Sometimes, I want nothing more in the world than to sit down with one of my nearest and dearest and say, “Play me something that speaks to your soul.” For me, music isn’t just something I listen to in order to pass the time: it’s a linchpin of my very…

How did I get here? I was an awkward teen just a moment ago who wouldn’t say boo to a goose, then somewhere along the line the moment became half my lifetime, the girl who spoke to no one for years built her life around communication, daring to say much more than boo to creatures far more…

The Mill House tastes like Cherry Drops, my favourite song is purple, Fireflies sounds like blue summer twilight and Twisters taste like Rhyl, the city smells like the sea sometimes, lilac trees look like my childhood, Magnums taste like Nan’s old flat and my favourite album is crimson, forget-me-nots take me to Ruskin Road, my adolescence was lilac, my dresses…

Your tether went slack not long ago, though I can’t say when exactly, the moment slipped by in silence, unnoticed, like a cloudscape changing on a windless day. I was sure I would feel it, so accustomed was I to hauling your weight around after me, such a heavy ghost, tenacious and solid, with the kind of…

Navigating grief is difficult, whether you are the one going through it or you’re supporting someone who is. It can be hard to know what to do or say, and every loss is different. I can only speak from my own experience, but as someone who lost their Mom to…

We all wind up there eventually whether we want to be there or not, spewed out onto that vast, rolling plain in some bare, uninviting spot, with no paths to follow or signposts to read you must choose your own heading and go, trudging on at a pace that is somehow alarmingly fast and yet painfully slow…

Weddings are strange. If you’re lucky, you’ll only ever have one, but you’ll come away knowing pretty much everything there is to know about the process. As a newlywed, I have wedding advice for days. I could give lectures about time management and logistics, planning and preparations. But many of…