Balloon: Freedom and fate in the GDR

The following was taken from a letter to a fellow writer, with whom I spoke extensively about the research for my new book Alterity that will touch on events of WWII and the impact of the GDR system on the …

Senses for the blind

Tiles, I mused, why would anyone put down tiles in a place like this? Click, clack, click, clack, click… then it stops and I realise my eyes are shut. There was nothing to see, or hear, or feel. Only the …

The faintest orange

Ceaseless. I wander the streets in a small town between nations. Narrow pavements, and I roam lines until they turn into dog piss, leak across the road and mingle with the dripping of sinks from open windows. This warm, soft …

Feeling, deeply

I never understood why adults aren’t seemingly allowed to use swings. For their pleasure or just to while away time. It was time. Time to take my ink, the paper, my diary and the camera, and walk out. It felt …

Under the line

No sign. Only the chequered notebook which I managed to buy online. The main shops seem to otherwise have gone line-mad, with singularly ruled paper on the shelves. Hmmm I wonder if that says something about our current state of …

Letters relinquished

[extract taken from diary no. 34] I do not know why but I instantly knew… His last letter still hung on my wall, then he must have beenthe words on my skin, straight across myback carefully observing curves, and all …

To your Lover, my dearly beloved,

I miss you so. It has now been 18 months since we were together. Just you and me, entwined under the trees, in rain or shine. Since we shared kisses that nobody looked at. Since we truly talked freely. I …

A diary, gone missing

As a child I used to sometimes mindlessly wander into a shop, take something I liked off the shelf and walk out again, until an adult would stop me. Without concept of possession, how are you supposed to know what …