SARAH PENN

As lockdown 3 limps disappointingly across our screens, it’s one sequel too far. We are trapped in Home Alone 3 and wondering why anyone...

Everywhere we are surrounded by powerful myths of motherhood. Lily Potter shielding her baby from the dark lord, Dumbo’s mummy cradling...

At first it feels luxurious, like you are an economy traveller who’s accidentally found themselves in first class. People are solicitous...

This time last week I was writing my way out of a particularly dark hole. Each word clawed my battered self an inch closer to the light....

"But since my theme will be the good I found there, I mean to speak of the other things I saw.” Dante, Inferno Canto 1 This week the call...

In some ways time seems to have stood still, or rather thickened. It used to flow freely from day to day, thrust onwards by plans or...

After weeks of stultifying sameness, the last week has felt revolutionary. My little girl has been back in nursery, which she has loved...

The return of schools and nurseries this week has become a hot topic in the press, social media and between friends. I, for one, am...

While it might not seem immediately obvious that new mums/dads will suffer more than others, I believe they will especially struggle.

I can feel the effects of lockdown building – tiny itches building into wholescale irritation

One thing I’ve learned the hard way over the 19 months since my daughter was born is that my thoughts are not necessarily my friends....

It is obvious to the point of boring that toddlers are a nightmare. Shouty, capricious little bullies who devote their new-found physical...

Are we there yet? Surely it has already been several years since we went in to lockdown? The calendar must have broken. Bizarrely my...

It’s official. We are now living in an alternative reality. Our lives have become a disaster movie. Suddenly Boris is the unlikely actor...

As the bright sunshine warms the ground, my daffodils stand alert. The cat is curled in a pocket of light – the dust motes dance in the...

After the storms stopped swirling and the green shoots started to show through soggy ground, the virus came. As the global tumult of air...

Self-care can sound either so fluffy and lovely you wonder why we don’t all do it or so selfish that only arrogant narcissists can...

This time last year I was a patient on a mother and baby unit at a psychiatric hospital in the north east. I had suffered badly with...

Stock the medicine cupboard - Christmas provides a cruel combination of germs and reduced opening hours of places where you might buy...