On Motherhood

I am not a mother. There have been several points over the last few years when I believed I was going to be, and that I would be soon however, this now seems like a distant possibility. I have always wanted to be a mother. When people meet me, they are usually introduced quite quickly to myContinueContinue reading “On Motherhood”

On Endings I: It’ll Pass

It is beginning to feel like you never even existed. Yet noting down the date you will return my belongings serves as a stark reminder that you did, and I loved you, and you let me believe you loved me too. Until, over the course of a few, short, hysterical, un-rememberable weeks you repeatedly brokeContinueContinue reading “On Endings I: It’ll Pass”

On Love & Honesty

Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word “love” here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace – not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in theContinueContinue reading “On Love & Honesty”

On Being a Woman (IV) & Being Stripped of Our Rights

This piece was written on the 24th June 2022. Today is a monumental day. It is a monumental day in the same way that for our grandmothers, just shy of fifty years ago, it was a monumental day. It’s not even taken half a century. In under half a century, a progression of maybe two generations, women’sContinueContinue reading “On Being a Woman (IV) & Being Stripped of Our Rights”

On Being a Woman Part III: International Women’s Day Edition

In March, NRTH LASS published the latest in my On Being a Woman collection, a reflection on Women’s Rights on International Women’s Day. The other day, I put forward the offer to write a piece for International Women’s Day. I had just finished The Female Eunuch and purchased The …On Being a Woman Part III:ContinueContinue reading “On Being a Woman Part III: International Women’s Day Edition”

Upon the Death of my Favourite Author

In December I was asked by NRTH LASS to pen a tribute to Joan Didion, following her death. Here you can read my thoughts on her passing, grief more generally and how she has influenced the writer I am/am still becoming. There is a distinct comfort in knowing that certain people are still around. AContinueContinue reading “Upon the Death of my Favourite Author”

On Emerging from Lockdown

Humans have a unique capacity for adaptability. This is often seen as a trait, something you either have or you don’t, an asset to put on your CV …On Emerging from Lockdown Another essay of mine, On Emerging from Lockdown, is available to read over on the NRTH LASS website. I discuss how this couldContinueContinue reading “On Emerging from Lockdown”

On Being a Woman

This is the kind of narrative that could begin with a trigger warning. I’ve never started anything with a trigger warning, and I don’t intend to now.…On Being a Woman My essay, On Being a Woman, is available to read over on the NRTH LASS website. I discuss my anger, my feminism and hopefully offerContinueContinue reading “On Being a Woman”

On Reading

Today I have read two books written by women, in fact I can’t remember the last time I read a book written by a man. I chose both these books for relatively straightforward reasons. One claimed to be a response to George Orwell’s essay Why I Write, and the other presented itself as a ‘manifesto forContinueContinue reading “On Reading”

This is not England: Shane Meadows and the Problematic North

  Location is never an accident in Shane Meadows’ work; it is meticulously searched for and manipulated. After This is England (2007) he released Somer’s Town (2008) and demonstrated a preoccupation with space so precise that he filmed in black and white, so that location appeared consistent throughout, as highlighted in this quote from MeadowsContinueContinue reading “This is not England: Shane Meadows and the Problematic North”