I am not a natural camper. I can count the number of times I have attempted this activity on the fingers of one hand. (I’m not counting the outrageously luxurious glamming I have enjoyed in Uganda and Tanzania.) just the times I have agreed to sleep in a tent. Or even in a car. The […]Read Post ›
This little table was already old when I got it when I was a little girl. My mother used to take in the occasional lodger or paying guest, and I used to love them all as they were a very welcome break from my rather solitary not to say lonely existence. I was very shy […]Read Post ›
or: The asexual reproduction of plants. Miss Power was probably the least well-named teacher we ever had. Beige in dress, including the long bloomers she used to wear under her skirt (we could see whenever she sat at the desk on the dais, legs comfortably, yet still modestly, apart) and somewhat beige in personality. Certainly […]Read Post ›
This is not a picture of Mother Mary Gabriel or Reverend Mother as she was known, because I could not easily find one of her today. It is however a painting of her predecessor, the founder of the Convent, sister Mary Tredway. The habit is similar but there the resemblance ends, as M M Gabriel […]Read Post ›
For To S I’ve been sorting through a lot of things recently, boxes of photos and old papers mainly and I’ve been having a wonderful time. Yesterday I hit a certain jackpot, because I found a box of very special papers, mainly from my first year at university, 1972/3. I arrived in Sheffield in October […]Read Post ›
Today was a profoundly sad day, as we celebrated the life of this beautiful, chic and intelligent friend. A life truncated by cancer, too young, too early, too cruelly. I first met Christine when we were both supply teachers at Ealing Green, in 1985.The first thing I noticed about her was her smile and then […]Read Post ›
An ambition fulfilled. Today is the fourth anniversary of Sharon’s death. The last three years there was a lovely memorial mass said for her in Westminster Cathedral – her spiritual and dramatic home. Her funeral there was the biggest production she ever put on, and it was superb. I have written about it before I […]Read Post ›
I miss teaching. I really do. I was talking yesterday to an old friend – the friendship is old, not the friend, about her desire to retire as soon as possible from the profession, and I can quite understand why she wants to. We met about 27 years ago in one of the toughest comprehensives […]Read Post ›
I always wanted to be an English teacher, since I first started school, and I was one of the fortunate people who actually achieved her childhood ambition. As a child I played teacher -schoolchild games with myself over the summer holidays, marking my work, going through pages and pages of workbooks which my mother bought […]Read Post ›
for MKJK My favourite food of all time. When I was very young I did not like chicken at all. This was my father’s influence as he ate neither chicken nor fish, so I didn’t come across either until I was about 12 or thirteen, and I have to say I wasn’t exactly enthralled with […]Read Post ›
