What is it with these famous middle-aged women authors who write about their wonderful lives and marriages, giving us advice on how to improve our relationships and this elusive happiness we are all seeking….like Glennon Doyle (Untamed etc) and Elizabeth Gilbert (Big Magic, East Pray Love etc) to name just two – and then they become lesbians.

Second Careers
There is this feeling at 50 that we are too late to start something new, that we need to simply accept what we are doing and sail into our retirement…we simply let our dreams go. You know all those saying: You can’t teach a dog new tricks; It’s too late, the ship has sailed; If […]

Covid Guilt
I thought I was too old for a midlife crisis – so I looked it up and it is defined as a condition occurring for people aged from 45 to 64 – which is me. This transition of identity appears to be caused by a psychological crisis brought about by events that highlight a person’s growing age and inevitable mortality.

Swim Mums’ Rules
RULES for the SWIM MUM Nobody expects to be a swim mum. We hear that swimming opens up a child’s lungs and all this water-safety-for-children lures us in. Next thing, it’s squad training three times a week, and before you know it, we are up way before 4am every morning for the swim run, waiting […]

Days of our Lives
This is possibly the scariest time of my life. My dad is back in hospital, where he has been on and off for over a year now, and he describes himself as being on the pointy end of life. My mum is lonely and isolated in the north of Scotland due to circumstances. And my […]