Cities are full of stories – and growing up in Nottingham means my own small adventures are filled with memories of my home city. It’s a place that’s made a great contribution to literature, of course, so I’m excited to be playing a tiny part in a curious celebration...

I love autumn deeply and after some of the hot days we have endured in recent weeks, I’ve never looked forward to it more. The shorter, sharper, cooler days let me think more clearly, and appreciate again the distinct joys of being indoors, and...

I have spent time recently walking the streets of my village delivering leaflets to persuade householders to object to new homes going on our precious green belt land. Thankfully my nimby tendencies do not extend to all new builds. Around 18 months ago, it was...

Job? Cat, social media star, fund-raiser; some call me king of Ruddington. How did you get to your current position? I walked, slowly, tail up, with amazing grace and poise. As I always do. Who or what is important to you? The quality of the food offered to me. And a...

Someone said something in a shop the other day that reminded me instantly of my mother. It was rather shocking. I knew Mum was ensconced in her living room watching tennis on TV. More disconcertingly, the voice I heard – doing a pitch-perfect impression – was my own....

When you live in a place, and can get out into it on foot especially, you can really get to know it and love it. If you’re lucky and there’s precious green space, you can even feel it doing you good. So you’re bound to get defensive when it’s under attack. In recent...

I am lucky. I have gone through most of my life with an energetic and fun mum and dad. They kept me and my siblings warm, clothed and fed, but also kept themselves busy with interests and friends. They climbed into Jumbo jets to go on holiday when that was a new...

The recent vandalism at Ruddington’s Great Central Railway, Nottingham, seems to me particularly cruel and mean-spirited. The heritage centre, run entirely by volunteers, had 112 windows of its old rolling stock smashed, with the damage estimated at £80,000. I know...

I hadn’t actually ended the call to my insurers when the ‘follow-up’ customer services email dropped into my inbox: ‘How did we do today?’ My call to them was the annual last-minute admission that, no, I hadn’t found a better deal for my car because, yes, I’d again...