April 7, 2019
In the park Flynn, my sisters Lurcher spots him first and takes off like the wind, hurtling through the trees and off down towards the lake where the path meanders, with the others soon in hot pursuit. “It’s Stuart,” I say, with a resigned half-smile. I know what’s coming. “That bloody man. He’s such a […]
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March 31, 2019
Out for a birthday dinner with my family, we are celebrating the end of my son’s teenage years. Talk turns to the recent documentary about Michael Jackson’s alleged child abuse and a discussion about whether the most despicable crimes render art worthless, and I wonder how much art is borne from some sort of dysfunction […]
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March 24, 2019
While reading an article about a 30% rise in perfectionism I think about the number of times I’ve told my teenage daughter to be less demanding of herself, and then I realise I have rewritten this paragraph at least six times. Once, in a woodwork class at school, I was asked to plane a piece […]
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March 17, 2019
Spending a day at University with my daughter we are listening to a presentation about student life. She is conscientious and committed, but she worries that everything she learns won’t stay in her head and be there when she needs it. I can remember my first episode of depression soon after I’d started a job […]
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March 10, 2019
I need to write a presentation but I am finding it hard to craft the beginning. To avoid the discomfort of sitting and staring at an empty screen I go and make coffee but, as the minute’s tick by, I start to feel bad about myself, about not using my time efficiently. To avoid the […]
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