I am annoyed. We could change the name of the blog to I AM ANNOYED, as I’m pretty much always annoyed, but that would be really annoying, as ANNOYED is one of the words I struggle to spell. Mind, so is the word RESISTANCE, and I put that in my book title. So, I’m annoyed.…
Greetings, gorgeous ones. How has your week been? I’ve been visited by the Lady Covidia; throat scarred with razor blades, mind numbing fatigue and muscle aches that have left me winded. After a long weekend in bed, I was feeling if not better then less ill, but then my sense of taste disappeared, I felt…
Bore da Chickens, I know you weren’t expecting to hear from me today after all the drama about my flaps (really, that joke never gets old). I could get badges made, ‘Ask me about my Flaps!’ You know how I might have mentioned I’d written a book? You know the one with the fabulous…
Do you ever feel like you are doing life wrong? Like you should be doing loads of stuff, but instead you are quietly just doing you? July started with a much-anticipated trip to Barry in South Wales. There to perform an extract of my work for Folding Rock magazine, I took the chance to catch…
Bore da, my lovelies. Did I mention I was writing a book? Funny, it must have slipped my mind... Well, the day is finally here, and I can reveal the cover and title of my new book. I am so excited to share it with you guys first. I can’t tell you how much I…
I’ve fallen down another hole on Instagram. I’ve been learning how to get dressed. I’m aware some of you have seen me wearing clothes before. I do know how to get dressed, though, to be fair, it was fairly recent that I learned the label in your knickers goes on the left, meaning you never…
What are you reading my lovelies? Continuing to share books and writers I love, let me introduce the wonderful Vik Bennett and her memoir. I loved this book so much, an exploration of grief and motherhood and the making of something wild and magical to heal and grow. More than a book about gardening, this…
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman should be based on biological sex. This means that the term ‘woman’ as used in the Equality Act means biological woman and the term ‘sex’ means biological sex. It also means that those born male, but who identify as a woman, do…
The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the legal definition of a woman should be based on biological sex. This means that the term ‘woman’ as used in the Equality Act means biological woman and the term ‘sex’ means biological sex. It also means that those born male, but who identify as a woman, do…
I am a sick and disabled woman and I am dependent on disability benefits. I will not justify why I receive PIP. I will not explain to you the expenditure that I incur as a direct result of my chronic ill health. I will not list the things I have to spend more money on…
leedspostcards.co.uk Warning* This post refers to male violence against women. As a young woman, I had a poster of this postcard on my wall. I have embroidered it onto linen in green and purple threads, stitching words still depressingly relevant nearly 30 years later. How can that be? When so much has changed in the…
Brightest blessings for the season. Mid-winter is, for me, the perfect pause, a chance to rest and recharge. This year, struggling with my health, I’ve rested for the whole of December, getting writing work squared away so I can make time for nourishment, - a little yoga, a little knitting, - readying myself for…
This week I have been mostly on the Tik-Agram. Or is it Insta-Tok? Whatever, I’ve been pebbling (check me out, all down with the kids) pebbling my daughter and daughter-in-law with reels and funny memes and that bloke that goes on about the posh ice. My daughter did suggest I limit the number of pebbles…
I was busy on the frontline of parenting back in 1997 when Labour last got in after nearly two decades under the Tories. It is no exaggeration to say that life under the Tories back then was brutal. It has been brutal under this last lot, but back then the demonisation of single parents was…
I’m late, I’m late, I know, I’m sorry. I’ve been thinking about you. About this post. I miss chatting. Who knew writing a memoir would take up so much head space? Oh, and then there’s the bloody Mister demanding to know which cloth he’s meant to use to clean the windows, while my head is…
According to a recent Ipsos study in conjunction with the Global Institute for Women’s Leadership at Kings College London, 47% of Britons think things have gone far enough in giving women equal rights with men. They go further, saying that men are now being discriminated against. Pause while I adjust my what-the-fuck-face, as the…
Next-door’s back fence has blown down and because the house is empty the council haven't been around to fix it, despite me telling them. With the fence down I can see more of the path that runs through the estate and more of the people on it. Dog walkers throwing sticks, some failing to pick…
In a recent magazine article a woman was explaining that she'd been struggling with life. A difficult pregnancy while already having a toddler, she'd been working freelance from home, when the little one slept. Then new baby came along and feeding was hard and she had to go back to work early because they were…
Love is in the air and with this in mind I thought it time to return to the Housewife’s Handy Book and explore all things love and marriage in the letters section. Romance is blooming, or not, as the case may be, for our two young lovers Harry and Agnes. Let me remind you that…
I love a list. Without a list the things I think I have to do – more on that in a bit – drift out of my head, like balloons making a bid for freedom into a bright summer sky. Without a list I feel untethered, sure I should be doing something but not quite…
‘Mum, you have to stop it.’ I’m being told off by my kids again. And what heinous crime am I being scolded for this week? In that post-Christmas sort-out, I stacked a load of serving dishes and offered to bring them down to my daughter on my next visit. ‘But you haven’t got any,’ I…
Happy New Year. I hope you enjoyed the festivities and have not landed back into dreary January with too much of a bump. Have you got any New Year Resolutions? As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not one for resolutions. I joke now that I can’t be arsed, and that’s true, but as a younger woman,…
