Kerry Hudson FRSL
@ThatKerryHudson
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Following
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Media
1,182
Statuses
24,084
Books: NEWBORN, LOWBORN, THIRST, TONY HOGAN Scripts: BBC, Radio 4, ARTE Bylines: New York Times, Guardian, Grazia Fortnightly Travel Column: The Herald
Sheffield
Joined May 2010
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Last Seen Profiles
Pinned Tweet
When I was a very wild, troubled teen I found Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha in Great Yarmouth library & it changed my mind about who gets to write books & what stories are valuable. So this...this is one of the best moments of my whole career... absolutely overwhelmed...
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Wrote this for
@theipaper
. Swear to god, the patronising assumption that poor folk haven't spent their whole life learning how to live cheaply & somehow need *educating* on this will be my personal death...you can't cut back where there's nothing to cut.
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Have started saying aloud every nice thing I think about people:
'Those are ace socks'
'This library is so well organised'
'Congratulations, that's a beautiful baby you've made'
Each day it brings me joy. Maybe 1 in 10 think I'm a weirdo but 9 in 10 walk away smiling ❤️
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As of today I am officially a
@UofGlasgow
Lecturer in Creative Writing - a proper dream come true! Later this month my new weekly column will launch with an excellent newspaper I greatly respect. I want to go back & tell that wee girl on a council estate magical stuff can happen.
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Glasgow has welcomed us so wholeheartedly. Imagine, 3 months after having to leave Prague, we've dream jobs x 2, the perfect neighbourhood and, crucially, the most excellent medical treatment. So happy we moved home and we'll pay it all forward ❤️🏴
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💥And...2nd bit of news...I'm honoured to say that next year I'll start as a Creative Writing Lecturer on the
@UofGlasgow
! To work at one of the best universities in the country with some of our best and brightest colleagues
@UoGWriting
& students is a proper dream come true💥
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For a piece...what's the most comforting thing a doctor/social worker/benefits person has said to you? Not as part of their job, just as part of their humanity. This week two docs made me cry just by acknowledging I have, in fact, been very ill...such a small but important thing.
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Back home. Peter's dad passed away peacefully in a room with a view of Zurich lake. He was a gentle, quiet, kind man. An artist always with a book in his hand. He once made Peter an actual igloo with his bare hands. He made Peter the father he is ❤️
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I was going to just take this week off but my God, I am being tested. Today I was asked to give a talk at a famous public school. It included the line, 'whilst we have no budget for speaker fees, we are more than happy to reimburse train fare and treat you to a dinner.' 1/4
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Yesterday kind Scottish folk offered us: a wireless router, loan of a kayak & school uniform for bubs❤️. We've never felt as welcomed or supported as we have with this move home to Glasgow. It's a lovely thing to experience.
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Ok...this week Julie Bindel rt the article below to her 80,000k + followers & calling me 'straight interloper' - she then says she read my book Lowborn. So:
1. She knows I have had same sex partnerships bc I wrote about it
2. She knows I've experienced rape & sexual assault.
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I'd also add today that if you have a 'complicated' childhood there's a perception that comes from others & often even yourself that mothering will be so much harder...but for me, it has been a joyful, glorious, healing gift to create a loving, stable, gentle family of my own ❤️
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Well, it looked like it's all worked out! See you in Mount Florida, South Side in the summer...thanks to everyone who shared my tweet and made connections for us. We're so happy to be coming home and delighted to be setting up home in Glasgow! ❤️
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On that note, if you are from a school with disadvantaged pupils and would like to do a zoom reading & Q&A with me (zoom because I live in Prague) with me my DMs are open. No charge. 4/4
#givemestrength
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Home ❤️!! The flat is beautiful, we've already been hit full force by Glasgow friendliness & the Irn Bru's cold...
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Guess who got a full bill of health?! The surgery succeeded - my windpipe is 12mm rather than 6mm now. Last week's trouble was just some natural healing up (& yes, some overdoing it on my part...)! Don't have to go back for 3 months 🙏
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Sadly I did not get to have the headline 'You can shove your coronation up your ar*e' but here's my
@heraldscotland
on refusing an invite to Buckingham Palace & why this coronation is ACTUALLY IMMORAL.
