Many of the conversations I have at the school gates, on football touchlines or in cricket pavilions are really conversations about identity.
We think we’re talking about the 11+ or goalies or whether it’s better to learn classical piano or bass guitar – but what we’re actually talking about is who with think we are. Continue reading “Parenting raises deep questions about who we really are” →
This weekend – Sunday, 9 June 2013 – I will be talking about sexuality at Holy Ground at Exeter Cathedral.
In preparing my talk, I’ve noticed that I have felt in a very quiet place around sexuality issues in recent years and found it almost unbearable listening to debates about the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill currently going through Parliament. Continue reading “Talking on sexuality at Exeter Cathedral” →
So far, I have spent almost seven years trying to come to terms with my experience of giving birth. I was beginning to wonder if I ever would, and then I read this, by psychologist Daniel Stern (pictured), who assured me that I wouldn’t. Continue reading “For Mother’s Day: the untold story” →
When I announced in my last post that I’d got a new business card – deputy site editor of NHS local – I made a mistake.
Do you know that feeling of having told a half-truth? It’s not about telling a lie. It’s about settling for less than the truth deserves, neglecting to tell the most important part of a story. Continue reading “I take it back (new business card)” →
I love my new boss. I like her ideals, her approach to life, her attitude to business. They echo my own.
I know she has my best interests at heart – as I do hers. It’s not uncommon, even in the best of organisations, to feel a degree of ambivalence towards your employers. You are prepared to work hard and put yourself out, but, quite rightly, there are limits as to how far you will go on their behalf. Continue reading “I love my new boss” →
See this woman. I’ve just found out that she is my great great great great grandmother.
Earlier this week, as part of a feature I was writing for The Birmingham Post, I went with family historian Paul Wilkins to Birmingham Central Library to trace my family tree and discovered, amongst other great worthiness, that I am a direct descendant of Elizabeth Fry, the woman who reformed prisons in the nineteenth century and is commemorated on the back of a fiver. Continue reading “Elizabeth Fry is my nan” →