In another part of my life I hold Women's Meditation Circle's. Meeting on the New and Full Moon we gather for an evening of meditation, guided visualisation and journelling. For the New Moon we meet outside, even in the winter, in a beautiful communal space, all of us bundled up with covers and cushions and…
When was it that we were convinced that pants and vests weren’t cool? We wore them as kids, comfy pants with days of the week on them – a nightmare for neurodiverse kids, unable to cope with the incongruity of Wednesday’s pants on a Friday, even if they are the only clean pair. So, when…
What new horrors face me this week, in this world where I cannot quite see everything? What new joys does menopause bring, along with a powerful urge to tell the entire world to Fuck Off or eat my body weight in Malted Milk biscuits? This week, it seems, we need to talk about hair. I’ve…
Tomorrow is International Women’s Day. A chance to celebrate the women in your life. It’s a day to celebrate all of the achievements women have made – achievements that impact us personally, historically, economically, scientifically, politically and culturally. It’s a day to look with pride at the women around us, holding up the world, to…
My husband is looking after me. This is not a new thing, he’s nice like that – that’s one of the reasons I married him. That and the fact that he came for Christmas one year and literally wouldn’t go away - six kids later I figured I was stuck with him. We were sat,…
I miss my kids. Not just as they are now -the funny, bright, annoying, boring people they have become with their busy lives, exciting plans and lives far away. I miss them, for how they used to be, when they were mine, when I held their hands and wiped away their tears. It’s not all…
It has been bought to my attention that my recent posts have been a little snarky. Friends have messaged me asking if I am ok? (Well, I say friend, more like an acquaintance. To be honest, I consider her reading this blog more than a little bit stalky, I mean I don’t want to meet…
I seem to be losing my marbles. Have you seen them? Do you know where they are? Answers on a whats-a-ma-call-it!
Don't be missing from your family Photo's.
I treated myself to one of those beauty advents boxes. In true working-class fashion, I need to tell you that I had a voucher, and there was a deal, so it hardly cost a thing – why do we do that? If someone compliments my dress I have to tell them that I got it…
I don’t know when I lost my voice. Loud and brash in my twenties, I would stand my own with all comers. Was it a life running after kids that quietened me? Certainly, four kept me busy. Then my mother-in-law died and, leaving two adopted kids with profound multiple disabilities, her two joined ours to…
My bras have turned against me. All at once, as if they’d set a date, they have decided to pop their seams and send sharp spiky wires jabbing into the tenderest parts of my flesh. My draw is full of bras with escaping wires, ones I keep meaning to mend. The fix, sewing soft felt…
My husband is doing my head in. Not in a ‘I need to lay a new patio’ kinda way. Nor in ‘I need to look for one bedroom flats’ though the latter is certainly appealing. I should point out for fairness and balance that my husband is a lovely bloke – kind and supportive, a…
Image chosen by my Grandson, pointing out that we need to hurry so we can play another game. I used to really admire stories of women who’d get up at 5 am, before their kids woke, to write their novel - banging out 2000 words before breakfast or staying up into the wee hours to…
The lingering effects of Covid are curtailing are usual culinary delights. We are too tired to cook - eating pilchard on toast and a lot of jacket potatoes. Researching for my next novel, I’ve been struck by mentions of food and shopping from the 50s and 60s Rationing was in place until 1954 and food…
It has happened again. I swear to god, this is the last straw. Never mind insomnia, mood swings, the midlife spreading in places I didn’t think I could spread any further, this -THIS- has tipped me over the edge. What, I hear you say? You always do this – make these grand announcements and then…
I, like many, stand horrified at the overturning of Roe versus Wade in America last week, seeing abortion made illegal in many US States. This appalling act sees the rights of women everywhere undermined, and their lives made second best. I don’t care why a woman needs an abortion. For me, this is not about…
I’ve been thinking about school dinners today. I think we’re divided into those who loved school dinners and those who did not. I loved my school dinners. A hungry child, I loved the smell of cooking wafting up the hallways after break. The scent of puddings baking, dinners roasting, was almost too much to bear…
Why I celebrate international women’s day. I’ve always celebrated International women’s day – today 8th March. I worked in a women’s refuge in my late teens, and it taught me the solidarity of women and the difficulties many of us face. International women’s day has always been a time to celebrate, always been a time…
I once said to Michael Sheen - you don’t get to say that very often, do you? I once said to Michael Sheen that saying you wanted to be a writer when I was growing up was like saying you wanted to be an astronaut. For a girl, growing up in the relentless poverty of…
Remember me going on about winning A Writing Chance Award with New Writing North and the very lovely Michael Sheen ? No? Well you cant have been listening! Back in the summer I won a place on a writing program for underrepresented writers and this weekend we are all heading off to the BBC in…
Talking and not talking about menopause
I meet her down the bottom of the alley. Litter needs picking again. She’s off to get her paper, leaning on her stick, dodging curled lottery tickets and discarded masks. She’s a bit Daily Mail, if you know what I mean but she’s always out in her garden. Her roses are stunning, not a black…
I'm not beautiful despite being fat. I am beautiful. Full stop. I choose being beautiful as a radical act of resistance.
Bordering Grey 