life.

For Rita Bonny I thought I'd found solace in your being still alive, Still walking, sometimes shakily, Still breathing, sometimes with a rattle. False assurances seemed essential Having watched your mind evaporate…

I first penned this ensconced in a creaking fifty-year-old chair in a pub in Dornoch, Scotland. My host was Keith, and I'd a half pint of McEwan's 80 Shilling in front of me. I had already been to the bog twice to drain off the previous…

This seemingly stupid question is not as straightforward as you might think. Well, of course we do need a brain but it’s not so clear how much of our brain we need to actually survive and function somewhat normally. Recently, doctors in…

Anorexia and I Shake Hands I woke up dead that morning. Skin peeling in strips like wet paper, spider clumps of hair strewn throughout my bed. I felt my bones crumble like antacids, my organs turning to pulp. A mind…

Basically everyone wants to know the future. Maybe not in small details, like when will I die? Or what will I have for dinner on the 5th of August 2017? Perhaps we don't want to know about what becomes of our relationships and family…

Ridiculous. Amusing. Laughable. These are the first words that came to mind when I saw this image of the sea monster who resembled a monk from 1642. I assumed it to be a Renaissance fantasy imagined by a sailor who had one too many…

Most of us spend our teen years picking our spots and making dreadful fashion choices. This movie glosses over those awkward teen trivialities and portrays two young, angst-ridden musicians who meet and fall hopelessly in love. ‘If I stay’,…

This month my sister will embark on a three-year journey at the end of which she will have to take the Nightingale Pledge. Okay, that's a pretty bad start because it's a lie. But if she was studying in America, it would be true. She's…

I chose Sylvia Plath as a Legend of the Month for HeadStuff because of Mirror. For those of you who know nothing about Sylvia Plath, she didn't invent the mirror. But imagine if she did? That would be so cool and she might be a Legend of…

In a secluded spot in the south of Thailand, not too far from the port town of Surat Thani, is the Suan Mokkh International Dharma Hermitage Center. Founded in 1989, Suan Mokkh has been home to a silent retreat, which over the last few…