“My school was nowhere so dramatic as the Cornish coastline. The nearest sea was the one frozen in the chalk of the nearby Downs which undulated their way from east to west.”
“Walking up our road on a sunny day entails staccato sprint bursts through the sunshine, followed by a painstaking crawl through the shade cast by the large plane trees which line the street.”
“A bouncy swimming pool stood before them. Their two avatars then spent some time jumping up and down happily on her wild and wonderful invention. What a joyful reward for letting someone in”
“When Spike was smaller, I remember giving him gifts that he liked so much, he couldn't look at them directly - only squint at them using his peripheral vision.”
“Sometimes, when we are asked "How was your day?" or "How are you?", we want to cast aside the "fine" that is bubbling on our lips and actually tell you.”
“When we met with Spike's paediatrician for the first time, the words poured out of us like milk. We were grateful for a chance at certainty after months of carrying around this leaden question. "Is he autistic?".”
“The boys' relationship has never been characterised by conflict, they accommodate and give way to each other like they do for no one else. Very gradually, companionship sprouted like a persistent plant on bare earth.”
“Spike lay sleepy amongst the rumpled sheets of our bed. He squinted, raised his hand next to head and opened and closed his pudgy starfish fist. He had made the Makaton sign for "light".”
“In the event of any playground injury, I would act as self-appointed triage, deciding whether the wounded party needed to be taken to the school nurse, or whether to sacrifice one of my beloved antibacterial wipes/plasters.”
“Instead, my eye was caught by something else. A thrill turned into a shiver as I shifted my cold-stiffened toes and took a careful step forward. Now I could reach the unmistakably brassy-yellow crystalline rock, glinting at the stream edge. Gold!”
“It was a hard-working blanket and had dropped stitches and unravelling trim. It was an uncolour, its former milky creaminess lost to intense amounts of loving.”
“Since 2000, the year I came to live in London, the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park has commissioned a temporary summer pavilion by a leading architect. I love the regularity and predictability of it. An annual marker of the summer months.”
