Category Archives: blog

I was doodling in my notebook, a variation on something I’d done before, when I noticed it looked a little like a fingerprint. Doodling is a form of meditation for me, it keeps me busy so that the other side of my brain can get a word in. So, I started thinking about fingerprints andContinue reading “Fingerprints”

“Do you want something metal?” I looked down at the slightly dishevelled 9 year old in his blue school jumper. His grin was ear to ear, obviously very pleased with his find. It’s the sort of question that sets off alarm bells in someone who has worked with children for a long time. I immediatelyContinue reading “Wonder (part 2)”

So I spent some of the day, sitting in the Spring sunshine, making an element for one of my prayer boxes. There are 8 prayer boxes currently under construction and I’m working on the one called Wonder at the moment. When you open the box you’ll discover, amongst other things, a mini sculpture made upContinue reading “Wonder”

I remember Lauren Laverne talking on BBC Radio 6 about the vastness of music and how sometimes we need maps from those who’ve gone before us. It really resonated with me. There is so much music out there, more than ever before, and sometimes it’s difficult to find. Of course, there’s Spotify (and other platforms)Continue reading “Wonderlust”

Bik & Bok is the third story in the Tales from a Small Blue Planet saga (it’s not really a saga but doesn’t that make it sound grand?). After this we’re going to take a break for something different but we’ll revisit the denizens of that strangely familiar planet later in the year. Bik &Continue reading “Bik & Bok”

This is another story from the mostly forgotten, Tales from a Small Blue Planet, a book I wrote in the early Noughties (is that what we’ve finally decided to call that decade? Seven Billion people and that’s all we’ve got?). The stories are based on the parables of Jesus and this one is obviously (IContinue reading “One of Our Bloopers is Missing”

In 2004 I had a book published containing some of my short stories. Tales from a Small Blue Planet, still available on Amazon if you search really hard, is a re-imagining of the parables of Jesus set in a fantastical world. I rediscovered it recently and set myself the task of recolouring the illustrations. ThisContinue reading “Stardust”

I love bacon. This is going to be a short post because there isn’t much more to it than that. Good, responsibly sourced, well fed, piggy goodness, is one of the things that makes life, not just good, but great. Biting into a bacon butty (that’s a sandwich to those of you not from theContinue reading “Bacon”

When I say I went to Catholic schools and had a very non-tactile, emotionally remote family, you’ll understand that I didn’t receive the best sex education during my formative years. In fact, I’m squirming a little bit just writing this (I didn’t giggle when I wrote the word sex, so that’s progress). Sometime around 13Continue reading “The Other Book”

It happened. Yesterday. The thing I’d been waiting for. After a busy but rewarding day at work, I drove home, tired but content. It wasn’t quite dark and the light lingered a little longer. The traffic was bad but I didn’t mind, I like driving, I like the flow of it, the streams of redContinue reading “Hope”