Blog List

I’m often left mortified when I see a look of delight cross my children’s faces after I reveal I’m vacating the house for a couple of days. While I wish I could shrug it off, I’m irritated that they don’t realise my constant nagging, non-stop worrying and endless demands could be a little easier to deal with if they just ‘manned up’ a bit. Or maybe, just maybe, if they listened to me...

When I was in secondary school, I didn't have enough money to matter. I went to a school where you were defined by how wealthy you were, the size of your house, who has the best car and the area you lived in. Although it provided a fantastic education, it was the type of school where even some of the teachers looked down their noses at me. I was told I'd never be smart enough because of where I...

I recently read an article on MummyPages about how an eight year old girl in the UK has taken on a shoe company to complain about the lack of gender neutral footwear for kids . Eight-year-old Sophia Trow put pen to paper when she went to buy new shoes and was told the dinosaur shoes were “just for boys and did not fit girls’ feet”. Sophia’s mum tweeted her letter to the shoe company and...

Last Thursday, I was called into the boss' office to be informed that my position was being made redundant. There followed the usual “It's not you, it's us” platitudes about organisational change and pressures from investors, but the only thought that pounded in my head, flashing in giant warning letters in my mind's eye, was: “How am I going to tell the kids?” This is not...

I slunk surreptitiously into the pharmacy. Not my usual local one where all the staff know me, of course. Seeing another woman at the counter, I hovered around the vitamin section while I waited for her to be served. She handed in a prescription and then took a seat as she waited for it to be filled. Blast! I contemplated leaving and returning later when an on-the-ball assistant caught my furtive...

Over the last decade, I have experienced many aches and pains due to a number of fertility issues. These pains were both physically and emotionally draining at times, however, unlike some who experience such fertility issues, I came out the other side with two beautiful daughters. The birth of my second daughter marked a turning point for me; although I would be only too delighted to become...

“Mum I’ve got something to tell you,” my eldest son said as we sat down to dinner. The boy was 19 and had brought his girlfriend of six months to dinner. I had met the girl in question a few times and liked her, but I hadn’t spent any quality time with her, so was looking forward to this opportunity of getting to know her. I had just put the dinner plates on the table when he made this...

St Patrick’s Day tradition demands that we plant potatoes, wear green and go to a parade. Every year, when the parade is finally over, I vow never again. But the call of the parade is like a siren song and every year the vow is forgotten. Of all the parades down the years a few are stand outs. The parade where my eldest was obliged by her school to participate, where we adults delighted in...

It’s a big week for me. My second novel, The Lake , is being published by HarperCollins as part of their new crime/thriller imprint, Killer Reads. It’s a little like having a new baby; there’s build up, the anticipation, and finally, not without a little pain involved, it’s here. Something I was told by another writer when I wrote my first novel was: “No one cares about your novel.” It...

So myself and the hubby went on one of our monthly Date Days last week. Our work schedules are so crazy we’ve taken to having dates on Sunday afternoons; a couple of blissful hours of just us then back in time to put the kids to bed. It’s normally heaven, but this date proved to be a bit more controversial. Off we went for a quick bite to eat then on to see Reese Witherspoon’s latest movie...