My son, the art project and the unexpectedly pleasant afternoon
Over half-term, my son had to do an unusual GCSE art project. He’d been given very little briefing on it, but basically he needed to get outside and create something – a piece of ‘land art’. His responses to this idea were that it was ‘trash’ and ‘not art’. I’ve been really impressed by how my son has thrown himself into his art so far. He’s a good artist, but not a brilliant...
Marathon training: Why I’m finally running for charity
I’ve never run for charity before. There’s two reasons for that. The first is that I think if you’re running for charity, it ought to be some sort of challenge. For me, running a half marathon isn’t a challenge. It’s something I do every year – last year I even did three half marathons. Who wants to give money to charity just because Sarah is running another half marathon? Yawn! And the other reason...
The Power by Naomi Alderman
I bought The Power way back in September with my birthday money, because the blurb sounded interesting. But when I posted a photo on Instagram, someone told me they’d heard mixed reviews about it. Then I remembered that it was a book my friend had really disliked. What had I done?! It took me several months to pluck up the courage to read it. In The Power women and teenage girls all over the world are suddenly discovering they...
Our ordinary weekends
When I see people getting excited about the weekend on social media, I never really get it. Sometimes, dare I say it, I prefer weekdays. Our weekends aren’t exciting. We don’t go on family days out. We don’t have a lovely family DVD evening with popcorn. We don’t have a Friday night takeaway. Our weekends are all about sport. Our weekends have been about sport since my 15 year old son was 7. That’s a long...