A Sister Like You by Sarah Hagger-Holt

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As it is in the blurb on the back, and even the title, I don’t think it is a spoiler to say, this is tale of two adopted sisters discovering each other.

Thrown together unexpectedly by shifting circumstance they find a connection even before find out they are sisters. The navigation of teenage years and secondary school life is complex, and tiring, and those spaces when you have a chance to be yourself are treasured.

There are also questions of nature / nurture, Ella and Ari are different in ways that might appear to reflect the personalities of the their respective adoptive parents – but what is causation and who just coincidence is unanswerable.

Within this mix finding queer identities plays a significant part – something that is now open to, some, much younger than it was for my generation – and it is a delight to hear stories of such authenticity that tell of the positive change we have seen within society. Change that might feel fragile at times, but we need to celebrate the stories and celebrate the story tellers.

Well Done, You Didn’t Die by Max Wallis

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Two of these excellent poems

Anon

I don’t see him,

but I can tell he is handsome,

not just taut ribs beneath my hands,

pulse and pressure rising,

but in how he moves,

the slow peel and toss of my clothes,

his thumb stroking my cheek. I make him

from what is left unsaid.

His arm’s weight, draped, then gone,

the tension in his buttock holding still,

his swell -

his hand at the back of my head,

not demanding, not desperate,

encouraging me down to the base.

I know him by taste

salt, sweat, the ghost of citrus.

I know him in the way breath breaks,

his body shifting as he gives in,

the second he lingers

before leaving,

as if he might kiss me.

He doesn’t.

I don’t ask.

Serenity Prayer

god grant us the serenity / to accept the things we cannot change / the courage to change the / things we can / and the wisdom to know el differencio / such as / true Heinz ketchup / us Aldi home brand / the subtle grief of budget beans / the betrayal of margarine that tries to pass for butter / the smear of compromise / on morning toast / go grant us patience / when the oat milk seperates in coffee / and when someone says it’s the same thing / but you know / it’s not / and you don’t have the words to argue / over condiments / anymore / give us courage / to walk away from relationships / but never from good mayonnaise / help us forgive ourselves / for buying the cheap pesto / again / even when we knew / even when it smelled like despair / teach us to accept the own-brand biscuits / in hospital waiting rooms / and the whisper of realisation / that nothing / is ever quite the same / once you’ve tasted / the full-fat / the full-price / the full-truth / of what was / always yours.

Bede and the Theory of Everything by Michelle P. Brown

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Durham University claims Bede as a forebear of its academic tradition, which is stretching things, but I always stop at Bede’s tomb in the Cathedral a pause in respect.

Yet I am not sure how seriously I took Bede, some of his “history” was a little creative, and therefore it was great to hear the real scholarly standing that his wide ranging work holds.

It also shows that Bede never traveling far from his Monastery in North East England was very much plugged into the beating heart of intellectual society across Europe – our sense of the centre and the margins is challenged.

But I don’t think we ever get a “Theory of Everything” – a catchy title that is not followed through – Bede was interested in everything but we don’t quiet get his overarching organising thought.

There is also a lot of repetition, with each chapter feeling a little like an independent essay and therefore each time setting out key bibliographical and historical context that we were increasingly familiar with.