It’s half term and Charles is busy following his daily rota and pottering around the house. His mother is at work. His big sister Emily stayed over at one of her friends and isn’t expected back until the afternoon, and eleven year old Samantha is playing on her games console. Charles only had to make […]

My sister’s been walking on clouds all year. She’s going to Glastonbury with a bunch of friends and I’m really quite jealous. I’m almost seventeen and my sister has just turned eighteen, and in spite of the fact that sixteen and seventeen year olds are allowed to attend the festival unaccompanied, I wasn’t even allowed […]

From the first moment I saw a picture of our new house I knew exactly which bedroom I wanted. It’s the one with three windows overlooking the porch roof. I always thought it was cool in movies and TV shows when kids could sneak out of their bedroom window, clamber over the roof then climb […]

When I was little, I was convinced the house was haunted. Even in bright sunshine it was an imposing structure. We’d visit several times a year for a few days and I always looked forward to leaving. The joists creaked throughout the night and the nearby trees cast skeletal shadows across the moonlit walls. I […]

  Mum grew up in a time when girls were mostly girlie by default. She often talks about how things used to be and how much better things are these days. Women were looked down on if they didn’t dress up by wearing skirts and heels, make-up, etc. Now they’re looked down on when they […]

My brother’s a greaser! His hair is far too long and tatty, he rarely seems to wash and spends every day wearing the same Harley Davidson T shirt, a smelly old leather jacket, tattered jeans and his trusty old pair of baseball boots… and he thinks he looks ‘cool’. He looks like a reject from […]

I thought about the question for a moment before replying. “I really don’t know.” I said. My brother looked me up and down and smiled. “Because it’s fun.” he told me as he jumped off the dresser and twirled around in his pink satin pyjamas, grinning from ear to ear. “Boy’s clothes are just so…” […]

Lawrence has recently been taken out of foster care due to him turning 16 years of age, and has been residing in a residential housing scheme for the last five months. It’s a kind of ‘halfway house’ which helps youngsters make the transition between foster care and living by their own means. The halfway house […]

WTF is going on? You may ask… Well… my mother works for herself and for no other reason than trying to impress one of her clients, she claimed that she had a Personal Assistant to help manage her diary, run errands, keep her topped up with coffee and so on. It was one of those […]