Hi friends,
On Wednesdays, I release a brand new episode of my memoir, Held in Mind, which asks the question: In the absence of a ‘well’ mother, can it ever be possible to become a ‘good enough’ one yourself?
This is part of the Membership along with access to all my autumn/winter 2024 courses (first Seasonal Session August 22nd 8-9pm BST) the archive and my Sunday posts (which are often free but are mostly behind a paywall this summer while I take a trip around northern Europe in a motorhome…)
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And if you’re new, then head to this post to start listening from the beginning:
In this episode…
We pick up from last week’s 1983 letter from Helen to Tom and her sons to discover what became of her requests.
It’s also Bonfire Night 1994, and all eight cousins have invited friends for a fireworks display in the field opposite the houses. How will it feel for Lindsay to welcome friends from her new school into her grandparents’ home? A house that hasn’t changed much at all since its completion in 1959?
What of the sorts of houses and neighbourhoods those friends lived in, and which Lindsay coveted? In the mid 1950s, Helen and Tom bought such a house near the shore at Barassie on the outskirts of Troon, a mile or so from Auchengate. Would this be the fresh start this young family, already touched by tragedy, needed? And for how long?