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1. The school fees per annum: £45,936 (boarding) & £33,990 (day pupils)
2. I don't *work for my dinner* because I'm a skilled professional who needs to feed her kid & pay rent. I get paid in cash TY.
3. If I was going to *work for free* I would be going to a deprived school. 2/4
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In other news...we live in Sheffield now! We'll have the boat in London until March (for wee jaunts...) but we're very much enamoured with our new city of indie businesses, understated kindness & views for daysss...this picture from a few days ago ❤️ God's own country indeed...
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A wee bit of personal news...I'm going back to school! Delighted to be accepted to study a Postgraduate Cert. in Applied Arts in Social Settings at
@QMUniversity
...🔥🔥🔥
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BTW, I was going to let this die quietly for the sake of my peace. But I'm not quiet. I was raised on Thatcher's 80s on council estates by a fishwife and I am really, really angry.
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The news is out! Delighted & honoured to be a weekly columnist for
@heraldscotland
🔥
Expect the candid & personal. Expect columns that feel like a hug and a tot of whisky. Expect community, arts & working class politics ✊❤️
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It’s
#Newborn
publication day 💙💚♥️🧡💛…a book with my whole heart in it.
I left school at 15 with no qualifications & this is my 4th (!) book. It feels miraculous.
Feeling lucky to be a mum. Lucky to be alive & very grateful for this moment ❤️
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Mornin' from rainy Glasgow where there's Tupac on the taxi radio & it's surgery day for my mutinous windpipe 💪🙏. Feeling so lucky & grateful as ever I can access free, excellent treatment ❤️
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Can't say it loud or often enough - 'I am not a social mobility success story. I was simply lucky'... we need to do whatever we can *now* to make sure kids growing up in poverty now reach their full potential in the future.
‘Growing up in poverty erodes your self-worth’
Writer
@ThatKerryHudson
grew up in extreme poverty. She spoke to
@emmabarnett
about her worries for children caught up in the
#costofliving
crisis and what impact poverty had on her.
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Had a zoom consolation with the best doctor for my condition in the UK yesterday. He told me my trachea can be opened to almost 100% (it's currently at 50% so a child's size). And well treated, between operations, I shouldn't even know I have the condition. Feeling hopeful 🙏🙏🙏
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Just downloaded a home report for a wee flat we might want to buy in the Southside! I'll be the first in my immediate family to own my own home and it's more than a proper dream come true...it feels miraculous ❤️
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Mother's Day...don't know who needs to hear it but if today is hard, if you have a difficult relationship with your mum or she's not around or you'd hoped to be a mum but it didn't happen...I see you. I send love to you. We mother & are mothered in so many ways beyond the binary.
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Well Peter outdid himself today. And celebrating with him, our beautiful wee boy, old stinky dog & mercurial cat is the happiest birthday I've ever had 🎂🎂🎂
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Cover girl!! Working-class women on the front page of Guardian's What's On...💪💪💪
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The insane hair & ravaged face (bet your arse there's a filter on this pic) of a woman who just sent her new book off to her editor! ❤️
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Took the wee one to University of Glasgow to show him where his Ma will be lecturing in the new year & I had the same teary feels as when I had my first book published ❤️
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Honestly one of the nicest first days at a job I've ever had. Talented students, lovely colleagues, and the *most beautiful* work environment...
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Thanks for all your well wishes. Out & everything went very well. I'm in till tomorrow but already breathing so much easier. Everyone has been phenomenal & I'm very grateful to them. Now for a sarnie a yogurt & a very big sleep 💤
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Kitchen looks like there's been a muuurrrderer...but it's done! Thanks for all your advice. Big Elmo is Delia all in one sponge. Fairy cakes are shop bought & redecorated because Mama also has deadlines 💅...Bub's will *lose his mind* when he sees them ❤️
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I'm not naming and shaming here because I at least respect that they are trying to get diverse speakers to engage with their privileged students BUT it kind of undoes that point if you don't value my labour, experience and time by suggesting it should be given free. 3/4
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Anniversary! Four years married, seven together. It's been some year for one year. I grew up not believing this was possible and I'm always grateful to have him by my side through every bit of it.
