Apart from the For Sale board, the house didn’t look any different from the last time I was here. Six months ago now. The day of my father’s funeral. A memory of how fragile my mother appeared that da

It’s 2013 and my best friend Clare and I are midway through one of our regular, booze-soaked weekends. We’re celebrating my 33rd birthday – the perfect excuse to really go for it. The fact that it’s S

When Alvina Menzies’ life unravelled, it was in silence that she found answers. Now she’s helping others…

The Irish author, 62, on escaping the news through writing, staying sober and scrolling the internet for pretty things

YOU can’t just throw it all in a skip, Mum!” Bryony’s voice was muffled by a dust mask as she crouched in the loft space, carefully avoiding bumping her head on the beams. She examined a battered trun

It was my father, Mir Murtaza, who taught me to love dogs. We were on our own, my recently divorced father was now a single parent to a four-year-old girl. He was in exile in Syria after his country h