left me unsure as to who each of its six characters actually were, of where they were, and when they were there. It left me confused and emotionally drained. But boy, did it move me....
Sep 16, 2015
When my mum moved into her nursing home the staff called her Kathleen because that was, actually, her name. But the truth is she was never called Kathleen, or Kathy, or Kate. My mum was always Kay. As is often the case, mum’s entry into the home was the culmination of...