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Last year I was so sick on my birthday I had a bath & a takeout & called it a day. This year...I live on a boat sailed down the Thames from Oxford. Took my beautiful boy to the Tate Modern where he wondered at the art & ate cake in bed with the love of my life. Joy & gratitude.
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Booked our flights home (me and bubs...Peter will be accompanying the animals). Nine days ago we thought we'd spend the next decade in Prague. So weird. But it's a necessity & we're getting dead excited for language, community and ease of 'home'. Please welcome us with open arms.
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First meeting for the new
@UofGlasgow
lecturing position this morning. I can't remember being so excited to start a job since my first charity job (20 years ago!). What a joy to embark on a whole new creative adventure.
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Is 'feminism' now attacking another working class woman who's experienced multiple sexual assaults and encouraging others to do so?
Julie Bindel knows - because she read my whole book about it - that I overcame a huge amount to get here & she'd still tear me down for sport.
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Absolutely disgusted by today's decision & heartbroken for the women of the US. I had two abortions in my teens (one as a result of rape) & I can't imagine what my life would be like if I hadn't been able to access them. Terrifying to see the years roll backwards.
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Well gang, this is why people don't write about bisexually - today I've been both a straight interloper & a bad queer for wanting to ensure I'm not denying someone who *needs* those safe spaces (in a way I honestly do not) a spot. Honestly cannae be arsed.
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When I tell you never in a life of wild imaginings did I ever imagine this would happen...the *New York Times* asked me to write an essay about growing up with pre-payment meters or 'The Meter' as it was known in our house...hope it resonates.
“I grew up in a string of dilapidated slum rentals, project housing and homeless hostels. I grew up with a monster in most of those homes,” writes
@ThatKerryHudson
.
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Three years ago I lost my wedding ring & just never got round to replacing it. We finally got one (a vintage opal - my birth stone) mailed to the new address & Peter got down on one knee again on the first day of our new home. It was very sweet & I'm a lucky woman ❤️
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Tatted!!!!! Had the best experience with such a lovely tattoo artist & Chemical Brothers up loud in my lugs. Feel like I've always had/was always meant to have them already...
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It's not a flattering shot - unshowered, no make up, mad hair, Peter's jumper...but how could I not commemorate this moment of pure & utter joy?
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The internet tells me it's 3 years today that
#Lowborn
was published. A book that took so much to write but gave me so much more in return. Thank you to every reader, bookseller & librarian who opened their hearts & heads to my story 🧡
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Off we go to be reunited with the rest family 🚶♂️🐈⬛🐕. Thank you Prague for all the ☀️. See you soon Glasgow! ❤️
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Peter also told me today, 'You make a lot more sense in Glasgow. In Prague I thought you were the Superman of friendliness among humans. But it turns out you're just Scottish' (I was dancing to someone's blaring car radio at the time 😂).
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@annemariepoet
Two words: Lucky. Escape. Thank God he showed his true colours (& deeply ingrained + outdated patriarchal opinions) before you wasted anymore time. More power to you xxx
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Also, I am still pretty poorly - we're racing against my windpipe closing up to get back to the UK, 'insert a ticking clock' - so I'll still be quiet on here and slow with replies sometimes. Bear with me. But I'm very grateful to this wee community.
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Some lovely, lovely news...the announcement of my new memoir,
#Newborn
, on navigating motherhood & marriage without a map...out Feb 2024. My most candid book yet with my whole heart in it. I hope it will reach the readers who it'll resonate with...❤️
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I'm 43 today. And along with waking up on our boat home in East London with the people & animals I love...*this* is a truly wonderful birthday gift 🎈🎈🎈
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🎉It's been so hard sitting on this! I'm absolutely honoured to be this year's Writer in Residence for the always brilliant, always radical
@BookPaisley
.
