11th April

The Obsessive Diary

I missed my niece’s birthday. Bad aunt. I saw her yesterday for lunch all twenty-five glowing years of her, a life ahead of her, how we visited a house and it reminded me of doing the exact same thing with my father when I was much younger; the imaginings of a future in the countryside. I was her age when I came to the farm. Just twenty-five, but as she said, I brought the village with me, an entire scene from a London squat transported to a house in the country. If you’ve read my memoir you’ll know the story.

When I look at that cover it never ceases to amaze me and bring me joy that it’s Chloe’s quote we used even though back then we didn’t know each other. Not like we do now.

But seeing my niece hug her dad, my bother, as we stood before a house brought it all back, how I’d done the same with mine, how the world turns.