Growing up in a household that prized independence brought lifelong advantages and disadvantages

I saved my favourite wax crayon colours for special occasions that never came. Now they bring me back to my own childhood

Getting thin to succeed in a fat-phobic society is still an understandable individual solution to a structural problem

What’s sustainable for the planet is unsustainable for individuals trying to survive capitalism, or so it feels

My make-do-and-mend habit is not about saving money, the planet or achieving independence from consumerism

National histories are always something of a stitch-up ... the history of these islands is layered, interwoven, visibly and invisibly mended

Why do we continue to think of cool water falling from the sky as bad news rather than something worth celebrating?

I continue to resist a model of humanity in which it’s normal and correct that everyone is always barely surviving

At nearly 50, I have attended four funerals, which is probably fewer than average but not remarkable

Playing divide-and-conquer between driving, cycling and walking is a distraction from the real problem

It matters that women, and especially girls, have agency over what they wear

When I was younger my instincts about war and suffering were adolescent, which is not to say they were wrong

I thought about all the lessons I learned in playgrounds. Wherever we went in the world, we ended up in the playground

For a week, thrush nestlings, owls thrillingly close, frogs and an otter were all breaking news, urgent, fascinating. But this can’t be real life

Imagine cooking well from raw ingredients as part of the curriculum in those schools. We could have hens too