Author: Suzanne Conboy-Hill

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‘Time for Dementia’, a Sussex Partnership medical training inititiative

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

The older we get as a population, the more dementia is likely to affect us closely, either as the person who has it or as their carer, family, or friends. Health services have not always been geared to these long term, shifting, deteriorating, and often demoralising needs in which an individual loses the core of themselves and those around them, incrementally day by day, lose the person they love. Training is a key issue but exposure to the trajectory of dementia has usually been missing, leaving just the bare bones of clinic snapshots supplemented by text book descriptions and checklist facts. … Continue reading ‘Time for Dementia’, a Sussex Partnership medical training inititiative

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‘Ør1g1ns’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

“Slick as oil over water, Katia headed for the house of the man whose dreams she needed to reprogramme. She shifted through his bedroom wall like damp through old bricks to wait by his cot for the right moment. Then, as his eyes began to flick back and forth and his long limbs twitched, she bent close to his ear, reintroducing the precious seed stolen by the Reversionists to demolish the future.” In ZeroFlash in response to prompt including, um, zeros! Continue reading ‘Ør1g1ns’

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‘God’s Scrubber’

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

“Valerie’s mother is nagging and she’s doing it, frustratingly, from under the screwed-up paper towels and muddy-looking wipes in the sluice so Valerie can’t dig her out. She’s doing her best with the unfinished business but it isn’t easy with the constant interruptions. This time though, despite the noises, she hopes she has succeeded because, a few yards away in the communal dining room, Pete is turning blue.” Excerpt from ‘God’s Scrubber’, finalist in the Coalition of Texans with Disabilities’ Pen2Paper competition and free to read as a PDF from their site http://www.txdisabilities.org/pen-2-paper. Winners to be announced on October 30th. Continue reading ‘God’s Scrubber’

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Rapture by Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

Rapture, by Phillippa Yaa de Villiers, is dedicated to the protection of South Africa’s rhinos and is reproduced here in support of World Rhino Day.  Rapture by Phillippa Yaa de Villiers We have to keep going as if there is a future, but it’s the end of the world, the rapture, screaming bodies hurled to heaven. Wars everywhere and the middle east burning: the smell of bodies lost to wonder, the callous mistake of statistics sunburnt holes in the sky and the ritual murder of elephants and rhinos almost industrialized, like our responses as automatic as breathing as automatic as pressing … Continue reading Rapture by Phillippa Yaa de Villiers

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Phoenix and Marilyn by Tracy Fells

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

‘Are you sure you want to go through with this?’ Hannah paused, giving Lou a moment to consider, her fingertips tightly pinching the edge of the paper strip. With eyes tightly closed her best friend nodded. ‘Do it.’ As Hannah tore the waxed paper downwards Lou let out a shriek, the piercing cry of a doomed creature caught in a snare. ‘Told you it would hurt,’ said Hannah, suppressing a smile. ‘Do you want me to carry on?’ They both appraised the runway, a rectangle of white skin trailing from kneecap to shin, bounded by the remaining forest of chestnut … Continue reading Phoenix and Marilyn by Tracy Fells

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In Memory of Shoreham August 22nd 2015

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

On August 22nd 2015, a display jet failed to pull out of a loop and ploughed into traffic waiting at lights on a main road near the airport. Eleven people died. Two pieces – a poem and a story – in the anthology Let Me Tell You a Story were written in response by authors who lived nearby. These are free to read and hear from August 1st in memory of those who died.     News report Contains video and still images. Continue reading In Memory of Shoreham August 22nd 2015

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Aliens Redacted my Cat

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

After five years of intermittent abductions during which George wrecked all their automatic doors by not going in or out of any of them; refused to speak unless offered his preferred variety of meat selection and then only in a language they hadn’t anticipated; and barfed selectively over their best instruments with remarkable precision, the aliens removed his chip and sent him packing. Continue reading Aliens Redacted my Cat

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A Soft Day by Anne O’Brien

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

“THE RAIN RUNS in muddy rivulets off the pile of earth beside his grave. No softening of the edges of this funeral. No fake grass discretely covers the mound, just a heap of mud, a pair of dirty spades, and two reluctant gravediggers in fluorescent jackets leaning against the neighbouring gravestone, silently willing us to move on so they can get the job done and head to the pub. Of course nothing will do the Ma but she has to wait until the last shovelful is put on. They pat down the soil with the backs of their spades as … Continue reading A Soft Day by Anne O’Brien

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Dear Mr Gove

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

You’re standing for party leadership and Prime Minister of this country so I need to ask you something. When you said ‘we’ve had enough of experts’, what experts did you have in mind? Was it an unattainable professional elite to contrast with the ‘hard working families’ you’re on the side of? You didn’t mean nurses obviously, because they’re ordinary and hardworking [and decent; we’re hearing decent a lot too]. But you probably did mean the pesky junior doctors with all their learning and knowing stuff and arguing even while they’re still called juniors and so clearly not long out of … Continue reading Dear Mr Gove

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How one word may have swung the EU vote

Suzanne Conboy-Hill

A simplification obviously, and compounded by a number of other influencing factors, but here, from a psychological not a political perspective, is my breakdown of what those were and why they were important. Some of the same issues would have applied had the vote gone the other way.   A referendum is an extraordinary thing because many more people than usual tend to vote which means there’s likely to be a significant number of novice voters, people less experienced at the whole rather intimidating process, than usual. Why is this important? Because when something is important AND you’re not familiar … Continue reading How one word may have swung the EU vote

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