Most nations have soldiers considered the best of the best. A deeply unpopular Margaret Thatcher won an election on the back of the Falklands war. On 5 th May 1980, it took the SAS 17 minutes, much of it filmed and shown repeatedly on the telly, of them abseiling from the roof of the Iranian Embassy in South Kensington to free 26 hostages. We love our heroes. Leah Garret is asking us to remember a largely forgotten group. It’s in the title: The...

Question Twenty – In what ways does being single empower you? Donna The freedom I have, and not being micromanaged by other people, has taught me to be empowered. Alyss I can’t say that this unforeseen story of mine has felt ‘empowering’ whilst living it out. It has felt more like a day-to-day survival game at times. Still, now that I have survived so much, it means power must have been involved. If I look back on the last 2 decades, the person...

Question Nineteen – How does being single impact your time management? Donna I feel free. Alyss Being single has fluctuating effects on my time management. I battle to get to things because there are so many things that I must get to and do on my own, but at least I can plan and work through things without affecting anyone else, if I don’t get to anything in the time I should. So, if it’s cereal for dinner, then it’s cereal for dinner and that’s...

Question Eighteen – What pass times are great for single people? Donna Being able to do what you want; e.g. go out dancing without worrying about a husband &/ kids at home or a curfew. Alyss Goodness, I have explored so many! My favourite is a having a one-on-one coffee chat with a friend. Writing has been big for me – journaling to poetry and blogging. Reading, there is so much to read, from great new novels to the classics and the self-...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00265qy/since-yesterday-the-untold-story-of-scotlands-girl-bands ‘That’s terrible,’ a mother said of her daughter and her pal’s attempt at making music. ‘Would you not be better singing a nice wee Irish ballad?’ I’m not sure who or how to match mother and daughter in these girl groups—not a music lover or listener—I’m siding with the mother here. Making music is one part of it, misogyny and class bias...

Question Seventeen – Please give some positive and supportive advice for the other amazing ladies out in the world flying solo. Donna Just enjoy your time being single. Don’t dwell on what might have been, live in the now. Alyss There is so much good you can do when it is just you. When family and/or friends have needed support or help, I can literally change most plans in an hour and get to them shortly after that. There is no-one who is...

Question Sixteen – With the shifts in culture, entertainment, education and moves towards male and female "equality"; how do you think women should approach their dialogues with young girls? Donna Truthfully explain what is out there in the world, including discussion related to their gender and what it means to be female. Alyss I think that the best way to have a conversation is with authentic truth. So I can only tell my story as it is, and as...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_Boys I’d read the book. So I kinda remembered what happened. The plot is straightforward moral outrage. Man traps. Jim Crow laws. Mutilating and killing black kids inside the Dozier School for Boys, renamed and repacked as The Nickel in sunny California. An episode of Danny Robin’s Uncanny , ‘The Haunting of Hollymont Farm’ ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0027g7b/uncanny-series-2-1-the-haunting-of-...

Black Lives Matter. The moron’s moron Trump proved they don’t. Ripping up a Black Lives monument in Washington wasn’t exactly Kristlenacht . Just a little reminder. A little nudge. Know your place. Class matters. Race and skin colour matter more is the kind of argument Paterson Joseph became involved in. ‘Critical fabulation’ based on a real character, a black man in Georgian London, Charles Ignatius Sancho. In other words fiction. A reminder...

Poets make the best prose writers. I’m no poet. So I should know. Speak, Memory is a collection of pre-Second World War articles published before Nabokov had written and published Lolita . I’ve read Lolita and Pale Fire . I use the past tense and use the term ‘read’ imaginatively. My memory isn’t good. Pale Fire, I didn’t like or remember much other than vague shadows or reasons which I also can’t remember or don’t really care, which is perhaps...