14 Wonderful Women for International Women’s Day

March 14, 2026Antiracism, Architecture, Art, Artists, Books, Children, Creativity, Equality, Fiction, Food, Health, Love, Magic, Music, Parents, Politics, Science, Skincare, Sport, Women, Writers

8 March was the 115th International Women’s Day so, a few days later, on the 14th, here are 14 Wonderful Women.
And, close to UK Mother’s Day, one particular mother. There’s a magician, an actor, a writer, a chief midwife, a scientist, an architect, a facilitator for parents and their children, an inventor of a glorious body oil, an inventor of delicious snacks, a composer, a truth-seeker for racial justice, an MP, a painter, a footballer. and a mention for my Mum.

Now A Major Motion Picture, a novel by Peter Wise: for Christmas

November 14, 2025Books, Christmas, Creativity, Fiction, Gifts, Hope, reading, Reviews, Storytelling, Writers, Writing

If you’re wondering what to buy for the readers in your life for Christmas, can I suggest a gloriously-funny, poignant, heartfelt, beautifully-written novel about the hopes and dreams, ambitions and desires of an unknown screenwriter who gets a call from an Oscar-winning director and dares to believe that, this time, one of his screenplays will … Read More

Hidden Histories with Nova Reid

March 14, 2025Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Books, Education, Equality, History, Hope, Human Rights, Racism, Women

Nova Reid, producer, author, truthseeker and all-round remarkable Black woman, has made a podcast with Audible about other remarkable and unsung Black women: women who not only survived enslavement and unimaginable racism, but who thrived. It’s called Hidden Histories and, as Nova says, it explores the lives of: Pioneers, journalists, and rule-breakers – remarkable figures … Read More

A Valentine to Life: What Does It Feel Like? Sophie Kinsella

February 14, 2025Art, Books, Creativity, Death and Dying, Fiction, Health, Hope, Kindness, Love, Psychology, Valentine's Day, Writing

Unlike forty-five million people worldwide, I’d never read a Sophie Kinsella novel until I picked up What Does It Feel Like? in my local bookshop a couple of weeks ago. But if, like me, you’re not one of the forty-five million and you think you might never be: read this one. It’s funny. It’s optimistic. … Read More

A Blessing for our times

November 14, 2024Artists, Books, Creativity, Democracy, Equality, Good Things, Goodness, Hope, Human Rights, Kindness, Language, Love, Morality, Poetry, Politics, Psychology, Storytelling

Jan Richardson wrote this Blessing for her blog The Advent Door in 2014. It’s included in her book Circle of Grace published in 2015. Elsewhere Richardson talks about wild and stubborn hope. I love that phrase. A friend of mine sent Blessing when the World is Ending to me a few days ago. It feels … Read More

Black History Month; Black History Studies and Nova Reid’s Student Confession

October 14, 2024Allyship, Antiracism, Black History, Books, Equality, History, Human Rights, Kindness, Listening, Psychology, Racism, White Allies

October is Black History Month in the UK. But obviously Black History should be taught and celebrated every day of every year in history lessons in our schools, in everyday conversation, in stories, in music and song, in any way at all, everywhere in our lives. The theme this year is Reclaiming Narratives #reclaimingnarrativesbhm : … Read More

Tell Climate Change Stories

September 14, 2024Books, Climate Change, Creativity, Human Rights, Science, Storytelling, Writing

On last Tuesday’s The Life Scientific with Jim Al-Khalili, the guest scientist was Professor Peter Stott, a senior climate scientist at The Met Office’s Hadley Centre for Climate Science and Services. The biggest challenge in climate science today, Stott said, is whether we can adapt quickly enough to the increasingly dangerous effects of climate change … Read More

Independence Day: two dissenting points of view

July 14, 2023Allyship, Antiracism, Books, Democracy, Equality, History, Human Rights, Politics, Racism, White Allies

Independence Day, celebrated in America on the fourth of July, commemorates the Declaration of Independence, ratified on the fourth of July 1776. It stated that the: Thirteen Colonies were no longer subject (and subordinate) to the British monarch, George III, and were now united, free, and independent states. Freedom from a colonial power and freedom … Read More

Windrush, 75 years on

June 14, 2023Allyship, Antiracism, Art, Black History, Books, Creativity, Democracy, Equality, Fiction, History, Human Rights, Morality, Racism, Windrush, Writers, Writing

Seventy-five years ago, on 22 June 1948, HMT (His Majesty’s Transport) Empire Windrush arrived at Tilbury Docks, on the River Thames. She was named, as many empire ships were, for a British river, in her case the River Windrush, a small Thames tributary. Windrush brought 492 passengers to Britain from several Caribbean islands including Jamaica … Read More

Ask not what trees can do for us, but what we can do for trees

August 14, 2022Books, Climate Change, Creativity, Fiction, Places, Poetry, Recycling, Trees, Walking

Last weekend I walked through a wood. Sunlight filtered through the  leaves and made me think how medieval stonemasons must have been inspired by the branches of trees gathered in arching vaults above them when they imagined their cathedrals. In a modern reversal, in Italy, near Bergamo, there’s a tree cathedral: And, at the entrance … Read More

The Good Ally by Nova Reid

July 14, 2022Allyship, Antiracism, Books, Climate Change, Democracy, Education, Equality, Health, Human Rights, Mental Health, Psychology, Racism, White Allies, White Fragility, Women

When Claudia Rankine, a Black poet and playwright, was asked by a white man, after a reading from Citizen: An American Lyric (Rankine’s 2014 anthology about the collective effects of racism in our society) ‘What can I do for you? How can I help you?’ she replied ‘I think the question you should be asking … Read More