Once upon a time, I thought the key to a strong relationship was being able to stick together through the big things- the milestones, the exciting times, the travels and academic challenges of those formative years, when the world and its worries were still at arm’s length, but now I know that the opposite is true- that any…

The box appears on the doorstep one day. I am at home, but there is no knock on the door and no other sounds to signal its arrival. It isn’t until I open the door with the intention of heading to the shops that I notice the box. Passers-by have…

It’s always a beautiful moment when I clock the first crocus of the year. The yellow ones appear first. They raise their heads in late January, pushing up through the soil with a tenacity and determination that belies their small stature. They are the heralds of spring. They bring with…

As I look back over my shoulder, I think how much I hate this house. I would burn it to the ground if I could. I imagine myself standing in that frigid attic bedroom and pouring petrol onto the bed. I imagine striking a match and watching the flame dance…

Forgetting his birthday was glorious: proof at long last that his hold over me was broken, he had removed himself from my consciousness like the imprint of an image fading from a black TV screen, nothing stirs in me now when I see pictures of him- no latent pangs of remembered lust, no wonderings or what-ifs…