‘“The voice you hear is not my speaking voice,” Ada (Holly Hunter) explains inThe Piano’s opening voiceover. It is her “mind’s voice” explaining that she has been mute since she was six and no one, not even she knows why. There is no medical explanation, so those around her think her silence grows from sheer will, that…

‘A fox, sleek with an autumn colour and ears pushed back, froze when it saw me. It waited, assessing my threat level, and then appeared to soften. I opened my mouth to speak, to say hello delicately like I might to a dog or cat, but the word caught in my throat. It  was as…

‘Push life in through your eyes and out your fingers. Is that what it means? An act of translation, A becomes – with effort – B, in which A is described. I read, recently, a male writer say that memoir isn’t for everyone, read a tweet saying only certain people should get anywhere close to…

‘I was working from home on a weekday afternoon when a friend dropped round in the hopes I’d be able to entertain her, despite the work piling up on my desk and the unanswered emails screaming in my inbox. We sat down in the living room, where I curled my legs underneath me and watched…