May Day – poem

May Day Hawthorn, Bride of May, That flighty damsel. Her syrup-sweet perfume As potent as incense, From blossoms – dancing Maids scattering petals; The creamy confetti Swirling to music Of giddy, jigging gusts, Joyful, waltzing breezes. Offering wishes,...

Eco Ratio Lament – poem

National Geographic These Fractions Make Me Fractious Fractions can be useful, we can’t deny. Percentage, pi, and what slice of the pie We can get; the discounts, bargains and gains. Yet while we are taking all of these pains; Working out added value, returns, wealth,...

Why Do ‘Mums Make Porn’ on Channel 4?

Having set about a few years ago to write a novel about objectification and the darker side to our ‘hyper-sexualised’ culture, I was interested to find out more about the motives of the mothers who featured in this documentary. My book project began with...

The Happiness Saboteur

Profile of a Narcissist from the novel:’The Life Coach Less Travelled’ “I think I can remember a time when I was happy, before my sister was born. My clearest memory of her is when I was five, going on six. My saliva was dribbling onto the skin which...

Sister Patrick’s Namesake

Humourous extract from my novella, ‘So Sister,’ which usually goes down well at readings, delivered in my corny Irish accent. The girls in the Geography class at the protagonist’s convent school delight in leading this delightful nun off her subject:...

Ash Wednesday Nostalgia

This image from an article in ‘The Express’ online today brought back memories of my Roman Catholic childhood; of queuing up, offering our little foreheads to receive that dusty, purplish smudge across and down, unaffected by the sombre reminder of our own...