If you are a group or org in Renfrewshire and you'd like me to come and deliver a workshop with you...please get in touch!🎉
We are delighted to announce our Writer in Residence for 2023 is award winning author, Kerry Hudson! 🤩
Welcome to the team Kerry, we are very excited to be working with you!
Read more here 👉
@ThatKerryHudson
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So we signed our letting agreement, paid our deposit, we're arranging our moving van...it's so exciting to see it all take shape. We're coming home ❤️
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Is there anything more emblematic of this farce than rich folk getting more free stuff while the poorest sit on the floor by the stench of the toilets because the seat *they paid for hasn't been provided*...?
*Conjecture but I bet I'm right.
To help celebrate the Coronation of King Charles III this weekend, we'll be giving out a limited number of scones onboard our services to London to First Class passengers tomorrow and Friday 🇬🇧
The question is - do you put jam or cream on first?
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I am finally getting my next dilation surgery next Thursday (the will basically blow up my child-sized trachea to a grown-woman sized one with a big balloon 🎈)! I cannot wait to be breathe again and have turbo-charged energy*. Feel so very lucky for the
#NHS
*Be afraid.
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Taking the bus through rainy Glasgow streets. But God, I love this city. It's inspiring & energising me in the same way as when I first moved to London at twenty. Right place. Right time. Home ❤️
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Home! For years - even while desperately trying for a baby - I dreamed of taking my kid to the sea. Then lockdowns. Then illness. But it was worth the wait! He had an utter ball. I feel so lucky I got to do this with him when I might not have for so many reasons. Magic❤️
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Our offer was accepted!! It's our boat ⛵. Fairly teary at years of dreaming finally coming to fruition & for thinking of all the rich experiences we're going to give wee one ♥️💙🛶
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3. She knows as a result I've had severe mental health problems in the past.
4. My female ex of 10 years tweeted her directly to clarify I was not 'straight'.
5. She still kept that tweet up/didn't clarify exposing me to untold, nasty abuse from thousands.
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Sharing again as an easy way of updating things:
My last surgery was a bandaid & that bandaid has stopped working. I average about 2 hours a day up & about time & I'm protecting that for family & wee bits of work. So, will be quiet on here. Be good! ❤️
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First family Glasgow breakfast ❤️ I can honestly say we're overjoyed to be here & folk's friendliness & kindness has been just been outstanding.
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Our first boat purchase for off-grid living...a secondhand vintage French kettle...I think you can agree I've got my priorities right 🍏🍏🍏
It's whistle is surprisingly low & steady like a soft siren.
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Off out to make the most of these last Prague summer night. This time just week I was so poorly I couldn't get out of bed - God bless modern medicine & £1 tops from the local vintage shop 💊💊🌸🌺💠
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Falling deeply in love with London boatlife. This is our nearest supermarket...and today we took our wee boy to the National History Museum, V&A & Science Museum. We all had dinner while the boat gently bobbed & he went to sleep with his cuddly cat & a tiny pumpkin 💔🧡🎃
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The lovely Ukrainian women we hosted in Spring came to say goodbye today. She brought flowers & berries & told us about her recent trip to Rome. She's made a lovely life for herself here in Prague 💙💛
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This week: brought forward big surgery because I cannae breathe, had a TERF pile-on, & had a school that charges a minimum £33k per student fees ask me to educate their students for FREE...and I'm still finishing my book & enjoying my life. Sorry haters! 😘
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Going through old stuff. First year Peter & I got together I wrote him a tiny love story. When he came to Paris with me to collect my Prix Femina Etranger prize & brought me a tiny typewriter to remember it by ❤️ Sickening I know, but we were newly in love, giddy & skint.
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I'm editing my next book about motherhood and marriage...and how you mother and love when the models you observed of those things growing up were so deeply flawed and...I just can't wait for it to meet its readers. Like Lowborn, I know it will find its people and I'm grateful ❤️
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Johny just did his first sleep woofing! Just a gentle little woof while peddling his legs. So damn cute. And forgive me for endless dog tweets, but I've wanted a dog forever & it symbolises a lot...being settled, in a secure home, making a family, bubs having what I didn't...
