“Exploring life through fiction, together.”My kids are shy until they’re not. I’ll spend weeks where they cling to my trouser leg, then one day they’ll run off. Go play, make friends. And I’m glad. I don't want them to stick to me forever. Or enjoy p...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”[Housekeeping - This is late, and it’s all my fault. I don’t even have a good excuse, I just got the days of the week wrong. The keen among you will notice that’s the second time, so I’m going to implement a...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”I’ve never been very good at doing what I’m told. It’s taken a lot of years to learn the restraint to not automatically do the opposite, just to prove I can. You could have told me not to push the red button...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”I’ve had a bad week. No, I’ve had a hectic week. A week with tears. A week with arguments. A week with birthdays. A week with picnics at sunset on the summit of a hill. I’ve swung the pendulum pretty far in...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”A little while ago, a previous neighbour had a heart attack. He was rushed to hospital and balanced on the brink. My friend bumped into his estranged son and asked him how it felt to know his father was on d...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”I couldn’t grow a beard until my third year at uni. I could only manage a halo of near invisible blonde fluff. That summer, something switched, and I reveled in my newfound manliness. I strode back to campus...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”My Grandad took months to die. Day by day we watched him slip away, losing himself, becoming something else. At the end, he didn’t seem to recognise us, he didn’t know where he was, or why he was in such pai...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”If you only had a few days to live, would you want to know? What if your decisions in the supermarket could bankrupt a family across the world, could you choose what to eat with that weight on your conscienc...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”There used to be a fashion for country estates to ship in dead trees. Before combustion engines or steam power, they’d haul huge dead trunks and erect them in the foreground. Their raked, bare branches splay...

“Exploring life through fiction, together.”I bought an album this week. I’ve cried every time I’ve listened to it. There’s such raw feelings welded to the music.I’ve also been unpacking after a house move. I stuck on a few albums from years back. Alb...