This is a link to a post on my more techy blog where I’ve set out some of the basics of Echo ownership – starting with the observation that it’s more cat than gadget. Continue reading So you got an Amazon Echo for Christmas
The four year old girl crouched in the footwell has never heard of christmas and wouldn’t care if she had. She stares at her hands and wipes them on the pink anorak that used to fit but now hangs more loosely from her shoulders. The twelve year old boy next to her is angry and feels himself uprooted and displaced. He has heard of christmas but he blames the westeners who celebrate it for where he finds himself. His eyes tell simultaneously of a child’s dark despair and the blazing hatred of the adult he will become. He is … Continue reading Green Buses: a story and an appeal
The Recovery Letters are all written with the intention to try and alleviate some of the pain of depression, to make the loneliness slightly more bearable and above all to give hope that you can recover. We see recovery as self defined but can include living alongside symptoms or being symptom free, being stable on medication or medication free but most of all living a life with some meaning. [They] are written from people recovering from depression, addressed to those currently suffering. More about this on my other blog Continue reading The Recovery Letters
“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’
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
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
But you’re going to vote Leave because the EU is unelected and doesn’t do what you want. Right, well whose fault is that, then? I’m guilty of ignorance too. I thought about MEPs today for the first time and I had to look mine up. I’ve never voted for one, never had a clue what they do and that’s my fault. Worse, I find that Farage is one of them and maybe by not engaging, I helped put him there. I hope I get another chance. If we still need MEPs after tomorrow, I’ll be all over mine like a … Continue reading No idea who your MEP is? Never voted for one?
I wish this were fiction but it isn’t; tomorrow we decide as a nation whether to stay in the European Union or leave it, and the level of debate has been frankly juvenile. With the exception of a significant number of mostly women politicians, some of whom represent the other home nations of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, the key encounters have consisted of bluster, bluff, and braying bellicosity among a small number of men. Tories on the whole and from the same government, with UKIP tagging along seeming to be having the time of its life. It made me wonder … Continue reading The EU Referendum – Four Tories & a UKipper?
This début novel, published by Inspired quill which “pledg[es] a percentage of profits to different charities, running heavily subsidised workshops, or donating books to those who may not have access to them otherwise” is a searing tale of personal discovery made all the more authentic by the fact that the author is a psychologist and knows what she’s talking about when it comes to the way human distress and disorganisation presents itself. My review is here The Psychologist and the book is here. It’s a cracking read. Continue reading Sugar and Snails – a novel by Anne Goodwin
There is no excerpt because this is a protected post. Continue reading Protected: Chair’s Letter by Anatoli Lemon
Dr Suzanne Conboy-Hill 