On being let loose in the Oxfam Bookshop

I have had the great pleasure of being let loose in the Oxfam Bookshop in Kings  Heath, Birmingham. The store came up with a great idea – The Curated Shelf – to bring  writers and readers closer together.  During September, it invited five local authors and members of the OxfamReads! series to curate shelves from the  donated offerings. Continue reading “On being let loose in the Oxfam Bookshop”

I love my new boss

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”

Elizabeth Fry is my nan

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”