Category: United Kingdom

On the Trail of Giants

‘Which way?’ I didn’t look at the map; it didn’t seem necessary. Instead, I pointed in a vague south-westerly direction where there was no road, only a wall of houses. ‘That way.’ Dad nodded, accepting …

On Learning to Fly

Ich war vierzehn, schüchtern und unsicher. Vor mir auf dem Tisch lag ein Anmeldeformular für einen Schüleraustausch in Deutschland mit dem Hinweis, dass Teilnehmer:innen extrovertiert und selbstbewusst sein sollten. Tja, ich fühlte mich nicht ganz …

Orkney

North. Keep going North. Keep driving – past Bristol, Birmingham, Manchester. Past the Lake District, where low stone walls trace patterns across green fields (and where we stop to buy me a pair of new …

Thanksgiving

I celebrated thanksgiving for the first time last year. Twice. I hadn’t been expecting to celebrate it at all. On the last Thursday of November, I was sitting in a university seminar, my concentration dwindling, …

Phoenix City

Will you promise me something? I would like to ask this of you as my esteemed reader. It really is a very humble request. Promise me you won’t stop reading when I tell you where …

Two Hundred Days

I saw the sea again, today. I heard the roar of the waves, tasted the salt on my tongue, felt the wind in my hair. It had been over two hundred days. The crash of …

Addicted

Bleak, bog-ridden, beautiful. Here I am again. I said I would not return, I would never return, but here I am. Too late, I ask myself why. The roar of the cannon is still ringing …