Start. Cold, dark – fox screams still echoing over the hill. Very cold, duvet pulled up close and I return to Mr Bright’s biology class. I was lucky enough to enjoy the tail end of an era when teachers could still be rather eccentric and Mr Bright was one of those. He kept a Boa [...]

Oh Dear Reader, I could write ‘til year end on my childhood and its countless characters, human and animal, but I must stop! I have our story to tell. As you know,  many of the animals I befriended in my innocent years I turned to when we needed their help and I look forward to [...]

My window ajar, the curtain fluttered and in she flew. My dancing soul, nectar of roses, vapour of dew. An alluring light of butterfly flight and a tease of lids to A blinkering start, a surreal giddiness between dare and pillow. Comforts abandoned heavy for excitement light, The dawn rose its song for two lovebirds [...]

Strange though it may seem, I never eyetalked again until I rescued Scruffy. My imagination provided the answers I wanted to hear and much more quickly than any animal could respond, so I never really tried again until Scruff. Take the hens for example. Did I really want to sit in the coop and listen [...]

I learnt all my life lessons on the farm. Junior school was a flat distraction – it is where I learnt to suffer textbooks and acquire the camouflage of normality, which every kid cloaks their embryonic selves in to survive, and too many take through to adulthood. To be smart but not a clever clogs, [...]

Peer pressure moves crowds now, no longer top-down exhortations. The London Met need to rethink its strategy, and so too many brands. In South Africa government campaigns to encourage safer sex failed. Then Judi Nwokedi, an enterprising activist, invoked a campaign loveLife. Hip, positive and fun, the campaign brought down HIV infections rates. In Serbia, [...]

I would find it in chilled or seasonal fresh produce, shelved bland canned, spiced with extra sauces. In times of despair in the bargain buckets, reduced to clear. Perhaps close to sell by or introductory offer. I would be attracted by cellophane packaging, convenience portions. Heat and serve. Method to follow, no variation, swallowed and [...]

It has to be said I was an unusual child. Very much a loner. I made friends with animals, lived in the weather of the river meadows and had little interest in other kids. My love and curiosity of all wild creatures and the farm animals gave me a patience I think few children possessed. [...]

I still saw flickers of my love child between adult, But only now magical moments dancing love, Lost to painful healing and experience scarring. Her sparkling naughty mischief bagged black by betrayal, Adult anger turning sentry then wisdom guard. They once blazed childish love and devotion But now just moments and no time to warm [...]

Smothered with Taunton Services ice cream but fragile grumpy – oh what more do they want? But Daddy knows and He wants too… To join their Mummy, already arrived and waiting in Looe! It is holiday time! Two weeks of belonging together in Cornish cove, sun and drizzle, Excitement boiling but vapouring a little by [...]