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Absolute love at first sight (maybe for both of us ❤️). Meet Johny. Kai loves him. He loves Kai. Dora & him have met & will be grand. Feels like he's always been been part of our family.
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Delighted to say (now ink has dried on the contract) that
#Lowborn
will be translated & published in China! Absolutely astounded by all the places my story has traveled so far & hoping as always it will find those who need it most ❤️
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Since my surgery I've had a near constant headache and earache. Today I went to chiropractor and he put his hand *inside my mouth* pressed a muscle and everything clicked back into place! Miraculous! I would have totally just suffered on and now I'm a new woman.
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Today Peter's Glasgow bank manager finished a call to him by saying, 'Big hugs to your toddler' ❤️
Gang, in case it isn't clear, we're so happy we moved to Glasgow! I feel so at home. Peter is so bloody happy here. Bubs is ever more extroverted 😂. We feel very lucky.
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Finishing the book this week! It's amazing to write that. But to have done it after *that* year while mothering a toddler & really sick? Feeling strong AF.
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The face of a woman who's barely sleeping but who loves every single bit of her work at the moment ❤️
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Well, we've been looking and waiting...and...we think we've found a senior labrador-cross to adopt! Gentle with small kids & cats & needing a new home since his owner passed away 💔. It's a lifetime dream to be secure enough to have a dog - giving bubs everything I didn't ❤️
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That was full on one of the most memorable & exhilarating days of my life. We made it & I sat on the roof of a narrowboat & went past parliament & the Tate modern & the Southbank Centre! Extraordinary.
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So, gang, we're finally homeward bound. Turns out I need very specialist treatment (& feel very lucky I can come home & access it in London though we'll miss our Prague life greatly). Help our wee family find somewhere to live? 2 beds, from mid-August, pet friendly...❤️
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Gang, we've a call about a flat in Mount Florida tonight (that's a nice bit of South Side, yes?) so cross your fingers for us...it would be so good to...know where we're going to live in a month 🙏
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‘Mama, it’s your FACE’…showing wee one his maw in the newspaper is so joyful. Especially as I tell him every one is about how much I love him…also love this picture in the print
@ObsNewReview
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We made it! A happy, smelly, tired family aboard their new to them borrowed narrowboat!! It is a DREAM. Wee one's already walking home asking, 'where is our boat'...❤️❤️❤️
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I just reread a letter sent to me from one of my foster carers (it was sent a year ago to my publisher) & I can't tell you what it means to know this kind woman was looking after me then & is still thinking of me, reading my words & sending supportive words now. Really special.
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Had a beer & a plum brandy out in the garden with some of our new & lovely neighbours. Bubs stoating about eating all the crisps & bouncing on the trampoline (!). How lucky we are to have found this place ❤️
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Really so touched by these Guardian eloquent letters in response to my piece about the scarcity mindset about how it never leaves you - one reader is 74:
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The view from bed... I'm knackered & covered in boat bruises but I can't imagine a better way of life...
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I never imagined myself with a neck tattoo tbh (!). But later this year I'm going to have two pretty impressive scars (open neck surgery & tracheostomy tube) and I think...these are kind of beautiful? (Insta credit: s.mancinotattoo & panterart). Own it, I say.
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Guys, do you have a personal story about the importance and magic of school librarians that you'd be happy for me to share? It's so hard to explain that not every resource can be measured in profit and loss...
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Home again, home again ❤️. To homemade trifle and mac cheese (my favourite soft foods...) flowers & chocolates. Feeling very very lucky indeed to be on the mend & to have Peter looking after me
#becausetheladylovesMilkTray
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He's been sitting there 'reading' aloud to himself for twenty minutes now. Also, where did my baby go?! *Something in my eye* 💔
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Fellow chronically ill folk. For a column...what is the thing you want people to stop saying to you? And what do you think the best thing people could say to you?
My least favourite: Well, you *look* fine.
The most welcome: I'm sorry this is happening.
#ChronicIllness
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Twenty-four blissful hours & all four seasons in gorgeous West Yorkshire...and, this is going to be *our* boat! ⛵ We're all so happy & excited....❤️💙
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